On Monday (August 16), Prime Minister Narendra Modi fulfilled the much-awaited promise, of having ice cream together, that he made to Olympic bronze medalist PV Sindhu. PM Modi had hosted a party for the Indian Olympic athletes at his official residence on 7, Lok Kalyan Marg.
Prior to the Indian contingent’s visit to Tokyo Olympics, PM Modi had interacted with the athletes via a video conferencing link. During his conversation with the ace shuttler, the Indian Prime Minister narrated how PV Sindhu was stopped from having ice creams prior to Rio Olympics. He had asked her whether she was going to refrain from having ice-creams even this time. PM Modi had emphasised how top athletes need to stick to a rigorous schedule and hard work regime.
Image Source: Prasar Bharti
PV Singh had then responded, “Since I am preparing for the Olympics, I have to do some sort of diet control. So I don’t eat ice cream so much, only once in a while.” The Prime Minister had promised her that they would have ice cream together after the competition ended.
While speaking to ANI on August 1, Sindhu’s father PV Ramana informed, “I think she’s coming on Aug 3. I’m planning to go to Delhi. We have to get as many medals as we can for country at Olympics. PM encouraged her & told Sindhu that we’ll eat ice-cream together after returning from Tokyo. Now, she’ll eat ice-cream with PM.”
I think she’s coming on Aug 3. I’m planning to go to Delhi. We have to get as many medals as we can for country at Olympics. PM encouraged her & told Sindhu that we’ll eat ice-cream together after returning from Tokyo. Now, she’ll eat ice-cream with PM: PV Ramana, Sindhu’s father pic.twitter.com/5tChxNm3SG
PV Sindhu created history as she became the first Indian woman to win medals at two Olympic games. She won the Silver Medal in Badminton at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and won the Bronze Medal at the Tokyo Olympics. The ace shuttler defeated He Bingjiao of China 21- 13, 21-15 in the Bronze Medal match. After her historic win, PV Sindhu visited the Kanaka Durga Temple in Vijayawada on Friday to pray for Gold in the next Olympics.
Later, speaking to the media she said that she had set her eyes on the 2024 Olympics and she prayed that she could win the Gold medal for her nation. She also said that she visited the Durga temple before going to the Olympics and won the bronze medal with goddess blessings. After her historic victory, PV Sindhu went back to her hometown, Hyderabad, where she got a rousing reception from her family.
Afghan students flying Afghanistan’s national flag in Islamabad has sent the authorities in Pakistan into a tizzy. According to a report by The Dawn, the Police in Islamabad, Pakistan were put on high alert after it received information that a few students, of Afghan origin, were displaying Afghanistan flags and chanting slogans in the city’s F-9 park and other areas of Islamabad on August 15 (Sunday).
The incident reportedly happened the very same day the Taliban took control over Afghanistan, almost 20 years after being ousted by a US-led military coalition.
Men fly Afghan flags and chant slogans in Pakistan after the Taliban gained control over Afghanistan
According to sources, 8 to 10 young men holding the Afghan flags were seen chanting slogans in F-9 Park. While others managed to escape, the Pakistan police arrested five individuals from different parts of the capital.
On seeing the Afghan boys about to clash with some locals, a police officer approached them. However, the Afghan youth managed to escape, said the report by The Dawn, that added that the police recovered an Afghan citizen card from one of the boys in F-9 Park who belonged to the Paktia province of Afghanistan. The police, however, did not register any case against the students who were picked up.
Afghanistan citizens fleeing the country after Taliban takes over
Meanwhile, chaotic scenes were observed at the Kabul Airport after Taliban managed to capture the capital of Afghanistan. Chaos erupted at the airport with over-crowding of citizens and non-existent security. Passengers were seen waiting at the tarmac of the airport in long queues in the hopes of leaving the country at the earliest.
Videos have gone viral on the internet that shows Afghans hanging on to the tyres of flights leaving the country from the Kabul Airport and then falling off from the sky after take-off. A video that showed some Afghan youths hanging on to the engines of the flight before take-off from the airport has also gone viral on social media platforms.
