Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed :
In 1919, Afghanistan was liberated from British rule and exploitation. In the 1960s, Afghanistan was at the top of development in all indicators under the leadership of King Zahir Shah. In 1971, Dawood Khan revolted and became the President of Afghanistan. In 1978, another counter-coup of the pro-Russian Communist Party took place in Afghanistan. The new government was formed, but the main issue of the Communist Party was the challenge of land reforms. In 1979, Soviet Russia sent troops to Afghanistan to establish a communist government, but they were defeated and withdrawn in 1989, which was one of the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. At that time, the Taliban, with the direct help of the United States, was able to stop the Soviet Union from dominating Afghanistan. But with the passage of time, the forces formed with the help of America took a stand against America. The Taliban, which emerged under the auspices of the United States to overthrow the Soviet Union, became a major source of pain for the United States. As a result, the United States declared war against them.
U.S.-led NATO forces ousted the Taliban and temporarily expelled al Qaeda. In this war, 3,500 foreign troops and more than one million civilians have been killed. In the last 20 years, this military operation has been the most expensive in terms of life, livelihood and money. Twenty years later, NATO forces are still failing to bring peace to Afghanistan. The Trump administration wanted to stop US casualties on the issue of Afghanistan, arguing that the country was in a better position than it was in 2001 and that the Taliban had become more open-minded. And so Trump decided to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. According to the Taliban’s agreement with the Trump administration, all foreign armed forces were supposed to leave Afghanistan by May 1, 2021. The Biden administration extended this period until September 11, 2021, and decided that the withdrawal would be completed on the 9/11 tragic inciedent. The United States came to Afghanistan to put an end to the Taliban’s terrorist activities – but now they are leaving at the time when the Talibans are empowered, and they are expected to take over Afghanistan soon. The Taliban have seized more than 85 districts or one-third of the country’s territory since the withdrawal of NATO troops. Fighting is now raging in 116 of Afghanistan’s 387 districts. In such a scenario, observers are skeptical of the future outcome of the US-Taliban peace deal.
The US administration’s new plans for Afghanistan are not entirely clear. According to Afghan political experts, the regional and international community also needs to be represented in order to bring all pro-democracy parties together. But there are many opponents to Biden’s plan in Afghanistan. The government of President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani himself is a staunch opponent to the interim or so-called participatory government plan. The US-Taliban agreement does not say much. President Ashraf Ghani has expressed frustration over the deal. The agreement stipulates that 5,000 Taliban militants held captive by the Afghan government must be released. Ashraf Ghani said that the culprits on condition of release should not be in the agreement. The Taliban, on the other hand, are sympathetic to democracy, but their main goal is to enforce Sharia law. That is why the Taliban have an ideological conflict with the current Afghan government. There is also a clear conflict between the government and the Taliban over women’s leadership and women’s rights. So there are doubts about the reality of the power-sharing talks with the Talibans. It is not possible for the Taliban to deviate from their main goal. If they ever want to move in the interest of peace, it can be said that there will be factional quarrels and terrible conflicts within them.
The reality in Afghanistan today is that the Taliban is the main force there. With the withdrawal of American and NATO troops, the fall of government forces to the Taliban will be only a matter of time. The biggest need for peace at the moment is to form an interim government and bring all the conflicting parties to the negotiating table to outline the future regime. There are a number of issues that need to be considered to establish effective governance in Afghanistan. This will include, first of all, a federal type of governance where the provinces will have the opportunity to run local administrations through some form of autonomy. The second is to build parallel foreign relations with all parties, especially the United States, the European Union, China or Russia. The third is the formal coordination between them. But it will be very challenging. Due to the hegemonic attitude of the superpowers, the long-running war in Afghanistan has not resulted in the desired development. We hope that in the future, the progress, peace and development in Afghanistan will continue by creating an atmosphere of peace through the formation of a democratic government with the participation of all parties on the basis of consensus.The Immediate focus is that Afghanistan’s internal crisis must come to an end for the interests of regional security in Central Asia and South Asia.
(Dr. Forqan is former Deputy Director General, Bangladesh Ansar and VDP).
