Nirendra Dev
A follower of the slain Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, Saleh has blasted the “Pak backed oppression and brutal dictatorship.”
New Delhi: The facade of a modern and moderate face the Taliban tried to project for itself has fallen flat easily.
Within hours Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban chief spokesman, tried to put up a neo-face of tolerance and allowed himself to be interviewed by a woman Afghan journalist; all women journalists were sacked.
In rural areas, executions and firing have started no sooner; he had made a big claim that – "We will not seek revenge..All those on the opposite side are pardoned from A to Z".
In Jalalabad, unarmed protestors and common Afghan civilians were fired upon on Wednesday(August 18) when they resisted the Taliban move to replace the country's 'national flag' with the Taliban White Flag.
Two people were killed.
Meanwhile, from his 'virtual hideout', Amrullah Saleh, Afghan vice president, has raised his voice and banner of resistance to the Taliban and asserted, "The war is not over".
"As per the constitution of Afghanistan, in absence, escape, resignation or death of the President the FVP becomes the caretaker President. I am currently inside my country & am the legitimate caretaker President. Am reaching out to all leaders to secure their support & consensus," he tweeted.
His audio interview given to western media has gone viral on social media and TV channels across the globe.
A follower of the slain Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, Saleh has blasted the “Pak backed oppression and brutal dictatorship.”
“I can never be under one ceiling with Taliban," he said, adding, President Ashraf Ghani has 'fled' the country.
Ghani has now landed in the UAE.
Saleh has come up the ladder fighting rivals and through hard work. Picked up in 1997 by Ahmed Shah Massoud, he was asked to liaison with the Northern Alliance. In 2004, Saleh became the head of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency. He has also been highly critical of then-President
Hamid Karzai’s pro-Pakistan tilt.
In 2018, Saleh became Interior minister and, in February 2020, the country’s vice president under Ghani.
Saleh is now stationed in Panjshir Valley, the only well-known locality which has still not fallen to the Taliban. Can he really cobble up a strong 'anti-Taliban force'? It remains to be seen.
"I am not ready to be part of the humiliation and shame…,I am standing for my country", he maintained rather put up a brave front.
Notwithstanding an effort made by the spokesman to present the Taliban as 'different' from the one in its previous avatar, the Taliban is now omnipresent in Kabul and other key hubs.
They were found on Tuesday and Wednesday in amusement parks, outside foreign embassies.
Women have gone indoors for the last four days, and their words are being taken with a pinch of salt by Afghans, especially the women and the international community.
The mad rush in Kabul airport is a clear testimony of how much phrases like Shariat law and Islamic values are made; Afghan civilians do not trust them.
Everyone wants to leave Afghanistan and fly to any corner of the globe.
Among the international community, India has called back the envoy and other diplomats. So it makes clear that their repeated assurances that diplomats would not be harmed have no takers.
Indian Ambassador Rudrendra Tandon, on arrival in India, told reporters at Jamnagar airbase on Tuesday, “As you know, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan no longer exists and the situation is quite fluid now".
The message is – it's a new world in Afghanistan, and this neo-world following medieval practices is again well known to the world.
The brutality and human rights violations have certainly started.
Other facts have also come out lately. A few of them suggest that a significant number of Al-Qaeda leaders do reside in Afghanistan-Pakistan borders, and the nexus with the Taliban would be revived soon with the help of Pakistan.
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