RAMESH MENON
The anxiety about Afghanistan increases by notches every day.
What are the signals that the new government is sending?
Hardliners are heading the State. Nearly 70 percent of them are designated terrorists by the US or the UN.
Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan, who is on the UN terror list, was one of the founders of the Taliban.
He is the one who ordered the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas twenty years ago.
He is clearly ISI chief Lieutentant General Faiz Hameed’s choice.
Hameed flew into Kabul to ensure Pakistan’s interests were safeguarded.
Predictably, the new PM is not well disposed towards India.
Moderates who seemingly spoke a different language in the Qatar capital of Doha like Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, while peace talks were on between the United States and the Taliban, have been sidelined.
A Pakistani imprint on the new government is more than clear.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, a designated global terrorist with the US offering a reward of $5 million, is now Afghanistan’s interior minister.
Sirajuddin is the son of warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani and was reportedly responsible for the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul in 2008. He is close to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence.
Information Minister Khairollah Said Wali Khairkhwa, who is known to have been close to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, was a detainee at Guantanamo Bay. The US was forced to release him to rescue one of its abducted soldiers, Bowe Bergdahl.
Finance Minister Maulvi Hidayatullah Badri is another UN-designated terrorist. He is known to have close connections with drug cartels. Drugs bring in huge revenue to Afghanistan. There are no indications that this will change.
There are no women ministers.
That eloquently spoke of how the earlier talk of ensuring proper representation and inclusivity was just hot air to pander to immediate international sentiment.
Twenty years of war should have ended lighting up a new road to prosperity, peace, and a new history.
But, after over 300,000 casualties and inexplicable collateral damage, both physically and mentally, Afghanistan today is is caught in the tentacles of chaos, fear, and pain.
Every citizen sees question marks before them as the future is uncertain.
