The Talibans have declared a national holiday in Afghanistan on Monday to marked the first anniversary of their return to power.
Truthlive.net recalls that exactly a year ago, the Taliban highjacked power after taking over Kabul, Afghanistan’s epic city.
Their invasion brought to an end 20 years of US-led military intervention.
“We fulfilled the obligation of jihad and liberated our country,” said Niamatullah Hekmat, a fighter who entered Kabul on August 15 last year just hours after then-president Ashraf Ghani fled the country.
Following the US withdrawal of its troop, which continued until August 31, pandemonium broke out in the country with thousands of people rushing to Kabul’s airport hoping to be evacuated on any flight out of Afghanistan for fear of the Talibans.
Although the Talibans are yet to make any official announcement regarding celebrations to mark the anniversary, the state television said it would air special programmes.
However, Taliban fighters, expressed happiness that their movement was now in power — even as aid agencies say that half the country’s 38 million people face extreme poverty.
“The time when we entered Kabul, and when the Americans left, those were moments of joy,” said Hekmat, now a member of the special forces guarding the presidential palace.
On the other hand, ‘Life Has Lost Its Meaning’ for ordinary Afghans — especially women — as the return of the Taliban has only increased hardships.
Initially, the Taliban promised a softer version of the harsh Islamist rule that characterised their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001.
But many restrictions have been imposed on women to comply with the movement’s austere vision of Islam.
Tens of thousands of girls have been shut out of secondary schools, while women have been barred from returning to many government jobs.
And in May, they were ordered to fully cover up in public, ideally with an all-encompassing burqa.
“From the day they have come, life has lost its meaning,” said Ogai Amail, a resident of Kabul.
“Everything has been snatched from us, they have entered even our personal space,” she said.
On Saturday, the Taliban fighters beat women protesters and fired guns into the air to disperse their rally in Kabul.
While Afghans acknowledge a decline in violence since the Taliban seized power, the humanitarian crisis has left many helpless.
“People coming to our shops are complaining so much of high prices that we shopkeepers have started hating ourselves,” said Noor Mohammad, a shopkeeper from Kandahar, the de facto power centre of the Taliban.
For Taliban fighters, however, the joy of victory overshadows the current economic crisis.
“We might be poor, we might be facing hardships, but the white flag of Islam will now fly high forever in Afghanistan”, said a fighter guarding a public park in Kabul.
AFP