Afghanistan Times
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It is an epic travesty, a mistake of the century to cede certain restive regions inside Afghanistan to the clutches of the unruly Taliban. Under no circumstance is such action acceptable. The Afghan masses will never bow down to the extremist group that is already losing the ground as security forces are making outstanding progress in the fight against militancy. Distribution of provincial power to the Taliban could ensue disintegration of Afghanistan. Any politic of polarity or attempts to disintegrate Afghanistan must be avoided by timely action on our part.
It is a fact that the government would never node for such conspiracy orchestrated by the enemies of Afghanistan. In the light of the growing political tensions, the political elite have a collective responsibility to prioritize national interests above all and prevent from any controversial remarks that boil up national sentiments.
The leader of Hezb-e-Islami political party, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, had earlier suggested the handover of some regions to the Taliban as safe zones. Even he claimed President Ashraf Ghani had agreed with his proposition. This is quite difficult to understand why Hekmatyar came up with such a statement which was even rejected by the Presidential Palace. We are in a direction destined to win; the Taliban insurgents are under tight pressure as air and ground strikes by Afghan defense forces are testing the mettle of the Taliban and taking heavy toll on their fighters.
Why to give up some parts of the country to a group which is already losing. The core objective of the Afghan government since the collapse of the Taliban regime has been and continues to be to ensure that our motherland would never once again become a safe haven for extremist groups, like Taliban, al-Qaeda. Since Taliban has been severely degraded, it has lost none of its zeal to strike the Afghan government, rather the group is willing to reconcile as they sought recently.
The notion of ceding provinces to the Taliban is nothing but a conspiracy. Afghanistan with the support of international community will overcome militancy. But in the neighboring, there is a state that pretends to fight terrorism but covertly shelters terrorists. Bluntly speaking, this idea is coming from Pakistan—the sworn enemy of Afghanistan and a home to various terrorist groups.
Their cause is to destabilize Afghanistan even further. But they are oblivion to the fact that Pakistan itself has been deeply infested by the scourge of terrorists which has distracted it from tackling its other internal crises; including militancy in Punjab and a host of domestic calamities, and intense political rivalries, a distorted economy, widespread poverty, and a severe energy crisis.
It is better for Pakistan to first get the slate clean on its own internal conflicts, instead of concocting conspiracies in Afghanistan. The Afghan society is mature enough to deal with any sorts of evil designs.