In a lightning offensive, the Taliban swallowed dozens of cities in a matter of days, and the Afghanistan government collapsed on August 15. In the five years they ruled until being toppled by invading US-led forces in 2001, the Islamist terrorist group Taliban earned a reputation for brutality and enforcement of a harsh brand of Islamic justice. Now, with the militant group returning to power, almost two decades after they were ousted by the United States, fear has gripped the city, with tens of thousands of people trying to escape.
At a time as sensitive as this, the ultra-leftist website The Wire has gone on to provide a platform to Ghazala Wahab, the executive editor of FORCE, who gives legitimacy to Taliban, claiming that they are not terrorists but very much the citizens of Afghanistan.
The journalist, who as per her profile on Linked.in, specialises in writing on terrorism, Jammu and Kashmir, left-wing extremism and religious extremism, tells The Wire’s senior editor Arfa Khanum at around 14 minutes into the interview that the Talibanis are ‘legitimate stakeholders’ as they are natives of Afghanistan, so they should be termed as insurgents and not terrorists.
Source: The Wire/Twitter
Ghazala Wahab is clearly seen legitimising the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan as she says that the Talibanis are not outsiders but residents of Afghanistan. “They are Pashtun Afghanis, the majority population of Afghanistan. This is not the first time that they have come to Afghanistan, they have been residents of Afghanistan. Even if they have lived in refugee camps or studied in the madarsas in Pakistan, they are still Afghanis. So, wanting to uproot them from their native place merely because they are brutal or have a primitive mindset is not only ‘unreasonable’ but also ‘impossible’,” opined the journalist.
Ghazala Wahab seems so casual when she claims that the Taliban are insurgents, not terrorists and that the Taliban, like any other insurgent group, used terrorism before starting the insurgency. “This is common and has been the case in many places across the world”, said the journalist.
Ghazala Wahab does not stop here but goes on to explain why these ‘insurgents’ had to resort to terrorism. Almost trying to absolve the Taliban militants from the violence and atrocities it has heaped on the innocent citizens of Afghanistan, Wahab said that like is the case of others, the Taliban must have also had to resort to terrorism to attract attention and make its presence felt.
“So merely because they are spreading terrorism or oppressing women one says that they (Talibanis) do not have a stake there (Afghanistan) is sheer stupidity”, claims the journalist in conversation with The Wire’s senior editor Arfa Khanum.
It is appalling that though the journalist throughout the interview was soft condoning Taliban, giving it legitimacy by not acknowledging their barbaric behaviour towards religious minorities and women, the Wire’s senior editor Arfa Khanum patiently went on to listen to her.
This, however, is not surprising, considering Arfa Khanum herself had lost her shit when allegedly the ‘Right Wing’ was mocking and trolling Indian Muslims because Taliban has taken over Kabul. She then went on to shame the ‘Sanghis’.
The truth is that a significant section on Twitter are actually not condemning the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban. While some are silently supporting, others are cheering and hoping to replicate the same in India for ‘attaining azaadi’.
Fear and chaos gripped the city of Kabul on Sunday as the Taliban effectively sealed their control of the country, bringing a swift and decisive end to the US-backed Afghan government and the 20-year-long American war in the country.
In a lightning-fast offensive following Joe Biden’s announcement of complete withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban gulped down cities after cities at a ferocious pace, leaving Kabul as the last major city under the Afghan government’s control. But on Sunday, the Taliban terrorists stormed the city and brought it under their control, overthrowing the Afghan government and forcing the embattled president Ashraf Ghani to join an exodus of his fellow citizens and foreigners.
Since the completion, shocking visuals of panic-stricken people wanting to flee the country have surfaced on the internet. Thousands of frantic people, searching for a way out of the country, flocked to the Kabul airport and mobbed the tarmac. Videos that are now doing the rounds on the internet also showed legions of Afghans jostling their way into aeroplanes, with some of them even clinging to the wheels of the planes, in their bid to fly out of the country with the Taliban poised to return to power.
As the Taliban regained their hegemony in Afghanistan, scores of terrorists belonging to the group took to the streets of Kabul brandishing machine guns and white Taliban flags. The Taliban flag consists of a white background with Islamic Shahada depicted on it in black. Interestingly, it is in exact contrast to the one used by ISIS, whose flag has a black background with Islamic Shahada printed in white.
