How Should Countries Engage with the Afghan Taliban?

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Taliban fighters (file photo)

Sarah Zaman
VOA News
December 20, 2022

WASHINGTON — Broad international recognition remained elusive for the Afghan Taliban in 2022. After more than a year in power, no foreign nation has officially recognized the Taliban government, although China, Russia, Pakistan and Turkmenistan have accredited Taliban diplomats.

Despite the Taliban’s desire for more engagement with the world, the country’s de facto rulers have continued their hardline policies, forbidding education for girls and dismissing calls for more inclusivity and less repression.

This month, Taliban deputy spokesperson Bilal Karimi told local media, “The policy and stance of isolation, and the creation of distance, has not brought any good results.”

While many support not isolating the Taliban for fear of a larger crisis, others question whether international engagement with the hardline regime will help improve conditions for the Afghan people.

Foreign demands on Taliban leadership

The United States, the European Union and the United Nations have all insisted the Taliban form an inclusive government, enact laws protecting human rights – especially women’s rights – and ensure Afghanistan does not become a base for terrorists to target other countries.

The group has shown some willingness to crack down on terrorist groups such as Islamic State, but leaders of terror group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan operate in Afghanistan while fighters mount almost daily attacks on Pakistani security forces.

And the U.S. drone strike that killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in an upscale Kabul neighborhood last July cast serious doubt on the Taliban’s commitment to opposing global terrorism.

Beyond the Taliban’s ties to militant groups, their government’s repressive and hardline domestic policies have drawn criticism. Along with increased restrictions on women and girls, a clampdown on protests and curbs on press freedom – including a ban on VOA’s TV programs and FM broadcast transmissions in the country – the Taliban recently brought back public executions and floggings, a hallmark of their previous tyrannical rule in the late 1990s.

The Taliban are unrepentant about the practice. After the German mission for Afghanistan — now based in Doha and Berlin — described the public beatings as “a heinous violation of human dignity,” Taliban foreign ministry spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi pointed to Germany’s Nazi past and accused the mission of “spearheading racism and Islamophobia.”

Taliban behavior no surprise for Afghan activists

Speaking to VOA, Afghan rights activist Parasto, who requested that only one name be used for safety reasons, questioned why the world believes the Taliban will soften under international pressure, given the group’s history of repression and ruling by decree.

“I really don’t understand why is the world changing its behavior towards the Taliban. That it is not the first time that we are having the Taliban on the ground. It is the second time,” she said.

Parasto helps run a network of underground schools and believes the Taliban do not intend to let young girls go back to school. She said they are “just playing with words” when they say they are looking for a safe and religiously acceptable way to get girls to school.

The Taliban have banned girls from attending the 7th through the 12th grades since coming to power. On March 23, they opened most girls’ secondary schools but closed them after a few hours, drawing global condemnation. The Taliban said they would not bow to international pressure.

In December, the de facto rulers ordered public and private universities across the country to immediately suspend female students’ access to higher education until further notice.

Some in Afghanistan, however, have argued for a more cohesive international strategy for engaging with the Taliban.

“Some outright reject them [the Taliban]. Some believe … that a certain sensible leadership can emerge among the Taliban and then lastly there is a group that’s like us, who believe that unless [if] they truly want change, they will have to help us work on the larger population of Afghanistan,” said Obaidullah Baheer, a university lecturer and rights activist.

Baheer said he believes the Taliban’s victory over the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan has made the Taliban “stubborn.” He suggested that for now, the U.S. and its allies should set aside larger issues such as inclusive governance and constitution-making and focus on alleviating the day-to-day misery of the Afghan people.

In a recent Gallup survey, 98% of Afghans rated their living conditions as “suffering” under the new regime. More than 65% of the country’s population are in need of humanitarian assistance.

The Taliban blame financial sanctions, asset freezes and the reduction in foreign development aid for the crisis.

The case for engagement

Former U.S. Ambassador Robin Raphel has participated in back-channel diplomacy with the Taliban for decades and favors quiet engagement.

“The more we publicly harangue them on these issues, the longer it’s going to take for the reality of the, of the desires of the Afghan people to have an effect on the Taliban,” said Raphel.

In a rare show of moderation, Taliban Deputy Foreign Minister Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai expressed support for girls’ education earlier this year at a public event in Kabul, saying, “there is no Islamic prohibition for girls’ education.”

Such breaks from the Taliban leader’s ideology are rare and discouraged. “Cohesion is the value that’s prized above all,” Raphel explained.

