Chapter 2 continues…

Apart from such state disintegration, ethnic divisions came to the fore and the capital Kabul was carved up along ethnic, linguistic and religious lines, largely between Hazara and non-Hazaras (Shia’ and Sunni) adherents of Islamic faith. Terrible human rights violations were reported and a large number of Kabul’s residents were displaced. Amnesty International referred to the situation as ‘human rights catastrophe’ of ‘appalling proportions’. It was during this time of political and social disorder that the Taleban movement gained momentum. All the different factions were working as proxies for the interests of their regional power sponsors, namely Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on the one hand, and Iran, Russia, India, and the Central Asian Republics of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on the other.

The Taleban emerged in the Afghan political scene at a critical juncture when peace seemed elusive with violent factional clashes breaking out and severe disagreements on power-sharing between the different Mujahideen groups after the communist government of Najibullah handed over power. The spell of violence between the forces of President Burhanuddin Rabbani and General Dostum claimed hundreds of lives escalating international and regional concern at what appeared to be a fight to the finish between the two former allies.

Dostum’s abandonment of the communist Najib regime led to its collapse and that is why he expected to be duly rewarded in terms of power-sharing.

Dostum’s Uzbek militia was however compelled to withdraw as a price for opening negotiations with Gulbuddin Hekhmatyar, another Pashtun warlord, who extracted the portfolio of Prime Minister but continued to bombard his own capital inorder to gain exclusive control of the government. General Dostum retreated to the northern part of the country where he set up his virtual fiefdom, paying only nominal allegiance to Kabul.

Meanwhile the inability of President Rabbani, his former Defense Minister Ahmed Shah Masood and other Mujahideen factions aligned with them to come to acceptable terms with intransigent Hekhmatyar led to lingering anarchy and continuing bloodshed.

To be continued…