Taliban declared an end to the 20-year-old-long war in Afghanistan on Sunday, August 15.
Followed by the takeover of the presidential palace in Kabul and nearly all major cities, including Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat, and Kandahar, Taliban co-founder, Abdul Ghani Baradar congratulated the Muslim Afghan people on this huge victory.
After President Ashraf Ghani fled the country while Taliban terrorists made their way to the presidential palace in Kabul, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, being the group’s political chief and the most public face makes for him to be the most likely candidate for the Presidentship.
Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban leader stated that they were in such a low state and did not expect success.
The rise of Taliban
Baradar, born in Uruzgan, Baradar was captured in 2010 by security forces in Karachi, Pakistan and only released in 2018 at the behest of the United States under the Doha Agreement. He fought against the Soviet side-by-side with Mullah Omar in the 1980s as an Afghan mujahideen.
After the Russians were driven out of Afghanistan and the then President Mohammad Najibulla had resigned, several Mujahideen parties started negotiations to form a national coalition. However, the Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin, presumably supported by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), instead of joining the negotiations, announced to conquer Kabul alone. This resulted in a civil war that was fought for four years. It was during this time that Baradar and his brother-in-law Mohammed Omar founded the Taliban, a movement dedicated to the creation of a Sharia-controlled Islamic Emirate.
The Taliban came out as the strongest force in 1996 after it captured one provincial capital after another, much like it has now, and came to power. Baradar, who was Omar’s deputy, was credited for the victories. However, Taliban’s capture of Kabul in September 1996 drove the country into another civil war consequently leading to the arrival of US and UK troops.
The Doha Agreement
Eight years after Baradar’s arrest, Donald Trump’s Afghan envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, asked the Pakistanis in 2018 to release Baradar so he could lead negotiations in Qatar, believing that a power-sharing arrangement could be settled on.
Baradar signed the Doha agreement with the US in February 2020 which was seen as a breakthrough towards peace in the war-ravaged country. However, it has become clear, that Baradar and the Taliban were just buying time until the US troops left to take complete control of the nation.
Meanwhile, basic fundamental rights and public spaces that Afghan women had fought hard for, have now turned to dust.
The Taliban, which has now become the dominant force in Afghanistan seeking to change the power equations in the country, ran one of the world’s most repressive governments from 1996 to 2001. There were public executions, stonings, strict interpretations of Sharia. Not only were women not being allowed to work, and girls not allowed to attend school, they even had to cover their faces and be accompanied by a male relative if they wanted to venture out of their homes. Men were not allowed to shave their beards.
Now, the group is seeking to present a more moderate face.
As the militant group seized the capital, it said all those who have previously worked and helped the invaders (Western troops), or are now standing in the ranks of the corrupt administration of Kabul, the Islamic Emirate “has opened its door for them and have announced for them amnesty.”