So, does the difference of colour in the two flags means the two terror outfits abide by differing Islamic doctrines? Or is it just a mere coincidence that the two terror organisations have an inverse colour combination in their flags, perhaps to stand them apart? Let’s try to understand what the subtle distinction, if there indeed is any, between the flags of the Taliban and the ISIS mean.
The subtle difference in the flags of ISIS and the Taliban
By their deeds and declarations, both the Taliban and ISIS characterise themselves as followers and promoters of the puritan version of Islam. Both the groups insist that they are undertaking Islamic jihad to establish the supremacy of Islam in the territories they control. The ISIS’ goal of establishing an Islamic Caliphate and the rechristening of Afghanistan as the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” by the Taliban is a testament to the two groups’ fidelity to the Islamic Jihad.
The Taliban, which is markedly older than ISIS, had initially used a plain white flag while warding off the invading Soviet forces during the Afghan Civil War. When it took control of Kabul in 1996 and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the white flag became the national flag of the country, representing “the purity of their faith and the government”. Later in 1997, the Taliban added the Islamic Shahada to their flag.
Taliban fighters pose for a photograph while raising their flag Taliban fighters raise their flag at the Ghazni provincial governor’s house, in Ghazni, southeastern, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Gulabuddin Amiri)
The ISIS, on the other hand, is a relatively recent phenomenon, which rose to prominence after the US pullout from Iraq. One of the reasons it instantly came into notice was its penchant for using indescribable cruelty against what it perceived to be the enemies of Islam, including non-Muslims. The advent of the social media organisations also aided the rise of ISIS, which used the online platforms to the hilt to showcase its bestiality and floated the centuries-old dream of establishing an Islamic caliphate. Pictures of ISIS fighters carrying a black flag with Islamic Shahad on it were regularly shared by the terrorist group.
The Shahada is an Islamic oath, one of the five pillars of Islam and the part of Adhan. It declares belief in the supremacy of Allah and the acceptance of Prophet Muhammad as the messenger of God. The Shahada reads: “I bear witness that no one deserves worship except God, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of God.”
The history of flags of armies of Islamic Caliphates
This declaration of the ascendancy of Islam over other faiths and religions is not a modern-day construct. In fact, it is as old as Islam itself, right from the time of Prophet Muhammad, who had himself led various conquests to spread the message of Islam. According to many historical accounts, Prophet Muhammad himself led a raid and destroyed about 360 idols housed at a site in Kaaba in Mecca.
Following Muhammad’s death, his followers, with the aim of spreading Islam led armed conquest and created caliphates. While many of them approached Europe, Africa and central Asia, a sizeable chunk of them advanced towards South Asia and the Indian subcontinent. In this process, These groups were led by rulers who raised armies with harangues calling upon the faithful to join their ‘jihad’ to establish the primacy of Islam.
These rulers, like every other ruler, had flags to represent their group and their authority. Some of these rulers represented small groups, empires, and most importantly, caliphates that were essentially the Islamic States, established and governed by followers of Prophet Muhammad and his descendants. These caliphates held profound significance, given that they occupied a vast geographical area and used violence and intimidation to bring the entire world into the fold of Islam. Non-Muslim residents of these caliphates were forced to convert to Islam, failing which they were persecuted. Over time, the Arab Muslims conquered a vast expanse of land and built imperial structures to institutionalise the spread of Islam.
While the flags differ, ISIS and the Taliban have a shared aim of achieving Islamic supremacy
The history of flags used by such groups and caliphates provides a pointer to understanding why ISIS uses a black flag with white Islamic Shahada on it and the Taliban prefers a white flag with black Islamic Shahada printed on it.
There are many hadiths that mentioned that even Prophet Muhammad himself used a black flag when he led conquests. Rashidun Caliphate, the first caliphate after Muhammad’s death also used the black flag. According to a report published in The Atlantic, the Islamic State’s flag design was inspired by the flag used by Prophet Muhammad.
On the ISIS flag, “No god but God” is scrawled in white across the top and “Mohammed is the Messenger of God” is stacked in black inside a white circle. The circle’s design was supposedly inspired by a seal of the Prophet used on a set of letters that are now stored in Turkey’s Topkapi Palace. The letters are said to be written on Mohammed’s behalf. Many earlier caliphs in Central Asia inherited the prophet’s seal and it is believed that the Islamic State had aped those ancient caliphs in using the prophet’s seal in their flag.