The U.S. has tried to strike a balance by releasing some funds to alleviate Afghans’ suffering, while not validating the Taliban as a legitimate government. Washington has donated more than $1 billion to Afghanistan through aid agencies since withdrawing troops last year, but also imposed new visa sanctions this year on current and former Taliban members for involvement in repressing women.

In a written statement, the U.S. Department of State told VOA, “We remind them constantly that their behavior toward the Afghan people will define our relationship with them. We cannot have a normal relationship with the Taliban until they respect the human rights of all Afghans.”

“First and foremost, the Taliban are accountable to the Afghan people,” the State Department said.

At a regional conference of national security advisers held in India this month, Uzbek National Security Adviser Victor Mohammadov was quoted in Afghan media as saying that leaving Afghanistan alone to deal with the social, economic and humanitarian crisis, “will lead to increasing poverty in the region which we are already feeling ourselves.”

Baheer, who helped run the “Let Afghan Girls Learn” campaign this year, believes the Taliban will change only with sustained pressure from within the country and hoped the international community will provide greater support to local activists like him.

“At the end of the day the solution to Afghanistan is inside Afghanistan. … It’s just about time that the international community realizes that and helps us make the Taliban realize that,” he said, adding that if the Taliban don’t cede any space, “they will eventually be met with resistance. That has been the history of Afghanistan and the Taliban. We need to learn from it.”

Currently, more than 300 young girls are studying in six underground schools Parasto helped set up. Another 250 women who were forced to be illiterate when the Taliban were first in power are also learning to read and write there. She believes the financial and travels sanctions on the Taliban are not strong enough.

As international charities work to help Afghans deal with hunger and poverty with assistance largely supplied by the U.S. and its allies, calibrating how to pressure the Taliban without pushing Afghans into more misery remains a challenge.

Even the Taliban’s long-time supporter, Pakistan, is showing signs of fatigue with the group’s hardline stance. Last month, Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said Islamabad would not recognize the Taliban without global consensus, adding, “The world is running out of patience” with the group.

Survivors Of Deadly Taliban Raid On Hazara Village In Afghanistan Demand Justice

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By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
December 20, 2022

Taliban fighters carried out a deadly raid last month in Afghanistan’s central province of Daikundi.

The militant group said it targeted and killed “armed rebels” in a village outside of the provincial capital, Nilli, on November 25.

But locals said the at least eight people killed in the Taliban attack were all civilians, including four children. They said the Taliban also wounded four civilians and detained several others.

Among those killed in the village of Siwak was Mehdi, a 14-year-old boy.

“Mehdi was killed by the first bullet that hit him,” his mother, Madina, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. “But they continued to shoot him at him. He was hit by another bullet above the heart.”

Madina’s husband, Muhammad Alam, was also killed in the Taliban assault. “My husband and child were innocent,” she said. “We are just peasants.”

The survivors and the families of the victims in Daikundi have called for an independent probe into the killings.

The killings in Daikundi, which is home to the country’s Shi’ite Hazara community, was widely condemned.

During its oppressive rule from 1996-2001, the Taliban terrorized Hazaras, wrestling control of Hazara regions in Afghanistan through a campaign of targeted killings.

Since seizing control of Kabul in August 2021, the Taliban has tried to assuage Hazaras’ fears of discrimination and persecution. But rights group have documented the extrajudicial killings of Hazaras and forced evictions of Hazaras by the Taliban in parts of the country.

Most of the attacks on Hazaras have been blamed on the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) extremist group, which considers Shi’a as apostates who should be killed.

“The Taliban continue to kill [Hazara] civilians, including women and children, in violation of Islamic and human values,” Mohammad Hassan Hakimi, a Hazara activist, told Radio Azadi. “[They are killed] without any proof of crime or trial.”

The United Nations Assistance Mission In Afghanistan (UNAMA) on December 1 said it was “working to establish facts on the recent killings in Siwak.”

“Very serious reports of civilian casualties, with extrajudicial killings, at least 8 fatalities, including children,” UNAMA said in a tweet. “UNAMA has engaged Taliban on the need for credible investigation & accountability.”

Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Afghanistan, has called on the Taliban to conduct a transparent investigation.

Abdul Nafi Takor, a spokesman for the Taliban’s Interior Ministry, said the group’s forces stormed a house in Daikundi after several “armed men” hiding at the property refused to hand over their weapons.

“Nine armed people were killed and four people were injured,” he said. “It is not true that children were killed, or that any other harm was done.”

