Once again, Kabul was turned into a bloody scene as a result of a brazen attack by the Taliban. Sixteen people lost their lives, including six Indian doctors, who worked in the Indira Gandhi Children Hospital in Kabul.
Contrary to the January 18 attack when government buildings were targeted, this time the Taliban suicide bombers attacked two guesthouses — Arya Guesthouse and Park Residence — located in the posh area of Shahre-Naw in the capital Kabul. Foreigners usually stay in these guesthouses.
An Italian diplomat and a French filmmaker, who were at the guesthouse at the time of the attack, lost their lives.
After the attack by the Taliban in last January this year, when allegedly 12 people were killed, there was a relative solace in Kabul. However, the attack in Park Residence guesthouse showed, until there is a complete peace established in the country, that such gruesome events will be a possibility in the time to come.
It is not the first time that the Taliban target foreigners in Kabul. In July 2008, a suicide attacker rammed his car into the front gate of the Indian embassy in Kabul, killing 60 people and wounding dozen others.
Similarly on October 8, 2008, another suicide attacker detonated a car that was packed with explosives in a market near the Indian embassy in Kabul. Seventeen people were killed and more than 80 injured.
Last August, after the completion of the first round of elections in Afghanistan, when the second round of elections was scheduled to be conducted between incumbent Hamid Karzai and presidential hopeful Abdullah Abdullah, the Taliban suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the UN guesthouse in the heart of Kabul.
Five UN staff and foreign election monitoring workers, who were staying there, were killed as a result.
According to media reports, after the recent attack in Kabul, the Kabul Police Chief Abdul Rahman Rahman and Criminal Investigation Chief Abdul Ghafar Sayed Zada have submitted their resignations to Hanif Hanif Atmar, minister of internal affairs of Afghanistan.
However, their resignations have not been approved yet.Instead, the minister has ordered further probe into the incident.
On the other hand, the Kabul attack comes at a time when the US and the NATO military operations are going on against the Taliban in Marjah, Helmand province, where both sides — Americans and Taliban — are making claims of victories.
Hardliners Boost
With Mullah Bradar in detention, the possibility of negotiation has thinned out.
It seems that the hardliners among the Taliban are gradually taking the helm of affairs. This is after Taliban’s leadership recent endeavor to moderate their policies. Last year on the eve of `Eid Al Fitr and `Eid Al-Adha, the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, had adopted a pragmatic stand, which was a drift from his previous posturing. He had stressed in his `Eid message:
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan wants to have good and positive relations with all neighbors based on mutual respect and open a new chapter of good neighborliness of mutual cooperation and economic development.”
He was wishing regional countries and the world would reciprocate. But neither the regional countries nor the world made any gesture after the `Eid messages.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Bradar, deputy to the Taliban leader Mullah Omar, who was arrested in Karachi by Pakistani authorities at the beginning of February, had a major role in formulating the new policy approach. He was heading the political wing of the Taliban and believed that their movement could reach the objective of ending the foreign occupation in Afghanistan through negotiations.
After Mullah Bradar’s arrest, this contact point is no more. Abdul Salam Zaeef, former Taliban ambassador to Islamabad, who is now under house surveillance in Kabul, says, “The world has lost a contact conduit for negotiation.” He says, after Bradar, “there is the Taliban address to contact.”
Possibly, his arrest will also catalyze the transfer of power from the political leadership of the Taliban to its field commanders. It means, the Taliban as a whole will become more hawkish and will rule out the negotiation with the Kabul government. Instead, they will focus more exclusively on their militaristic strategies, increasing tip-and-run and suicide attacks.
There was apparently differing views among the field commanders and political leadership of the Taliban, regarding negotiating with the Kabul government. The Taliban commanders believe that talks with the Kabul government is a waste of time because Kabul has no power to implement its decision without the consent of Washington.
They argue Washington still follows a violent approach in Afghanistan and has not come out with a sole strategy for reconciliation but contrarily stress on the Taliban to lay down arms and accept the current constitution of Afghanistan. However, the Taliban’s political leadership argues that the Islamic Emirate (the Taliban) should have both diplomatic and military strategies — whether the opposing side reciprocates this by similar measure i.e., framing a parallel strategy or not.
Possible Future Attacks:
The Kabul attack is a sign of Taliban’s frustration with Kabul’s reconciliation process.
With Mullah Bradar in detention, the possibility of negotiation has thinned out. It is almost certain that the Taliban commanders will flex their muscles in the future by launching more attacks in the cities for publicity reasons and to disturb and panic the Kabul regime.
It has also become now a trend that many observers ascribe every attack in Kabul and the provincial centers to the Haqani group. However, this can’t be true. There are other groups of suicide bombers among the Taliban who launch audacious attacks.
According to Mullah Omar’s last year instructions sent to all shadow governors appointed by him in Afghanistan, no group can launch attacks without a consultation and consent of a relevant governor. The Haqani group is operating in Paktya Province. They can’t launch attacks on Kabul independently without consent and consultation of the Taliban leadership and Kabul shadowy governor. It is the governor to determine which group should launch the attack.
Similarly, the most recent Kabul attack is a sign of Taliban’s frustration with Kabul reconciliation process where they see no real serious responses to their continuous offers for a realistic solution to the dilemma. In the meantime, we can expect Kabul to be bloody once again in the near future as the possibility reconciliation fades away.
Courtesy: IOL