The ISIS Flag (Image Credit: Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)
However, the Umayyad Caliphate, the second caliphate after Prophet Muhammad’s death, broke the tradition of using black flags and used white ones instead. It is said that the time when Umayyad Caliphate ruled is the time when India was battered by the Islamic invasions from central Asia via Afghanistan.
This could be one of the reasons why the Talibani terrorists identify themselves with a white flag as it was used by the Umayyad Caliphate that is seen as the beginning of the fulfilment of Ghazwa-e-Hind prophecy, which refers to the complete conquest of India by invading Islamic forces. ‘Ghazwa-e-Hind’ is the prophecy that Islam will reign supreme in India one day and remains one of the core objectives of Pakistan as well as Islamists in India.
It is the same prophecy that numerous Islamic terror groups have faith in and what motivates them to wage war against India. The prophecy, apart from warfare, has a bloody history as it led to genocides and other crimes against humanity. On the other hand, the ISIS prefers black flag as it associates itself more with the caliphates that were Iraq and Central Asia-centered in their dominance and control.
As such, Caliphates form an integral part of the Islamic concept of Ummah, which calls for universal Muslim Brotherhood, and the notion of establishing a supra-national community with a common history. It is the manifestation of the fact that all Muslims are one and the same, the difference of nationality being only transient, to be overthrown once the aim of complete Islamisation of the non-believers is achieved.
On the surface, assorted Islamists and jihadists belonging to different terror organisations and groups may appear to be furthering their own goals. But in reality, they all are striving towards bringing the entire world under one Islamic Caliph. Besides, it’s is not just the white or black flags that represent jihadi groups with the aim of establishing Islamic caliphates. Other flags, for example, Turkey’s flag, inspired from the Ottoman Empire’s flag, is red in colour. Similarly, green is another colour that comes up a lot in Islamic history. It was the colour of the flag of the Fatimid Caliphate, the last of the four Arab caliphates.
Whatever be the colour of the flag—white, black, red or green—the mentality remains the same—establishing the supremacy of Islam. And so does the threat to the non-Muslims, who are considered as fair-game by the jihadists to be forcefully converted, oppressed, persecuted, and killed in order to achieve their objective of creating an Islamic Caliphate.
On Monday (August 16), Pakistan PM Imran Khan extended his support to the radical Islamist outfit Taliban, following their takeover of power in neighbouring Afghanistan.
During the launch of the ‘Single National Curriculum’ in Islamabad, he justified the Taliban’s actions by claiming that the Afghan population had broken the ‘chains of slavery’. He also remarked that ‘cultural imposition’ (by the United States) was tantamount to ‘mental slavery.’
While further emphasising the ‘cultural aspect’, he commented, “When you adopt someone’s culture, you believe it to be superior and you end up becoming a slave to it.” He justified such ‘active slavery’ claiming that a mental slave was worse, given that his mind was subjugated and incapable of making big decisions.
Imran Khan and his sympathies for Taliban
In June 2013, when a US drone strike killed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan’s deputy chief Waliur Rehman Mehsud, Khan stirred controversy by referring to him as ‘pro-peace’. Rahman carried a bounty of USD 5 million on his head and was accused of organising attacks against the US and Nato forces in Afghanistan. He was also wanted in connection with a suicide attack on an American base in Afghanistan in 2009 that killed seven CIA agents. Later, he had suggested that the Pakistani Taliban should be allowed to ‘open an office’ in Pakistan to facilitate peace talks.
That’s not all. Imran Khan was also Taliban’s pick as peace talk mediator with Nawaz Sharif government. In 2012 he had even said that Taliban’s ‘holy war’ in Afghanistan is justified by Islamic law while visiting the hospital where Malala Yusufzai was treated a week prior. Malala, then a schoolgirl, was shot in the head by the Taliban in Swat valley of Pakistan in October 2012 for writing against the atrocities of Taliban in Swat Valley of Pakistan. Imran Khan has proved time and again that he is a terrorist sympathiser.