But that has been disputed by the families and survivors of the Taliban’s deadly raid.

Mozhgan lost her husband and uncle in the raid. She told Radio Azadi that Taliban fighters shot and killed her husband after detaining him.

“We expect the [Taliban] to release our detained relatives,” she said of her four male relatives still detained by the group.

Holding the blood-stained clothes of her son, Madina has staged a sit-in in Nilli to raise awareness about the killings. She has called for the international community to investigate the incident.

“The blood of our martyrs was shed unjustly,” she said. “They must receive justice. Our guilt should either be established or they [the Taliban] should answer for what they did.”

Copyright (c) 2022. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Afghanistan-Based Fugitive Militant Chief Admits Directing Terrorism in Pakistan

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TTP chief Noor Wali Mehsud

Ayaz Gul
VOA News
December 20, 2022

ISLAMABAD — The leader of an outlawed militant alliance waging terrorism in Pakistan praised his fighters Tuesday for taking several security officials hostage inside a provincial police counterterrorism interrogation center and urged them not to surrender, come what may.

Noor Wali Mehsud, the chief of the Pakistani Taliban or TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan), issued the statement from his shelter in Afghanistan, raising renewed doubts about the sincerity of counterterrorism pledges by the neighboring country’s Islamist Taliban leadership.

“I congratulate you for carrying out this sacred act. I instruct you not to surrender to these infidels and apostates under any circumstances,” Mehsud said.

The TTP released the local Pashto language audio message just hours before Pakistani army commandos launched an operation and rescued the hostages from the compound in the northwestern garrison city of Bannu.

Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, while sharing details with an evening session of parliament in Islamabad, said the counterterrorism center had housed “33 terrorists” when the siege started in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The Pakistan army’s elite Special Service Group (SSG) conducted the operation and killed “all the terrorists,” Asif said. He added that two SSG personnel were also killed, while up to 15 others were wounded in the clashes.

Residents reported they heard explosions and gunfire in the vicinity of the police compound.

Security officials said the operation was launched after multiple rounds of negotiations with “terrorists” to secure “freedom for innocent people” failed to achieve a breakthrough.

The hostage crisis started Sunday, when several detainees at the provincial counterterrorism facility were being interrogated in connection with incidents of terrorism. Some of the suspects managed to grab weapons from security guards before freeing an unspecified number of “high-profile terrorists” from the detention cell inside the compound.

Pakistani police and military forces quickly arrived in a bid to retake control of the facility and free the hostages. Their effort failed and at least one police officer was killed while several others were wounded in a brief gunfight.

The TTP claimed responsibility for being behind the siege. Pakistani officials opened negotiations Monday to seek freedom for the hostages, but the militants refused and instead demanded safe air passage to Afghanistan along with the captives.

The hostage-takers released a video message from inside the compound shortly after they took control of it, demanding the Pakistani government arrange for them “safe air passage” to Afghanistan. Otherwise, they threatened to kill all the hostages.

The TTP, a Pakistani offshoot and ally of Afghanistan’s Islamist Taliban rulers, has stepped up attacks in Pakistan since ending its shaky, months-long unilateral cease-fire with the government last month. The truce was brokered by the Afghan Taliban in talks they hosted in Kabul between TTP leaders and Pakistani officials in June of this year.

The Pakistani Taliban is designated as a global terrorist organization by the United States, Britain and Canada.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price called Monday for the safe release of the hostages, reiterating that Islamabad is an important partner with Washington on dealing with the challenge of terrorist groups.

“There are groups that are present in Afghanistan, in the Afghan-Pakistan border region that present a clear threat as we’re seeing not only to Pakistan but potentially to countries and people beyond,” Price told reporters in Washington.

“So we’re in regular dialogue with our Pakistani partners. We are prepared to help them take on the threats they face,” Price added.

The Taliban rulers in Afghanistan repeatedly pledged to the world they would not provide a haven for transnational terrorists, including al-Qaida and the TTP.

Taliban-led Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi reiterated the pledge while speaking to VOA last week.

“The Islamic Emirate has a policy of not allowing anyone to use the soil of Afghanistan against others and of non-interference in their internal affairs,” Balkhi said, using his government’s official title.

In a bid to address allegations the TTP is using Afghanistan for terrorist activities, Mehsud alleged in his message Tuesday that the TTP controls territories in Pakistan.

“We are fighting our war from within the territory of Pakistan. We do not need to use the soil of another country,” the TTP chief said.

