Viewpoint

All Eyes on Panjshir

Date: 10 September 2021 - 22:19

News ID: ۹۴۲۱۶

By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

The fate and future of Afghanistan is not tied to the recent Taliban takeover of the landlocked country through sheer military force aided and abetted indirectly by the US.
The ethnic Pashtun militia may carry out highhanded measures and even indulge in acts of genocide against the other sizeable ethnic and religious groups that make up polyglot
Afghanistan, but the Taliban will succeed in neither bringing stability to the country nor any legitimacy to their factional rule.
Reputed to be the graveyard of empires where for the past three centuries the British, the Soviets and the Americans have miserably failed, it is nothing but illusion on the part of the self-styled Islamic militia to think that it can impose its will through the barrels of guns on the multiethnic Afghan people.
The Taliban’s biggest mistake that will indeed prove suicidal was naming of a 12-member militia interim council that
excludes all non-Taliban elements –even fellow Pashtuns who disagree with the radical rule of the militia.
This is a flagrant violation of the commitments given to international bodies and regional countries, including the Islamic Republic of Iran, by the Taliban of respecting the rights of all groups, including women, and refraining from imposing their authority with force.
For the moment, the majority of Tajiks, along with the Hazaras, the Uzbeks, the Aymaqs, the Turkomans and the Baluch are playing a wait and watch game, which means a national upheaval could just be simmering beneath the surface.
The only exception is the redoubtable Panjshir Valley, the headquarters of the Late Ahmad Shah Masood, who for two decades blunted all the brutal attacks launched on his home province by the Soviet Union and then the Taliban of the 1990s.
Today, the Lion of Panjshir is no more, but his son, lion-cub Ahmad Masood, as a chip of the old block, has refused to yield to the unjust demands and military attacks of the Taliban, in his quest for autonomy.
It is still not known whether the younger Masood will acquire the charisma and military strategies of his father, although he is playing the role of a Lone Ranger, of course, assisted by ethnic Tajiks, in keeping the Taliban at bay despite the fratricide they have unleashed.
Neibhouring countries, including Iran have withheld recognition of the interim Taliban militia cabinet and condemned the unwarranted attacks on Panjshir when negotiations are the need of the hour.
Meanwhile, though there are still no reports of any provocation by the Taliban of the other groups, including the Shi’a Muslims that make up over twenty-five percent of the national population, their exclusion from the interim council doesn’t augur well for Afghanistan’s unity or the future of the country.
A united and stable Afghanistan needs cooperation and
coordination from all Afghans, while imposing sectarian and single ethnic rule, is an invitation to disaster.
Iran, which shares religious, historical, cultural, and lingual ties with the people of Afghanistan has earnestly appealed for wiser heads to prevail, and has expressed readiness to host inter-Afghan talks for a peaceful solution to its eastern neighbour.
Hope, the Taliban would recognize the situation and respect the rights of all Afghans by desisting from fratricide in Panjshir and other places so that all other Afghans join together for an inclusive broad-based government.