Afghanistan: Taliban enter Kabul; Ghani exits country

After attempting to reassure Afghans of no revenge the Taliban have entered Kabul, gunshots were heard in the city and their spokesperson tried to put the Afghan people at ease by saying they are awaiting a peaceful transfer of power and the properties and lives of Afghans in the city would remain safe.

Facing no resistance from Afghan forces, they overran the city jail, Afghanistan’s largest prison and freed all the prisoners. According to some reports, the senior leadership of the Taliban have also reportedly told their fighters to refrain from looting and ensuing chaos, as the Afghan troops were nowhere to be seen and offered no resistance.

Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan President reportedly left the country the minute Taliban reached the city premises. Already under pressure to resign and after addressing his nation promising to remobilize his forces to stop the “imposed” war, Ghani has left drawing the ire of Afghans trapped inside their own country.

Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in under 10 days and Ghani was seen holding talks with northern warlords to garner support and turn them into allies in the fight against the Taliban, also replacing the army chief in a bid to bring a more promising strategy which obviously backfired as the already battered Afghan forces started dropping arms even faster, thus resulting in the loss of more ground.

The Taliban strategy which started by the takeover of the rural areas of Afghanistan then switched to the second phase. Afghan forces of over 250,000 bodies with modern equipment were taken off-guard by the lightning speed at which the Taliban captured provincial capitals, tightening the screw and edge closer to power.

The Ghani Administration lost power the minute the Taliban started imposing their own taxes at the major trading routes, while also choking them to filter out government supporters and the Afghan soldiers slowly cornered in various regions started fleeing to other countries in fears of being executed and some even joining the Taliban.

Consequently, all the modern equipment that the Afghan forces had went to the Taliban with some warlords even dishing out strategic intel in order to take out other rivals.

Ashraf Ghani’s intent to arm militias had the World on edge and if he along with other warlords rule out a deal for a peaceful transition or interim setup then another civil war is just around the corner. If the government forces and warlords now break into groups and start skirmishes against the Taliban then we would see them trying to defend Kabul and the forces attacking them trying to retake their respective regions that fell within 10 days.

Afghanistan has always been under the control of sundry warlords and the Taliban, all hating one another with their areas being off-limits for “outsiders.” If the militias led by their warlords now decide to exact revenge and reclaim their lost land, then we will definitely see more suffering being inflicted upon the Afghan people and the never-ending war will continue. The north has never tolerated the south and Rashid Dostum along with the other warlords have remained quiet as the Taliban captured their respective regions and their strongholds.