In July this year, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan had described the Taliban as ‘normal civilians’ and conceded that it was not possible for the government to hunt them down. He had justified his statement by claiming that there were more than 3 million Afghan refugees. He alleged, “Why don’t they give us evidence of this? When they say that Pakistan gave safe havens, sanctuaries to Taliban, where are these safe-havens? There are three million Afghan refugees in Pakistan. And Taliban are not some military outfit. They are normal civilians. And if there are some civilians in these camps, how is Pakistan supposed to hunt these people down? How can you call them sanctuaries?”
It is no secret that the Xinjiang autonomous region in China has been running ‘re-education’ camps where millions of Uyghurs are made to denounce their ways of life, religious beliefs and practices. Now, a Chinese woman has come up with a claim that China is secretly running such detention facilities in Dubai also.
Wu Huan, the 26-year-old Chinese lady, who was reportedly on the run to avoid being extradited to China because her fiancé was a Chinese dissident, claimed that she was held for eight days at a Chinese-run ‘secret jail’ in Dubai. She added that she was placed in China’s ‘secret jail’ in Dubai with two other Uyghur Muslim detainees.
Speaking during an interview with The Associated Press from a safe house in Ukraine on June 30, 2021, Wu said she was abducted from a hotel in Dubai and detained by Chinese officials at a villa that they had converted into a jail. Here she saw or heard two other prisoners, both Uyghur Muslims.
The lady who is now seeking asylum in the Netherlands told the media house that she was kept in the detention camp for 8 days and released on June 8 after she being interrogated and threatened in Chinese and compelled to sign legal documents accusing her fiancé of harassing her.
Though persecution of Uyghur Muslims by Communist China in China is a well-established fact, Wu and her fiancé, 19-year-old Wang Jingyu, are not Uyghur but Han Chinese, the majority ethnicity in China. Wang is wanted by Chinese authorities following his social media posts criticising Chinese media coverage of the 2019 Hong Kong protests and questioning China’s conduct in a border dispute with India, as per the report.
The Associated Press report further stated that they were unable to independently corroborate or refute Wu’s statement as she was unable to pinpoint the exact location of the ‘black site’ where she was allegedly detained by the Chinese authorities. However, journalists have seen and heard confirming evidence such as stamps in her passport, a phone recording of a Chinese official questioning her, and text messages she sent from jail to the couple’s pastor, which go to attest her testimony.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its consulate in Dubai were contacted multiple times for a comment on this particular allegation. However, China did not respond. Dubai also ignored the multiple phone calls and requests for comment made with the Dubai Police, the Dubai Media Office and the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
While black sites are operational inside Chinese territory, experts believe Wu’s account is the only proof that the communist government in China has set up a detention camp in another country.
‘Black sites,’ for the uninitiated, are secret prisons where prisoners are not charged with a crime and have no legal recourse. Many such ‘Black sites’, often in the form of hotel or guesthouse rooms, are used in China to deter dissenters from voicing their grievances against the Chinese leadership or for something trivial which might bein violation of orders of the Chinese dictatorship.
Recently, the Chinese authorities had detained more than 170 Uyghur Muslims for questioning after they offered prayers without permission during the occasion of Eid-al-Adha (Qurban Heyt), reportedRadio Free Asia (RFA). The incident took place in Aksu city in Aykol township in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). According to a senior police officer, about 170 Uyghurs under the age of 50 years also offered prayers violating orders. As a result, they were held in custody for flouting the Eid guidelines.
Meanwhile, responding to Wu Huan’s allegations, Yu-Jie Chen, an assistant professor at Taiwan’s Academia Sinica, said she had not heard of a Chinese secret jail in Dubai, and such a facility in another country would be unusual. She did, however, point out that it might be possible considering China’s habit of going the extra mile to ensure that it brings select citizens back, either through official means such as signing extradition treaties or unofficially by revoking visas or by creating pressure on the families back home.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) is set to commence from September 19 this year. With about a month remaining for the onset of the world’s most popular T20 tournament, questions are being asked about the availability of Afghan cricketers such as Mohammed Nabi and Rashid Khan for the remaining matches of IPL 2021.
While speaking about the matter to ANI, Sunrisers Hyderabad CEO K Shanmugam confirmed that both the cricketers will be available for the UAE leg of the 14th edition of the tournament. “We haven’t spoken on what is happening at present, but they are available for the tournament…We are leaving at the end of the month, August 31,” he stated. Reportedly, flight operations had been affected at the Karzai International airport (HKI) amidst the ongoing crisis.
