“Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily. ” – Napoleon Bonaparte
This saying fits appropriately for most of the colonial countries but Afghanistan is an exception in the sense that it was not colony of any country for longer time but the devastation of the country was invited by radical and hard headed section who took the country to ransom. We will be more clear about this devastation and debacle of Afghanistan when we delve into 500 years old history.
It was a rat and cat game between the Safavid, Hotak and Mughal empires. The reason of turning Mughals to this region was to capture Persia (Iran) and fortress of Kandhar. These dynasties had regional effects and are so not so important to Afghanistan in current context.
Mir Wais Hotaki of Hotak dynasty established the SEED of modern Afghanistan in 1715 when he defeated and took some regions from Persia and Kurds into Afghanistan. He is a most respected figure in Afghanistan and is known as “George Washington” of Afghanistan.
Next comes Afsharvid dynasty. After Aurangzeb death in 1705 the Mughal empire weakened and Nadar (Nadir) Shah attacked Delhi in with a force of 55,000 soldiers and defeated Muhammad Shah of Delhi in war of Karnal in 1736. Muhammad Shah gifted him Peacock throne and Koh-i-Noor.
After 1747 Durrani Empire played a significant role is history and building of Afghanistan
Ahmad Shah was a Shah of modern thinking and believed in social values and equality to women. He is the founder of modern Afghanistan whose seed was sown by Mir Wais Hotaki. Ahmad shah won large regions and made Afghanistan independent of Persian influence.
Emirates means here big land Lords. Initially they were under Shah Shuja Durrani and after his death they became sovereign authority. British had imaginary fear of USSR invading British India so they wanted to obviate hold of USSR in Afghanistan waged first Anglo-Afghan war. British were defeated. The reason of second Anglo-Afghan war was that USSR appointed its Ambassador but same facility was refused to British. Fumed British waged the war. After a treaty British left.
In 1919 British were occupied with World War-I and taking advantage Ammanulla Khan (3rd son of Emir Habibullah Khan) invaded British India. He was exiled by British and made a come back. British liberated Afghanistan in 1921 and there after Ammanulla Khan declared Afghanistan as kingdom.
Rise of radical Islamic militia in Afghanistan
Above is the 400 years history of Afghanistan in nutshell. Till now it was like any other country. From Ammanullah Khan period the destruction of Afghanistan was written. Here is the description and seed of thoughts on rise of headless radical Islamic powers in Afghanistan and game of Super powers.
After death of Zaheer Shah, his cousin Daod Khan declared himself king under backing of Soviet Union. He was known for his progressive policies in Science, technology, economics, education, women equality and all that is good for human life uplift, Pashtun nationalism, occupy lost lands. But later due to his non alignment policy his relations with USSR deteriorated and he and all his family were killed in Sur revolution with USSR backing and Taraki was made President.
From here starts the bloody game of internal regional strife, radical forces and super power game started in Afghanistan which is ongoing even today. A MUJAHEDEEN (Meaning Jihadists in Arabi) group backed by USA, China, Pakistan, Britain became active and from 1979- 1989 they waged war with USSR to make Afghanistan independent of Soviet influence. But Taraki’s close associate Haifzulla Amin relations got strained in vie to get control of Afghanistan and murdered President Taraki in 1979 and MUJAHADEEN were all out to takeover Government of Afghanistan (Saur Revolution). It seems there was some support of USSR but eventually Soviets eliminated Amin as well to install Babrak Kamal. USSR attacked Afghanistan with full force and tanks and made his puppet Govt with Kamal as President.
Fierce fighting took place between Babrak Kamal and Mujahedeen and lakhs of Afghans took refuge in Turkey, Pakistan, Iran. Just understand that arms were being supplied to MUJAHADEEN by Pakistan, USA, Britain and China. Now in 1988 Al-Quaida was born to fight against Afghan puppet Govt. It proved to be too expensive war for Russia and they withdrew their forces under Geneva Peace Accord in 1989.
Dr. Najibullha was made president by UNO in 1989. He did several reforms but had to resign on resentment of public of being Soviet puppet. Meanwhile Taliban rose to power and abducted Dr. Najibulla from UNO protection and was publicly hanged. The general Afghans were by now fed up and tired of these instabilities since Ammanulla time and fell pray to Taliban by accepting then on promise of peace, uplift, Islamic Sharia, But Taliban were tough radical with principles of ruthless murders, bombings, ridiculous sharia laws, public executions, against women freedom, education. But Taliban was being assisted by USA, China, Pak and Britain to combat Soviet backed government.
Al-Quaida and Taliban are headless because they were totally hard core religious groups for whom religion is above home land. Their attack on twin towers in Sep 11, 2001 and destruction of Buddha statues in Bamiyan in March, 2001 brought highest degree of ill fate to Afghan poor public. Afghanistan once again became a battle field of incessant bombings just because of shortsighted and narrow attitude of Talibans and Al-Quaida. This is a lesson to the entire world that how a small reckless think tank with debased and defaced principles can victimize the entire population to beggars.
