Afghanistan Times
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Afghan people are languishing in the shadows of terror and melancholy in these dark days. The country is beleaguered by a growing insurgency and militarism and stands on the precipice of a devastating war. In the one hand, the tentacles of Taliban are spreading fast as they continue to be ceded more land and power. On the other, militias are rising in droves to stave their threat off. Against their resurgence, even women are taking up guns and barrels. This all sounds the terrifying alarm bells of a war that could descend Afghanistan into the abyss of destruction.
Astonishingly, security brasses say that from now on the Afghan soldiers will switch from defensive to offensive mode despite the Ministry of Defense claiming of killing hundreds of Taliban insurgents on daily basis in different military stings across the country. Furthermore, the US is also abandoning Afghanistan in an extremely irresponsible way. Before handing over the Bagram base to the Afghans, the US military had departed on Thursday night and even though it was followed by looting, some were arrested later. As a whole, it projects a glimpse of total abandonment of Kabul that even US President Joe Biden refrained to take some questions about Afghanistan as he wants to talk about happy things. Ironically, don’t care about women’s rights if the Taliban once again took control of Kabul and imposed its strict restriction on women’s activities. Afghans had never thought to go through such a worst scenario ever. They were inspired by the attention of the international community, especially the US, but now leave without care of the fundamental rights of freedom and equality. Tremendous progress toward democracy, development, access to education, and justice, promoting sports and showbiz had been made in the past 20 years. But these all are now in deep jeopardize and Afghanistan is once again on the verge of isolation. A number of annoying news is doing rounds from areas controlled by the Taliban – recently they did not allow the farmers in Panjwai district of Kandahar to water their grape garden. In the Northern provinces, they torched the shops, the homes and other public and government institutions. Even the streets were not spared. In Badakhshan, at least 14 districts fell to the Taliban in the past two days and in neighboring Takhar province, 15 out of 16 districts fell to the Taliban. The most confessing issue is that many of these districts have fallen without a fight and resistance. Senior local officials escaped Badakhshan to Kabul through commercial flights. Apparently, we lost the support, but what gives us courage to still believe in the survival of Afghanistan are the strong wings of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces. Without doubt, they will fight until their last blood drop. But of course, the rapid fall of districts created an extreme condition of fear among the Afghans. We have to fight and win. The US spent billions of dollars and trained the Afghan military for two decades and today’s scene is horrible – but we can’t blame anyone but ourselves. We have to fix our country, no other country can help or resolve our problems, and it’s a historic fact.
