Taliban recently took over Afghanistan (again) and has established its government in Afghanistan. Well, how is this any different from BJP taking over India after winning from Congress or Joe Biden taking over the USA after Donald Trump lost in the election? It is different as the Taliban has been recognized as a terrorist group by many countries which is not the case with India or the USA. This seems like a problem, (well it is) so in this article, I will be going through the History of Afghanistan and how has Afghanistan landed in the position it is in right now. 

HISTORY of Afghanistan

Afghanistan is called the “Graveyard of Empires” which directly relates to the point that big superpowers come to Afghanistan but end up going back facing harsh defeat. During the 1800s, the Russian empire and the British-controlled Indian subcontinent were separated by a buffer zone, Afghanistan. British fought 3 wars with the Afghans and finally agreed to Afghanistan being an independent country. Throughout the 19th century and the middle of the 20th century, the leadership in Afghanistan kept changing.

Then came the big ideological war between the two superpowers, the USA and the Soviet Union. Afghanistan was part of the Non-Aligned movement, i.e. it did not pick a side. Islamists around the same time, declared civil war on the communists as they saw Islam being degraded in Afghanistan. The Soviet Union saw that the weaker communist faction was in trouble during the civil war, so the Soviet Union decided to intervene to support the communists in Afghanistan. On top of this, the Soviets were also fueled by their ambition to gain an advantage over the USA in the ongoing Cold War.

Under the Soviets, Afghanistan saw some stability, but this was rather short-lived. The USA could not tolerate the Soviets ruling Afghanistan, and as they saw an opportunity to weaken the Soviet Union through one of Cold War’s many proxy wars, the USA started funneling massive amounts of weapons and money to Pakistani Secret Services (ISI) and the Afghan Muslim Fighters (Muslim Holy Warriors), commonly known as the Mujahideen. 

Mujahideen, which was earlier just a group of guerilla fighters who fought in mountains, now with the aid of CIA, MI6, and Saudi Arabia, had become equipped with high-quality weapons. The Soviet Union did not leave Afghan soil till 1989. As the Soviets left Afghanistan, the Civil War between the Islamists and the Communists reached its peak. With the help of the USA, Mujahideen (Islamists) was able to defeat the Communists in 1992. This resulted in the end of the Civil War.

BIRTH of Taliban (After the Civil War)

Soon after the Civil War, the nation-state effectively became a loose network of different regions, each ruled by a different ruler, following different rules and customs. This was a direct result of the USA trying to extensively support a specific group to ensure no stability occurred during the Soviet rule. In 1994, a Pashtun militia of about 50 fundamentalist students, who called themselves the Taliban, rose to power. This group was fuelled by the Pakistani military and intelligence and thus became significantly powerful.

In 1996, a power-sharing accord was agreed upon to stem the rise of the Taliban. Even with this, in September 1996, the Taliban marched into Kabul and announced themselves as the legitimate leaders of the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”. For a while, the Taliban gained popular support among the public, though they soon started to implement their extremist ideologies. With these ideals, the Taliban started with their “ethnic cleansing” and killed all other ethnic groups except Pashtuns. They had very strict laws for women and children and did not tolerate the education of women. 

By 2000, the Taliban had over 90% of the area in Afghanistan and they did not stop with their over-the-top implementation of the “Islamic Law”. The situations in Afghanistan were way worse than they ever had been. Witnessing the same, the earlier Mujahideen group along with some other smaller groups decided to make the “Northern Alliance” to form a resistance against the Taliban. The Northern Alliance fought face to face with the Taliban but were eventually defeated. 

FALL of Taliban in 2001

In 2001, the Al Qaeda terrorist group made the 9/11 attacks happen in the USA. The USA considered Osama Bin Laden (leader of Al Qaeda) the prime suspect for the same. As the USA got the intel that Osama Bin Laden may have been taking shelter under the Taliban, the US army was sent on Afghan soil. This ended the reign of the Taliban in 2001 as the US army was able to keep the Taliban at bay and established a stable rule. 

In 2011, the USA found Osama Bin Laden and executed him for the 9/11 attacks on the USA. Even though the USA got their vengeance, they decided to keep their army in Afghanistan to maintain the stability that was there due to the Taliban taking a back seat. 

RECENT Developments

In 2020, USA president Donald Trump decided to have peace talks with the Taliban group. He stated that if the Taliban were to remove its connections from groups like Al Qaeda, then America would leave Afghanistan with its army. In 2021, Joe Biden followed the previous policy and removed American troops from Afghanistan. 

The reason was in fact something else. America had been using a lot of its resources, be it money or manpower, in Afghanistan. People had started to argue that it wasn’t even America’s fight, to begin with. The problem is, if the USA wanted to back out in 2011 after they killed Osama Bin Laden, they could have very easily done so, but they decided to stay and one day abruptly decided to leave the nation altogether. 

As the Taliban saw the US army leave, the Taliban started its offensive, threatening several government-controlled urban areas and even seizing several border crossings. In early August, the Taliban started direct assault in urban areas. As they took over one province, others fell in rapid succession. On August 15, 2021, Taliban fighters entered the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, leading Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to flee the country which resulted in the fall of the Afghan government to the hands of the Taliban. 

The Taliban has come forward to the international community for diplomatic negotiations and has even agreed to the education of women and several other important aspects. Many countries are not willing to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan as there is nothing stopping them from bringing back the 1996-2001 extreme oppressive policies in Afghanistan again. There are several reports stating the same, the Taliban might start with its extremist ideology again and harm the Afghan citizen. People have tried to flee Afghanistan if they can and all representatives of different nation-states have been removed from Afghanistan. 

Several countries have been coming together to get a solution for the current problem. What do you think should the international community do?