Rashid Khan and Mohammed Nabi are currently staying in the United Kingdom and playing for the ‘Trent Rockets’ and ‘London Spirits’ respectively.
Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen had revealed how Rashid Khan and his family are worried about the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. He said, “There’s a lot of things that are happening at home. We had a long chat here on the boundary talking about it and he’s worried. He can’t get his family out of Afghanistan and there’s a lot of things happening for him. For him to turn up and put on a performance like this under the pressure that he is currently under… for him to be able to forget that stuff and navigate his story and continue the momentum that he has – I think that’s probably one of the most heart-warming stories of this Hundred so far”
IPL to commence from September 19 in UAE
The 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) was postponed in May amidst the outbreak of the 2nd wave of the Coronavirus pandemic. It is set to resume again from September 19 onwards with the opening match between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings. A total of 31 matches will be played in the remaining leg of the tournament. The matches will be held in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Dubai.
Taliban takes over Kabul in Afghanistan
After a month-long offensive against the Afghan army, terrorists associated with the Islamist outfit Taliban finally reached the gates of Kabul on Sunday (August 15). In a statement, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid stated, “Declaration of the Islamic Emirate not to fight in Kabul Praise be to God that with the help of God Almighty and the broad support of our people, all parts of the country have come under the control of the Islamic Emirate. However, since the capital Kabul is a large and densely populated city, the Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate do not intend to enter the city by force or war, but rather to enter Kabul peacefully.”
He further added, “Negotiations are underway to ensure that the transition process is completed safely and securely, without compromising the lives, property, and honour of anyone, and without compromising the lives of Kabulis. The Islamic Emirate instructs all its forces to stand at the gates of Kabul, not to try to enter the city. Also, until the completion of the transition process, the security of Kabul city is referred to the other side, which must be maintained.” President Ashraf Ghani had relinquished his position and has reportedly fled the country.
It is being speculated that Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar will become the new President of Afghanistan under the Taliban regime, while US-based Ali Ahmad Jalali will head an interim government for the time being before the Taliban forms a full-fledged government.
US President Joe Biden has received heavy criticism for going on a vacation while Taliban takes over Afghanistan. While the president of the United States of America enjoys a vacation, chaotic scenes were observed at the Kabul Airport as Afghans seek to flee the Taliban regime.
Under such circumstances, Joe Biden is being mocked on social media for remaining absent from the scene. His political opponents and political commentators alike are mocking him for his incompetence.
Joe Biden has spent only ONE full day at the White House in the last 10 days.
As Afghanistan falls to the Taliban, Biden continues his vacation.
Malaysian man Cheong also mocked the US President for going on a vacation.
As the Afghanistan withdrawal falls into disarray, Joe Biden didn't simply call a lid. He went on a vacation.
— Ian Miles Cheong @ stillgray.substack.com (@stillgray) August 15, 2021
Comedian Terrence Williams called for Republicans to impeach the US President, which appears impossible as US Presidents cannot be impeached for a policy decision.
I’m calling on all Republicans to step and say it is time to impeach Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Articles of Impeachment must be filed!
Joe Biden is on Vacation while America is downhill and #Afghanistan is in chaos
Criticism and ridicule is pouring in from all quarters.
Joe Biden is hardly "on vacation". Camp David has a situation room as good as the one at the White House. Sure beats tweeting on your phone from the golf course.
The criticism has been coming for the past 3 days. Americans are frustrated that their president is busy enjoying a vacation while the country is in crisis.
The Taliban is taking over Afghanistan and Joe Biden is on vacation.
Despite the criticism, Biden has chosen not to end his vacation. Meanwhile, a tragedy is unfolding in Afghanistan with people desperate to flee the country. Some were spotted latching on to the wheels of flights leaving the Kabul Airport and then falling from the sky after take-off.
A lot of criticism is coming the Biden administration’s way for spectacularly failing to predict any of this and taking adequate precautions for evacuating those that need to be evacuated.
