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column foreign affairs

Afghan crisis deepens

amid political chasm

President Ashraf Ghani takes oath for the second term but his
far & wide main rival Abdullah Abdullah refuses to recognise the inauguration,
Gopal Misra holding his own swearing-in ceremony and adding to the political chaos

midst the two swearing in for held to commemorate the assassination
A New Delhi-based the office of the president in of the Hazara leader, Abdul Ali Mazari,
independent Afghanistan, the main rivals when the powerful bomb explosion hit
columnist offers an Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah the crowd He fortunately escaped unhurt.
in-depth study. The A Abdullah have claimed their If the two leaders do not reconcile, the
views expressed are respective victory. It has happened in spite civil war within Afghanistan may further
his own of the US efforts that too when the aggres- aggravate. Of the total population of the
sive Sunni Muslim terrorists renewed their country, Pashtuns are almost 40 per cent,
attack on an ethnic minority, Hazara, fol- Tajiks are 36, Hazaras and Uzbeks are 10
lowers of Shite Islam. The violence killing and eight per cent respectively.
more than 30 people on the spot and an- The standoff between the two lead-
other 42 wounded, including 20 in critical ers is not only ill-timed, but it may again
condition took place within a week of the cause anarchy in the country. It reminds
much trumpeted USA-Taliban Accord of of the Communist rebels successfully
February 29 at Doha. The political situation overthrowing President Sardar Moham-
is worsening in the war-torn country.
The attackers now identified as, Islamic
State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL) or Islamic
The Kabul blast State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS). It is known
fact that Taliban, Al Qaeda and Pakistan’s
of March 6 reminds intelligence service, ISI, work together. In
us of the brutality this context, India’s worries have increased
manifold. The sharp division within the
when Niazi did Afghanistan government, the president
Ghani and the Chief Executive, Abdul-
not allow anyone lah may delay the implementation of the
to bury the Accord.
The Kabul blast of March 6 just reminds
corpses for the the brutality when Niazi did not allow med Daoud in 1978. Following the death
first six days. The anyone to bury the corpses for the first of Daoud, Nur Mohammed Taraki, head of
the Afghan Communist Party, took over
six days. The bodies were rotted in the
perpetrators of summer heat and were eaten by dogs. The the presidency. In September 1979, Taraki
the crime went perpetrators of the crime systematically was himself overthrown and murdered
went door to door of Hazara households
the orders of his deputy, Hafizullah Amin.
door to door of searching for young men shooting them Three months later, Soviet troops
Hazara households and slitting their throats right in front of crossed into Afghanistan and installed a
government acceptable to them. It led to
their families.
searching for young It is interestingly to note that both the killing of Amin and the installation of
men, shooting Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah belong to the pro-USSR Barbrak Kamal. Nine years
Pashtun tribe. Since Abdullah’s mother
later, USSR leader Mikhail Gorbachev
them and slitting was Tajik, which makes him much more withdrew the Soviet forces in 1988.
acceptable among the minorities. He was
their throats present on March six, at a Kabul function letters@tehelka.com

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