Nearly the total of Afghanistan is gradationally turning into a war zone with the Afghan Defence Force fighting battles against Taliban. India TV Defence Editor Manish Prasad is presently in Afghanistan with cameraperson Balram Yadav, transferring updates on the war that’s raging after US and Nato forces left. On Tuesday night, thousands of Afghans came to the thoroughfares of Kabul, Kandahar, Herat, Jalalabad, Mazaar-e-Sharif and Ghazni, and cried‘Allahu Akbar’ taglines as a mark of solidarity towards the Afghan government.
The Taliban, in order to produce a reign of terror, carried out auto lemon attack in Kabul, near the house of acting Defence Minister Bismillah Mohammadi. The minister survived the attack on his emulsion in what’s regarded as the most fortified position of Kabul. Late in the night, the Taliban prophet Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the self-murder attack.
In my high time show‘Aaj Ki Baat’on Wednesday night, we showed illustrations of Afghan forces carrying out retaliatory attack after the blast carried out by Taliban inside Kabul. The attack on the Defence Minister’s emulsion was part of a well- coordinated Taliban strategy with the end of striking terror among the residers of Kabul. It was Bismillah Khan Mohammadi who had appealed to people to come out of their homes and services at 9 pm on Tuesday night and cry‘Allahu Akbar’ watchword. The Taliban zeroed in on the minister’s hearthstone, in retribution. While hassle with Taliban bushwhackers was going on, thousands of Afghans, undeterred, came to the thoroughfares and chanted taglines. Among them was Afghan vice chairman Amrullah Saleh.
Manish Prasad reported that there were four Taliban bushwhackers, one of whom blowed himself up inside the vehicle, while the other three fired at Afghan forces. In the hassle that followed, the remaining three were killed, and four civilians lost their lives. Twenty others were injured. Afghan MP Maryam Kufi’s house was eviscerated in the fire that passed after the blast. Her sentry was killed. Maryam Kufi appealed for help on social media, indeed though she was busy taking part in watchword crying on the thoroughfares. Undeterred by the attack, thousands of Afghans came out on the thoroughfares of Kabul to express solidarity with the current governance. They came on bottom, and in vehicles, carrying the Afghan flag, and were crying‘Allahu Akbar’.
On Tuesday, there was fierce fighting in Helmand, Ghazni and Herat businesses. Nearly 200 Taliban fighters have failed in upstanding attacks carried out by Afghan army during the last 24 hours. In Samangan fiefdom, nearly 40 Taliban fighters were killed. Afghan army baffled a Taliban attack to blow up the notorious Salma levee, erected by India in Afghanistan.
Our defence editor Manish Prasad and cameraperson Balram Yadav spent the whole day on Wednesday with Afghan security forces to witness the fighting that’s going on. The Afghan forces are now better equipped with hi-tech munitions, and they’re responding to Taliban attacks, pellet to pellet, rocket to rocket. India TV platoon also visited a centre where Afghan battalions were being trained how to sanitize an area, neutralize the adversary and regain the position.
Manish Prasad reports that the Taliban is presently in a strong position in southern and western corridor of Afghanistan. They’ve captured a large home, but the Afghan forces are fighting back to regain. In an air strike on Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand fiefdom, a large security depot belonging to Taliban was blown up and several Taliban commanders were killed. Afghan army battalions are leading the operations in the south, killing further than 90 Taliban fighters during the last 24 hours. Pakistani jihadi rudiments, who have crossed the border to give support to Taliban, are also being killed in large figures.
Taliban fighters are using civilians as mortal securities to avoid attacks from Afghan battalions. Taliban fighters are taking sanctum inside shops, homes and requests, taking civilians as hostages, to redirect attacks from Afghan forces. The Afghan army commanders, to whom Manish Prasad spoke, said, their only end is One pellet, One Taliban.
The Afghanistan situation, at the moment, seems to be veritably much complex and complicated. There are several crucial players US, China, Pakistan and Russia. India has to walk through this politic minefield, precisely. The US wants India to shoot its army to join the war inside Afghanistan. It withdrew its army after two decades and wants India to join the war. India’s policy has been clear from the morning It isn’t going to shoot its army to Afghanistan, but will continue to give training and munitions to the Afghan forces.
Indian strategists feel that the US is trying “ to use” India in Afghanistan, but they can not overlook the fact that the US had kept India down from the peace addresses that were initiated by its envoy Zalmay Khalilzad with the Taliban. Had the intentions of the US been honest, their strategists could haveco-opted India into the addresses that went on for several times. India could also have played a dominant part in resolving the Afghanistan issue.
On the other hand, Pakistan is leaning on its each- rainfall supporter China for help in Afghan affairs. The Chinese itineraries are cautious. They know that if the Taliban recaptures Kabul, the Muslim Uighur secessionists will insure that Xinjiang breaks down from China. These secessionists will surely give a jihad call in Xinjiang. It was for this reason that the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi invited a top Taliban delegation to China and uprooted the pledge from them that Afghan soil won’t be used against China by Uighur Muslim secessionists.
Pakistan’s own problem is a bit different. It was Pakistan during Benazir Bhutto’s governance, which had trained, backed and abetted Taliban forces to capture Afghanistan during the Nineties. It’s Pakistan which is still furnishing sanctum to the top Taliban ministers and commanders in Quetta, Baluchistan, popularly known as the “ Quetta Shura”. It’s Pakistan which is helping the Haqqanis in carrying out attacks inside Afghanistan. Pakistan fears that a resurgent Taliban, if it comes to power in Kabul, may lay claim over Peshawar, the whim-whams centre of Pathan or Pashtun politics.
The Taliban in Afghanistan aren’t outlanders. They’re substantially Pashtun, who believe in medieval period’s fundamentalist Islamic Shariat law, with dreams of establishing an Islamic sultanate. Pakistan shoot Pashtuns from its own home to Afghanistan, but in return, the Afghans have killed utmost of the Pakistanis and transferred their bodies back home. Pakistan is, thus, in a‘ Catch-22’ situation, it can neither withdraw, nor move ahead.
India’s policy is relatively clear We aren’t a party in this war, nor are we taking sides for and against the present Afghan governance or the Taliban. India stands with the Afghan people. We’ve centuries-old relationship with the Afghan people. That’s why, India has said, war isn’t the way out of this imbroglio. Nothing can forcefully thrust a governance on the Afghan people. Dialogue is the only way out. Only dialogue can bring peace. I feel, if India has to negotiate with the Taliban, it must do so and mustn’t close its doors. An Afghanistan at peace will be in India’s interest.