Taliban has managed to capture Afghanistan after the US Exit following two decades of warfare. With Taliban returning to power, it is Islamists in India who are having some trouble containing their joy. On Sunday itself, when Kabul fell to the Islamic terrorists, Islamists on a Twitter space heralded their return to power with unbridled glee and joy.
The participants on the Twitter Space included one accused in the Delhi Riots case and another who has been to jail for problematic posts on social media. The riots accused remarked in the space, “Let me give you guys a piece of good news – Ashraf Ghani has resigned. Thanks to Allah! Slowly and gradually, it will lead to the establishment of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (governed by the Taliban). We need to take inspiration from them and learn how to struggle in the pursuit of ‘freedom movement. (Azadi)’.”
The topic of the discussion was, “Are Muslims in India free?” The more dangerous part is the sentiment could be quite widespread in India and we have no way of knowing for sure the extent to which such opinions are endorsed by Islamists in India.
Nevertheless, Islamic radicalisation is a huge menace in our country. Apart from Jammu and Kashmir, where the Islamic Jihad has claimed the lives of hundreds and thousands of people, numerous raids are conducted every month to bust terror groups and their plots against India.
With Taliban in power in Afghanistan, such plots are only expected to increase in the future. It adds a humongous pressure on Indian intelligence agencies to thwart the devious plans of terrorists who wish to unleash hell on Indian soil.
Why India should be concerned
For centuries, it has been known that a traitor within is infinitely more dangerous than the enemy at the gates. And so is the case with India. As much of a threat that Taliban can pose in the border regions of the country, the danger posed by Taliban sympathisers in the country is vastly greater.
The capture of Afghanistan will be and is being viewed by Islamists in India as a victory for Islam. Thus, their faith in their extremist ideologies is likely to receive a further boost in the aftermath of the terrorist group’s capture of Kabul.
Nothing succeeds like success and it is a huge success for the global Jihadist movement. Taliban has provided them with a credible pathway to secure power and their victory will serve as an inspiration to Jihadists elsewhere.
We already have Islamists in India discussing what they could learn from the Taliban. It is only a matter of time before some radicalised youth decide to take the next step and implement what they have learnt from the Islamic terrorists.
The threat posed by Taliban apologists
The danger posed by Taliban apologists, and they are dime a dozen in India, is that any credible action taken to thwart terror plots in the country would be deemed to be an ‘attack on minorities’ and ‘human rights violations’ by them.
Source: Twitter
It is a certainty that such apologists for Islamic extremism will do everything in their power to prevent the Indian Government from taking action against those who pose a threat to the country. It is very much possible that prominent political parties would use the opportunity to play vote bank politics.
We have already seen that happen with the Congress party working over time to invent the myth of ‘Saffron Terrorism’ and some other elements blaming the RSS for the Mumbai Terror Attacks. If history is any indication, then the same events will repeat in the near future.
Partition Horrors could see a repeat
The current circumstances in Afghanistan is quite devastating. Afghans desperate to leave the country latched on the wheels of flights leaving the Kabul Airport and were then spotted falling from the sky after take-off.
Chaotic scenes are observed at the airport as people are desperate to escape the Taliban regime. During the days running up to the eventual fall of Kabul, Taliban fighters reportedly shot Afghan soldiers who had already surrendered.
Women’s rights are under threat as there are reports that Taliban has barred women from carrying on with their jobs in areas they have captured. Female students were prevented from entering Universities after the Islamic terrorists managed to capture the country.
All of this appears distant, events occurring in some far off land but Indians should not lose sight for a minute of the fact that it could very well happen in India as well. Only 74 years ago, the partition riots caused endless strife in the Indian subcontinent and history could repeat itself given Taliban’s return in Afghanistan.
It could happen again if India forsakes constant vigilance. We have Pakistan and China in the neighbourhood and now the Taliban. None of them are our friends and they will attempt to sow seeds of chaos in our country. The only solution, given our neighbourhood, is constant vigilance.
Amidst the fall of Kabul and an imminent takeover of entire Afghanistan by the Taliban, shocking visuals of people making a beeline to the Hamid Karzai International Airport to flee the country have surfaced on the internet. The scare and urgency to escape a Taliban regime is a reminder of the atrocities of the times the Islamic hardliners ruled Afghanistan.
