The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, according to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, is “breaking the chains of slavery”.
The Taliban, which is recognized as the Pakistan-backed group took over Kabul on Sunday, triggering fears about the return of a hard-core regime that had earlier deprived many sections, especially women, of civil rights in terms of education, jobs, and marriage.
Thus Imran Khan’s statement to welcome back the Taliban rule might have shocked the world when he said, “You take over the other culture and become psychologically subservient. When that happens, please remember, it is worse than actual slavery. It is harder to throw off the chains of cultural enslavement. What is happening in Afghanistan now, they have broken the shackles of slavery”. However, Imran Khan’s statement was no real surprise when Pakistan has backed the Taliban secretly, and now coming out open with it.
The war was concluded with the Taliban riding bicycles, without shoes, and took over the capital, while the Afghan forces fled without a fight!
The last month had been hectic and chaos escalated in the war-torn nation of Afghanistan especially in the last 10 days as the Taliban took over Afghanistan in the space of 10 days and took control of Kabul on Sunday — more than two weeks before the August 31 deadline for complete pullout of the US troops.
President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, conceding that the Taliban had won the 20-year war.
The stunning quick collapse of the government, with the Taliban taking over the presidential palace on Sunday night, had triggered panic in Kabul. Pandemonium broke out at the Kabul airport, where thousands of Afghans gathered, desperate to leave the country, five were shot at by US forces in the chaos, while three Afghans scrambled on the plane tyres and fell to their deaths as the C-17 rose.
The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the Taliban and all other parties “to exercise utmost restraint in order to protect lives and ensure that humanitarian needs can be addressed,” the UN said in a statement.
Imran Khan’s statement seemed paradoxical as the reaction of the Afghanis are anything but looking forward to a reign with the Taliban and the terror exhibited by the Afghans tells another story to the silent watching world.