Militant face, political mask
https://arab.news/g8sb7
Mullah Baradar stepped on Afghan soil after 20 years amid sloganeering his fighters, “Long live Tehrik-i-Taliban!” He chose to land in Kandahar – the Taliban’s birthplace, where Baradar began his life as a Mujahid fighting alongside Mullah Omar against the Soviets. From the airport to the city, him and other political ‘shura’ council members traveled in a convoy of four wheelers flanked by fighters on motorcycles displaying Soviet and American weapons.
Baradar is now the Taliban’s political face, the movement’s most important figure on the world stage. He brokered a deal with the US which paved the way for the return of Taliban rule. From Moscow to Beijing, Islamabad to Tehran, Baradar was in the limelight as Taliban’s main negotiator.
“By the grace of Allah, we have won the war so be thankful to Him and don’t become arrogant,” a Taliban local leader quoted Baradar as having said to a small gathering in Kandahar.
“Mullah Baradar and our leaders are very wise. We defeated occupying forces in the battlefield, and they knocked down America on the negotiating table,” says a local leader in Kandahar. “It was not a peace agreement but a defeat agreement of America,” he says.
Taliban can boast their return to power, but running Afghanistan is different from winning it as past experiences have shown. Taliban’s identity is of a military force, with its Doha-based political shura a relatively recent development. Many Afghans have bitter memories of their past rule.
“Taliban were ruthless and brutal in the past. How much can they have changed? We don’t trust their words,” a Kabul-based Afghan rights activist, Lulaima Naseri, told me over the phone.
“They have put on a mask. You take off the mask, the world can see their real faces…which we have already seen.”
Militarist power will not suffice for their political battle. The fighters may show off their weapons on the roads, but indoors, their leaders need a different skillset while holding closed door meetings and negotiations with political heavyweights.
Owais Tohid
Baradar and his political aides, who are now in Arg, the presidential palace in Kabul, know they have to balance the world’s wish-lists and demands of civic rights against their movement’s identity, character and ideology. Their leaders do not have much space for pragmatic approaches given the ideological rigidity of their fighters.
They have enough fighting power; some commanders say enough to last a decade. They seized American equipment including weapons, ammunition, vehicles, drones, helicopters from surrendering Afghan forces. According to a Report for Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, Afghan forces had 150 aircrafts, 23 A-29 ground attack aircrafts, 45 black hawk helicopters, 50 M D-530 helicopters. There are fears that these may make the Taliban one of the most well equipped militant groups in the world.
Taliban fighters, in a unit called the Badri 313 force, are patrolling the roads of Kabul wearing American and Afghan forces’ uniforms, carrying M-4 guns, night vision goggles, helmets, driving around in Humvees. They call themselves martyrdom seekers, a prerequisite to become a member of this force.
But militarist power will not suffice for their political battle. The fighters may show off their weapons on the roads, but indoors, their leaders need a different skillset while holding closed door meetings and negotiations with political heavyweights including former President Hamid Karzai, Abdullah Abdullah, and veteran Commander Gulbadin Hekmatyar to form an inclusive government.
Taliban desperately need international recognition and legitimacy, the lack of which haunted their last rule. Key Afghan players know this, and are weighing options and hedging their bets for future gains. Among them is Hashmat Ghani, brother of deposed President Ashraf Ghani who fled the country hours before the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul.
“I have accepted the Taliban takeover because we cannot go back to death and destruction in the country. I believe Afghans need to accept Taliban’s rule,” Hashmat Ghani told me.
“They are known for establishing security but running the government is a different game altogether. They lack educated people, technocrats, and finances. They have to come up with a clear strategy, [and] we will support them for the benefit of Afghans.”
Afghanistan’s history is filled with contradictions, betrayals and side-switching warlords. Karzai, Abdullah Abdullah and Taliban were bitter enemies but now sit at the same table for meals. Anas Haqqani, brother of globally wanted man Sirajuddin Haqqani stayed over at Hashmat Ghani’s house. Siraj Haqqani’s uncle Khalil Haqqani, for whose capture America offered a five million dollar bounty, is acting as Taliban’s top diplomat with full protocol in Kabul.
Hekmatyar, whose Hizb-e-Islami party supported the Ghani-led government, now seems likely to be a part of Taliban’s setup.
“Taliban are facing a challenge to lay the future roadmap. Hekmatyar Sahib has already announced an unconditional support in favor of their rule,” Dr. Ghairat Baheer, Hizb-e-Islami senior leader and son-in-law of Hekmatyar told me.
“They (Taliban) cannot ignore us. We have an educated and skilled cadre with experience of running government institutions.”
The Taliban leadership wants to look inclusive and will likely include some ministers from the previous government to gain the international community’s confidence. Mullah Baradar, as the co-founder of the Taliban’s, and as former close aide of Mullah Omar and his brother-in-law, is likely to lead the government. Taliban’s Amir-ul-Momineen and former Chief Justice of Shariat Courts, Haibatullah Akhunzada, is likely to stay in Kandahar as Supreme Leader with many powers relegated to him. Mullah Omar’s son Mullah Yaqub, and Khalil Haqqani will likely hold important portfolios even though the number of council members hasn’t been finalized for the future ‘inclusive’ set-up in what looks like hazy Afghanistan.
Experts have said the Taliban themselves did not expect as easy a victory as they got in taking over Afghanistan. But their confidence of full control will have been rattled by the suicide attack carried out by Daesh at Kabul airport. Scores of Afghans and 13 US service members were killed. The threat of conflict between the Taliban and Daesh looms large.
As the evacuation operations are about to close, hopes of Afghans trying to flee the country are diminishing. Lailuma doesn’t want to leave Kabul.
“Blasts, wailing… they went to the airport in hope and their bodies were brought back … it reminded me when I left as a teenager during Mujahideen infighting, Kabul was in ruins,” she recalls. “I won’t leave my home for the second time. My friends, my colleagues, all educated beautiful people have left. I will wait.” Lailuma posted a photograph on Twitter, a locked door with a sign tacked on ‘we don’t live here’. I asked her about it. “My office is closed. I haven’t gone out of my home. I feel caged since Taliban have come.”
When I asked Hashmat Ghani about his brother’s future, he said the ex-President’s only relevance now is, “to write his memoirs of Afghanistan.”
And about the future of Taliban, I thought to myself, if they don’t change their militant face, their memoirs won’t be very different from the past.
- Owais Tohid is a leading Pakistani journalist/writer. His email address is [email protected]. He tweets @OwaisTohid.