Afghanistan from 1996- Sep, 2001 (Civil war)
After hanging of President Najibullah, there was fight among factions of Mujahideen. Hekmatyar (leader of Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin, a faction of Mujahideen) tried to take control of Kabul. That time Hekmatyar was backed by ISIS of Pakistan. But Hekmatyar failed to deliver so Pakistan gave birth to Taliban. Taliban was made with coalition of wealthy sheikhs (like Mullah Omar, Osama bin Laden). By 1996 Taliban captured almost all Afghanistan and appointed Mullah Muhammad Rabbani as president.
Meanwhile ‘Northern Alliance’ (anti-Taliban legitimate government ) was also there under the leadership of Ahmad Shah Massoud. In 1996 the Taliban attacked Massoud’s forces. Massoud was strongly opposed the interpretations of Islam followed by the Taliban or Al-Qaeda. In Massoud’s area, women and girls did not have to wear the Afghan burqa. They were allowed to work and to go to school and forced marriages were not allowed. This war between Massoud and taliban lead to the Afghan Civil War (1996–2001). Just before the September 11 attacks in the United States, Massoud was assassinated in Takhar Province of Afghanistan by suspected Al-Qaeda.
Mullah Omar aided by ISI headed the Taliban forces during the Afghan civil war. He was married to one of bin Laden’s daughters. After taking control of the capital city of Kabul in1996, the Taliban issued edicts forbidding women to work outside the home, attend school, or to leave their homes unless accompanied by a male relative. In public, women had to be covered from head to toe in a burqa.
Result of the war- Taliban control 85% of Afghanistan.
Afghanistan from Oct, 2001 – 2020
Mullah Omar refused several US requests to hand over Osama bin Laden which resulted in USA and NATO attacks on Afghanistan which prolonged up to 2020. After the attacks of September 11, 2001 on U.S. soil, which killed nearly 3,000 people, the U.S. and Britain launched an air assault on Afghanistan on 7 October 2001, which the Taliban referred to as an “attack on Islam”. Northern Alliance, supported by Iran, India, Tajikistan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Turkey and the United States waged extensive bombing of Taliban forces and military infrastructure, in end of 2001 ousted the Taliban from power in Kabul and gained control of much of the rest of the country.
In 2001 end, after the Taliban government was overthrown. Afghan Interim Administration under Hamid Karzai was formed. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was established by the UN Security Council to help assist the Karzai administration and provide basic security.
Result of the war- By this time, in two decades of war as well as an acute famine at the time, Afghanistan had one of the highest infant and child mortality rates in the world, the lowest life expectancy, much of the population were hungry and infrastructure was in ruins. Many foreign donors started providing aid and assistance to rebuild the war-torn country.
Afghanistan in 2021
Tired USA now has come up with Doha Peace Agreement in Feb,2020. This agreement has certain clauses
- Complete withdrawal of US forces in 14 months
- Exchange of 1000 Afghan prisoners with 5000 Taliban prisoners
- No terrorism on Afghanistan ground
- Not allowing any foreign forces on Afghan territory.
But as NATO forces started withdrawal again Taliban raised the head and started taking control of Afghanistan as expected. Till the Afghan public does not protest in huge masses, Afghanistan will remain a play ground of terrorist organizations, radical Islamist and super powers.
Travel to all areas of Afghanistan is unsafe because of critical levels of kidnappings, hostage taking, suicide bombings, widespread military combat operations, landmines, and terrorist and insurgent attacks, including attacks using vehicle-borne, magnetic, or other improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Result in 2021- After withdrawal of USA forces Taliban is more powerful and trying to capture Afghanistan. Afghanistan is in dust.
Epilogue
A small country- But virtually its people are seeing kind of incessant World War in their land since four decades. It is neither the reason of expansionism, nor boundary issue, nor traitors, nor separatist. Then why this war? Why super powers enter into their country?
It seems it was the desire of USSR to establish communism, opposition of USA, China, Britain to Soviet influence. Other reason was Hardcore terrorist groups like Mujahadeen, Taliban, Al-Quaida who took the country to ransom for their orthodox Islamic Sharia principles. For them religion is above homeland. It is strange that neither of the Super powers won the people here still they continued involvement. The only sufferers are innocent public. This region is going to be of utmost importance in coming years specially for India.
As Afghanistan has been a battle ground and heaven for terrorists it is obvious that tourists may not prefer to visit Afghanistan. There have been some incidents of Taliban attacking tourists. There is no data available in United Nations about annual number of tourists to Afghanistan. It is better to avoid roads and prefer only flights for local travels.
Last update – Aug,13, 2021
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