Nirendra Dev
The concern is also rising for the over 18,000 Afghans and their families who worked for the US as translators and other capacities at risk of Taliban reprisals.
New Delhi: The saga has it all. One President 'Face to face' with history, another has to leave his people and country in shambles, guns rule the roost. Comedy of errors? And somewhere, someone mocks eagerly to display the joy!
"There will be an Afghan inclusive Islamic Government," asserted a spokesperson of Taliban insurgents.
In Washington, the White House faces large-scale accusations that the Biden administration has botched the US departure.
Is this the Saigon moment of 1975?
There ought to be a few potentially long-term consequences as well.
The concern is also rising for the over 18,000 Afghans and their families who worked for the US as translators and other capacities at risk of Taliban reprisals.
Afghan women await the nightmare of the 1990s!
“This is manifestly not Saigon,” the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told ABC’s This Week. “We went into Afghanistan 20 years ago with one mission in mind, and that was to deal with the people who attacked us on 9/11, and that mission has been successful," he tries to make a meek explanation. The '1975' comes haunting for the world's most powerful nation, the United States.”
In Pakistan, Pakistan's Minister for Human Rights, Shireen Mazari, tweets – "Truly tragic to see the long-suffering Afghan people abandoned by President Ghani & others like Amrullah Saleh – both scuttle into hiding. Doesn't really matter where they have disappeared or bolted to – what's important is leadership abandoned their people in the midst of crisis. Shameful! – the Minister writes.
Ghani's administration has been steadfastly criticising Pakistan for its now-infamous double standards.
On December 4, 2016, at Amritsar, at the ‘Heart of Asia’ conference, Ghani had kick-started the meet with his speech rejecting Pakistan’s assistance of $500 million for developmental works.
“Sorry Mr Sartaj Aziz, this amount can be spent to contain extremism,” he told a stunned Pak delegation.
“Ghani also had said–“We need to identify cross border terrorism.” Directing his anguish at Islamabad, Ghani had said in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and leaders from 13 other countries that–“Some (countries) still provide sanctuary to terrorists."”
But the most embarrassed man on the plant at this moment is President Joe Biden, with his own citizens and strategic experts asking – "what was the truth? The refrain being either the President was terribly misled by intelligence, or he deliberately misled American people."
In a video message, the Afghan government’s chief peace negotiator, Abdullah Abdullah, said that President Ashraf Ghani had left the country.
Former president Hamid Karzai tweeted that a coordination council comprising Abdullah Abdullah, Hezb-e-Islami chief Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and himself (Karzai) had been formed following Ghani’s departure to manage the transfer of power.
In a statement in Pashto, the Taliban claimed, “All parts of the country have come under the 'Islamic Emirate' control.
The Taliban spokesperson said the women would have to follow Hizab, and they can continue to have the right to education – something denied to them when the Taliban ruled 20 years before.
