Below these commissions are the local officials in charge of managing regular, everyday affairs. He is the head of the council that administers about a dozen commissions in charge of areas like health, finance and education. Secondly, the Taliban are well organized under the leadership of Haibatullah Akhundzada. And all these had to be enforced through violent means. This is the most prominent feature of the Taliban ideology that prescribe an orthodox-centered religiosity, restricted cultural practices and expressions, zero regards for human rights, women’s education and empowerment, restricted entertainment and sports activities, and no artistic expressions. TVs and VCRs were destroyed and possessions like these were subject to public punishments, hence many Afghans had to bury these in their backyards. They also destroyed different universal, cultural heritages despite the international outcries. Gross human rights violations and abuses in different forms were the everyday practices of the Taliban. Music and cinema were banned, cultural and artistic expressions were subject to torture and killing. Children were not allowed to play football. Men had to grow beards, women’s mobility and education were totally banned. punishments based on the interpretations of the stricter Sharia laws imposed by their Islamist leaders. However, their popularity saw a demise among the Afghans, due to following tactics of capital punishments, public executions, amputations, etc. What lies at the core of the Taliban ideology, has it changed over the years?įirstly, their ideology, rhetoric, and political narratives got popular for a brief period due to curbing corruption, disorder, and for establishing secure areas and roads for business and commercial activities. With more than 85,000 full-time fighters and training bases and cross border supports from Pakistan, and its state military the Taliban ensured a military victory in Afghanistan. The US has spent trillion dollars on the war and reconstruction projects. More than 40,000 Afghan civilians, at least 64,000 Afghan military and police and more than 6,000 US troops and more than 1,100 NATO soldiers were killed. What followed were decades of devastating conflict. After that, they went into hiding in the remote villages and carried insurgent attacks on the US-backed government, the US and NATO troops in Afghanistan. The Islamist group controlled Afghanistan from 1996 until the US-led war in 2001 under the name of Emirate. They promised to establish a regime characterized by their version of Sharia laws. The Pashtun movement came out from the religious seminaries, paid by the Saudi Wahhabi ideologues who prescribe a hardline version of Sunni Islam.
The emergence of the outfit traced back to the early 1990s in the northern part of Pakistan, as resistance fighters against the Soviet imperialism. The word literally means ‘students’ in Pashto.
In this context, it is worthwhile to ponder a critical strength of the Taliban – ideology and tactics.
Immediately after the announcement of the withdrawal of United States troops, they launched offensive attacks on the Afghan military and expanded their control rapidly and achieved a military victory by mid August 2021 that is a shocking surprise even to the US, the superpower equipped with most sophisticated and perhaps largest network of intelligence in the world. They have become more brutal since the US troops withdrew from Afghanistan the longest war America’s troops ever fought on foreign lands. However, they did not change their rhetoric, ideology, and political ideas over these years despite the political contexts have changed. They have adapted their tactics to commit violent acts to achieve political goals. They came stronger in the recent times and finally captured power on 15 August 2021 with the fall of Kabul. The Taliban have fought against the Afghan government and its allies for twenty years.
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