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Taliban’s Administrative Director for Samangan Prosecutors’ Office Killed by Unidentified Gunmen

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Afghan government officials helped smugglers sneak almost $1 billion in cash and gold out of Afghanistan as the US-backed government neared collapse, documents show

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Ashraf Ghani

Business Insider: During the final months of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, as the Taliban advanced on the capital, the elected government struggled to reassure its US patrons that it could maintain control. Yet at the same time, smugglers were illegally carrying hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold out of the country with the assistance of officials from within the Afghan government, according to internal government documents and former Afghan officials.  The office of Ashraf Ghani, the US-backed Afghan president, had been informed about the problem, insiders say. But it did nothing to stop it. Click here to read more (external link).

Women’s Rights Defined by the World, Not Acceptable: Hanafi Says

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M K Hanafi

Khaama: Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, the acting minister of vice and virtue said on Tuesday that the interim regime of Afghanistan is fully committed to respecting women’s rights “defined by Islam”, not that of the world. In a gathering in Parwan province on Monday, Mr. Hanafi reiterated that abiding by Islamic law has been one of the key objectives of their movement. They have struggled for decades to succeed in implementing the Sharia laws, not their personal theories in the country.  This comes as girls’ schools above grade six have been closed since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, and women have been banned from participating in public places such as parks, recreational places and more. Click here to read more (external link).

Idiopathic Disease Outbreak in Zabul Leaves 2 People Dead

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Afghan Taliban Announce New Round of Public Floggings in Defiance of UN Outcry

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
December 19, 2022

ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan’s Taliban have announced fresh public floggings of convicts, both women and men, in defiance of renewed United Nations calls for the Islamist rulers to immediately halt the practice.

The Taliban’s supreme court said Monday a group of 22 individuals, including women, was flogged in a crowded sports stadium in Sheberghan, the capital of the northern province of Jowzjan.

Each was given between 25 and 30 lashes for alleged crimes, including adultery, gay sex, running away from home, drug trafficking and theft, the statement said. The court also reported on Sunday that 11 men and a woman were flogged in central Ghor province for committing similar crimes.

The de facto Afghan authorities have carried out floggings of more than 130 men and women in crowded sports stadiums in several provinces and the capital, Kabul, since mid-November, when the Taliban supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, ordered the judiciary to implement Islamic law or Sharia-based punishments.

The order also led to the first public execution of a convicted murder since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Officials said the execution in the western province of Farah two weeks ago was in accordance with “Qisas [retribution in kind], an Islamic law stipulating the person is punished in the same way the victim was murdered.

The flogging and execution have been administered in stadiums in the presence of senior Taliban officials and members of the public. The top Taliban court in its statement Monday defended the application of Islamic Sharia to criminal justice, saying it is key to promoting “peace and justice” in the country.

UN call for halt

On Friday, a U.N. panel of independent experts said in a statement they “are deeply aggrieved” about the public execution and resumption of flogging in Afghanistan. The panel urged the Taliban to halt immediately what it decried as “inhuman” along with “distasteful and undignified” punishments.

“International human rights law prohibits the implementation of such cruel sentences, especially the death penalty, following trials that apparently do not offer the required fair trial guarantees,” the statement said.

The U.N. panel maintained that at all times, no matter the status of a person, the individual is entitled to dignity and respect.

The Taliban leadership has criticized the outcry over the application of Sharia to criminal justice as an insult to its Islamic religious beliefs and ruled out any compromise on them.

No country has yet formally recognized the male-only Taliban regime over human rights concerns.

The Islamist group previously ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 when Taliban authorities would routinely carry out punishments in public, including floggings and executions at sports stadiums before crowds of spectators.

The Taliban repeatedly assured Afghans and the world at large after seizing power that they would not bring back the polices of the previous rule to govern the conflict-torn impoverished South Asian nation.

The group has reneged on its pledges and placed severe restrictions on the lives and freedoms of Afghans. The Taliban have increasingly excluded women from public life and barred teenage girls from attending secondary schools.

Taliban polices have prompted some in Western capitals to link any engagement with the group to the empowerment of women, tighten sanctions and isolate Afghanistan further. Others warned disengagement could push millions of Afghans into starvation and extreme poverty.

“There is no alternative to dialogue,” Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Anniken Huitfeldt told an audience in Oslo last week while advocating continued engagement with the Taliban.

“We must not look away… No one will be safe if the country descends into civil war or becomes a base for terrorism. That would hurt both the Afghan people and the international community,” she warned.

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