Afghanistan Times
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Militancy and terrorism are the biggest and deadliest challenges to humanity in the current-day-world. Terrorism has been affecting the entire world, but the weaker nations are bearing the brunt. It becomes a painful moment when you find as a nation that your neighbor supports militancy on your soil. Often-times terrorists are labeled as faceless people, who have no religion, but what should we call those who support them? The problem is that they are not individuals but states who support them. Earlier, Afghanistan used to decry Pakistan’s unflinching support to militants, but where is the outcry of the current National Unity Government when Iran is supporting the Taliban insurgents. Some of the senators alleged that Iran has been supporting Taliban insurgents against Daesh. They called on the government to stave off all acts that were undermining our national interests. Last month, the Taliban claimed their representatives visited Tehran. Iran denied the claim. But what shocked the nation was the silence of the government. The problem is Kabul has been very much passive in condemning what Iran has been doing in the country. And why it wouldn’t be shocking because Afghanistan has been sliding into a battlefield between Iran and Daesh while the government is silent. The current government wants to keep too many matters in dark as if the leaders have come from elsewhere not from this land. The government must make its standpoint clear against Iran, amid its controversial bilateral programs with Pakistan. So far, its approach for Islamabad is concerned, it doesn’t need to tell the nation what kind of relations it has with Pakistan, but yes, its policy towards Iran is quite murky. As Abdul Baqi Baryal, a senator, said that evidence shows that Iran has been supporting the Taliban whereas thousands of Afghans have already been martyred because of Pakistan’s meddling, should we also pay the same price for Iran’s interference, therefore, the government must tell the nation what is its policy on Iran. Though, the use of Afghans by Iran, under a well-designed scheme, is no more a secrecy as there were also media reports that Iran has been sending Afghan refugees to Syria to fight alongside Bashar-al-Assad’s forces in Syria. There too, the government didn’t react and preferred silence. What does this silence mean? The tacit approval of the government or the lack of capacity to protest? Iran must learn from the mistakes of Pakistan. And if it doesn’t cease supporting the militants, one day it will catch fire. Given that there is no support from regional countries, Taliban will heap on its own. Terrorists’ outfits, globally, thrive on money that comes from intelligence agencies—state sponsorship, drug trade, smuggling of weapons and goods, kidnaps for ransom, but it is the state sponsorship that has been the cause of too many tensions among different nations. Looking into the content of the letter sent by the Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Omar to Daesh, one feels how much weaker the Taliban is. And why shouldn’t it be because state sponsorship of many countries in the region and the Arab world has been diverted to Daesh—ISIS. Besides that the High Peace Council of Afghanistan says the government should pick a clear stance against the armed opponents, which clearly shows the government is quite clueless in its strategy. This peace body called upon the government in such a moment when one of the leaders calls the armed opponents as the enemies of the nation but the other one calls them political opponents. Until the two leaders of the current government are on the same page, how the nation will fight a monstrous challenge like militancy, successfully.