During its heydays in the late 1990s, the Taliban was a force to reckon with, controlling entire Afghanistan. From 1996 to 2001, the Taliban remained in power in Afghanistan until the US invaded the country and brought the terror organisation to its knees.
However, when it was in power, it was known for its strict and unwavering adherence to the medievalist version of Islam and its intolerance towards non-believers, idol-worshippers and even idols. Muslims, who failed to comply with the Taliban’s puritanical view of Islam, were humiliated and punished, and in some cases even killed. Similarly, the non-Muslims in Afghanistan lived under constant fear of persecution in the Taliban regime.
The Taliban orders annihilation of Buddha statues in the Bamiyan Valley
The Taliban’s bigotry towards idol worshipping was most stark in the destruction of Bamiyan Buddhas, the much-revered 6th-century monumental statues of Gautama Buddha carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley of central Afghanistan. It was, by far, the most spectacular attack against the historical and cultural heritage of Afghanistan, evoking sharp condemnation from countries across the world.
The world’s largest standing Buddha statues had survived for a millennium and a half—until the Islamists of Taliban ordered their destruction. On 27 February 2001, Talibani leader Mullah Muhammad Omar, issued a decree ordering the elimination of all non-Islamic statues and sanctuaries in Afghanistan.
The announcement was met with global criticism, with prominent individuals, including the Dalai Lama, raising concerns and asking the Taliban to refrain from destroying the historical heritage of Afghanistan. However, the international criticism did little to dissuade the Taliban from annihilating the statues, which later became a template for the Islamic State fighters to vandalise the heritage sites in Iraq.
On March 2, the Talibani terrorists embarked on their task to blow the imposing statues of Buddha in the Bamiyan Valley into smithereens. A jihad was waged against the two Buddha statues—the one to the east 38 meters high, and the other one to the west, 55 meters high—hewn directly from the sandstone cliffs. Initially, the Talibani terrorists started the demolition of the revered statues with guns and artillery. But, when it proved to be ineffective, they brought in mines and rockets to blow the statues. It took them about 25 days for the statues to be razed to the ground.
Holes were drilled inside statues to plant dynamite: Man who helped Taliban blow up Bamiyan Buddhas
In his interview with the BBC, Mirza Hussain, who was one of those compulsorily conscripted by the Talibani leaders to destroy the statues, described the efforts undertaken by the Taliban to pull down the statues.
According to Hussain, when the Taliban’s attempt to bring down the idols with guns and artillery failed, they brought in explosives by the trucks. The conscripts were then asked to carry the explosives on their backs or in their arms to the statues. Some of them were even ordered to tie the big bombs to long sticks and carry them to the site.
Hussain recalled that men spent three days planting explosives around the statues. He further added that all the wires for detonation went all the way to a nearby mosque from where the explosions were triggered amidst shouts of “Allahu Akbar”.
“The explosion sent a whiff of black smoke in the air as the surrounding smelled of burned gun powder,” Hussain remembered. He also stated that the Taliban leaders had expected to bring the entire cliff down with the explosion but the bombs had only managed to blow off the legs of the bigger Buddha idol.
However, the setback did not deter the Talibani terrorists from persisting with their efforts to bring down the idols. Additional bombs were brought in along with other explosive materials that looked like soap and felt like dough, he recalled.
From that day onwards, Hussain said, the Taliban carried out two to three explosions every day to destroy the Buddha completely. They even drilled holes into the statues to plant the explosives.
When the statues were finally turned into rubble, the Talibani terrorists jumped and pranced around in celebrations. They fired weapons in the air, and brought nine cows to slaughter as a sacrifice, Hussain told BBC in the interview.
After the destruction of Bamiyan Buddha statues, a Talibani supreme leader in his interviews preened on his organisation’s efforts to destroy the Buddhas, stating that smashing idols was in accordance with the Islamic law that calls for the destruction of idols and their worshippers.
In 2003, UNESCO had declared the cliff face as a World Heritage Site, in remembrance of the now destroyed Buddha statues. In 2013, in an event called ‘A Night With The Buddha’, 3-D holograms of the ancient statues were projected on the niches, giving a feel of how the original monuments looked like.
The destruction of the Buddhas has been regarded as a crude symbol of the obliteration of the ancient relics and heritage of the ancient land.
