Afghanistan - riddle, mystery or enigma?

Winston Churchill famously described the former Soviet Union. during a radio broadcast on October 1, 1939, as "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma". That characterisation fits today's Afghanistan more than any other country. From avid opposition to Hindu India not very long ago, the so-called emirate of pious Muslims is in cahoots with the infidel Hindus, the enemies of Islam. perpetrators of brutalities in Kashmir over fellow Muslims. The same India which kept calling the pious emirate 'terrorist' and shunned all contact throughout the First Afghan Republic (2001-2021). And ironically, Afghan Taliban in their mangled. befuddled understanding continue to champion the cause of Islam, a religion that emphasises education to the extent of asking Muslims to go to the farthest China, to seek ilm (knowledge), as the beloved Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) is frequently quoted. However, the ruling clique in Kabul continues to exclude women from public life, denying them their religious, social. moral rights to education, work, inheritance, choice and fair treatment.

The ruling Muslimist cabal is also daggers drawn with Pakistan – their neighbour, benefactor. only interlocutor; and their home and hearth in bad times. Pakistan, where they lived in peace with their families, rested, regrouped. recouped while the hated ISI and the Punjabi Miltablishment was organising jihad; first to free their Afghanistan from the Socialist sickle and hammer, and later from the stranglehold of Christian West Plus. Calling themselves the stalwarts of Pashtunwali. the torch bearers of Durrani suzerainty from Qandahar, and then violating every tenet of that great code with impunity – be it shegara (doing good in return for good), wufa/wafa (fidelity to the word and cause), toorah (bravery) or nang (honour).

The pious of the IEA make a commitment. then abandon it as quickly as they come out of Kaaba, Islam's holiest shrine and the venue for such negotiations in the past. And ironically, they see no fault. contradiction, in killing and maiming fellow Muslims – women, children and elderly – in mosques, in markets, and in their homes. They see no fault in dropping mortar bombs through quadcopters on defenceless civilians in their sleep, in border areas, killing, injuring. maiming little kids. And they feel no remorse for turning against their only benefactor, Pakistan. Afghanistan under the so-called Islamic emirate is a weird travesty of ironies, a confusing mindset of muddled thoughts. social revenge with no moral, legal or societal footing. It was the Afghanologists of this world, myself included if the definition is stretched, who tried to justify Taliban's actions against the Shooravi (the Soviet Union) or the Amrekai (the US) not long ago;. tried to find some academic justification for their behaviour. But so is the irony of our existence, that we have no benefit of hindsight.

Although presently. it is well-nigh impossible to frame the IEA actions into some sort of strategy, governance, statecraft and/or rationality; there is a dilemma. Rational Pakistan's policy response must be based on some rationale – actual, deduced or assumed from IEA's demonstrated irrationality. And for that IEA actions should be given some rational clothing. Following on from this line of argument, what could IEA and its mlatar (proxy), the TTP, try to do? Before some thoughts, comments of an Afghan official on a social media video, wherein the Ghor province, a poor, jobless. desperate father was forced to sell his girls. The cited functionary after some back. forth iterations, shrugged the situation off as exaggerated, stating 'poverty was also rampant in other countries'. On another occasion, another Taliban official in the Food Ministry advised the protesting citizenry to seek rizq (food) from Allah, literally exonerating himself,. abdicating his role in systemic provision of food and grain to the public. One simply empathises with Afghan people,. understands their reluctance to go back from Pakistan, to live under Taliban's oppression and incompetence.

Now back to the rationality of IEA-TTP combine. TTP used to be a mlatar (a proxy militia in assistance as a force-in-being) for the Zadran Haqqanis of Loya or Greater Paktia (Khowst, Paktia. Paktika provinces and some parts of Nangarhar province). Haqqanis had hosted TTP fighters for the rainy day i.e. if and when their relationship with Qandahar soured, not an unusual Afghan scenario. However, realising Pakistan's redlines, Haqqanis unsuccessfully tried to rein in the groups, disperse them,. in the process were partly dominated by TTP, who were now getting assistance from multiple sources to destabilise Pakistan and strengthen themselves militarily. Qandahar saw the opportunity TTP presented, in: a) spoiling Haqqanis' relationship with their mentors in Pakistan, for not doing enough to disarm. control TTP; and b) realising TTP's potential as a leverage against Islamabad. So, IEA patronised this mostly Pakistani conglomerate of more than 22 armed groups. encouraged the assimilation of demobilised Afghan rank and file into the enterprise. TTP provided a platform to absorb disbanded and bored Afghan Taliban cadre, after IEA assumed power in 2021. Otherwise TTP cohort will not have access to the leftover American armory like sniper rifles, night vision devices, communication equipment. other hardware, now in IEA custody.

Additionally. IEA will continue to raise the bogey of Pak-Afghan International Border (Durand Line) as a contested frontier, as they have very little to stake against Pakistan, other than TTP. Their noisy claims are best ignored, as the Afghan side has no historic, legal or social facts. resources to back their entitlement.

Some Afghans in the 'pious' dispensation of IEA erroneously think they can: a) win against Pakistan by destabilising K-P. Balochistan; and b) take the International Border to pre-British Raj days, adjacent to today's Punjab. These fallacies are at best pipedreams and dreams can be misleading. A nimble Pakistan still hosts millions of Afghans refugees, with or without fake papers; remains a favoured destination for dispossessed Afghans for healthcare;. provides quality education to the future Afghan generations.

Upsetting this apple cart carries a deadly cost! Let the mysterious Afghan riddle not become an enigma anymore! Beating Afghan women, protesting excessive dress code in Herat on June 9, 2026, will just flare up domestic contradictions! Anyone listening!

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