At least 90 people were killed and hundreds critically injured on May 31 when an explosives-laden truck ripped through Kabul’s fortified diplomatic quarters. The grisly attack took place in Zanbaq Square in Kabul’s 10th district, close to shops and bustling restaurants as well as government offices and foreign embassies. There was no immediate claim of responsibility by any terrorist group. Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Taliban said that the group did not carry out the ghastly attack.
What is increasingly worrying is that the deadly attack took place in Kabul’s highly fortified area which houses major foreign embassies and official quarters. The attack has clearly exposed the incompetence and failure of the underperforming Afghan and highly-trained foreign security forces in terms of safeguarding war-torn Afghanistan from attacks by terrorists and militants.
Since such massive bombings can be prevented by timely intelligence reports, this attack reveals the failure of the Afghan intelligence agency to stop hardcore militants from executing their nefarious designs. The National Directorate of Security (NDS), the Afghan premier intelligence service, said in an irresponsible and possibly Indian-dictated statement, that the Haqqani Network, a Taliban-affiliated group allegedly based in Pakistan, covertly organised the fatal bombing.
This was not the first devastating attack of this year that wreaked havoc on well-guarded Kabul. The Afghan Taliban and the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) carried out some gruesome attacks in the garrisoned Afghan capital. In March 2017, the Sardar Daud Khan Military Hospital in Kabul was attacked by a group of armed gunmen killing at least 49 people and wounding 63 others. Through its Amaq News Agency, Daesh claimed responsibility for the assault.
Terrorists and militants have selected the heavily fortified capital city of Kabul for attacks to signify the ease with which they can target any nook and cranny of the strife-torn country. Such deliberate display of hard power and battlefield successes would also help non-state actors to attract more and more fighters into their folds.
Despite spending over $ 2 trillion since 2001, the US has failed to carry the day against the regionally-funded Taliban in Afghanistan. At present, the insurgent group claims to fully control 34 districts, contest 167, maintain a significant presence in 52 and has a minimal presence in 6 districts. As per credible sources, these Taliban-controlled provinces are clustered with a significant number in the north and south, including large portions in Helmand, Nimroz, Uruzgan, Zabul, Ghazni and Farah.
What is now certain from the 15-year long war is that both the Afghan security forces and 13,000 American and Nato troops stationed in the insurgency-wracked country are highly unlikely to defeat the Taliban. This is due to the fact that Russia, Iran, China and Pakistan have lately ratcheted up their assistance to the Taliban to prevent the IS-K from increasing its terror footprint in the volatile Pak-Afghan region.
The increasing Russian intimacy with the Taliban and the recent gruesome attack in Kabul have arguably provided a clear pretext to the hawks in the Pentagon to persuade the Trump administration to deploy 5,000 more troops to Afghanistan. But, the US should realise that mere deployment of additional troops does not satisfactorily guarantee victory over the Taliban. If it was achievable, then the Obama administration would have gained control over Afghanistan with more than 150,000 combat troops.
Is the US really inclined to defeat the Taliban and bring long-lasting serenity and stability in terrorism-stricken Afghanistan? The answer is a big ‘no’. The protracted war on terror in Afghanistan has helped major America arms companies to amass billions of dollars in sales of sophisticated weapons. The same war has continued to generate ample job opportunities for thousands of American students who complete their graduate courses in security and war studies.
More importantly, the Afghan war has increased the decision-making role of the Pentagon in formulating American foreign policy. This indicates that if the civilian government in the US ever thinks of shutting down the military engagement in Afghanistan, the US security establishment will move heaven and earth to impede such a decision.
The Afghan ruling elite and the security establishment also do not wish to bring the insurgency simmering in their country to a halt. They are fully acquainted with this fact that the war has greatly helped them siphon off massive foreign funds, in the absence of effective accountability system, for their vested and sectional interests. Much of the hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to Afghanistan have ended up in the pockets of the corrupt political elite. The same deadly insurgency has brought major Afghan political figures closer to Washington, thus helping the former to send their children to the US for higher education and search for lucrative job opportunities.
The Kabul Bank scandal in 2011 exposed the involvement of top Afghan political elite in rampant graft. In this mega scam, $850m was lost to fraud at Afghanistan’s biggest bank, and was described by US officials as “the biggest per capita fraud in history”. The bank’s shareholders were mainly from the country’s political elite, and included corrupt cabinet ministers, MPs and powerful warlords. The bank’s executives spent $160m alone on 35 luxury villas in Dubai, many of which were registered in the names of shareholders.
An investigation was conducted during the Karzai government to identify and arrest those involved in the mega money laundering case. Khalilullah Ferozi, the former executive of the bank was sentenced to five years in prison. He was, however, released in 2015 by the National Unity Government so as to sign a $900m real estate project with the Afghan government. He still has several years to serve on two different sentences and owes more than $300m in embezzled funds, interest and fines.
The increasing level of graft in Afghanistan can also be gauged from the recent incident when President Ashraf Ghani tasked Maj. Gen. M. Moein Faqir to clean up corruption in Helmand province. The General himself was booked in March last year on charges of misappropriating food money meant to be supplied to his soldiers.
Widespread corruption and favouritism have continued to permeate all Afghan security and administrative institutions. Most of the corrupt Afghan politicians and top military officials treat both civilian and military law enforcement agencies as their personal forces to recruit their kit and kin. That is why the Afghan National Army has proved to be largely impotent to clamp down on even minor terrorist and militant groups.
Since the US currently seems non-serious about lasting reconciliation and resultant stability in Afghanistan, the latter is likely to reel under disruptive terrorist and militant attacks. As a result, the simmering instability in Afghanistan will continue to have adverse security impacts on the already terror-infested Pak-Afghan region.
Some major regional powers consider Afghanistan a battleground to wage proxy wars against their enemies. Though the US dropped MOAB to destroy sanctuaries of the IS-K jihadists in Nangarhar province in April this year, Washington is widely believed to be providing leeway to the IS-K so that the militant group can spillover into the Russian and Chinese backyard. To counter this American move, both Russia and China have of late increased their backing to the Afghan Taliban.
The Indian tug of war against Pakistan for increasing economic and strategic foothold in Afghanistan has further complicated the already deteriorating militancy landscape of the country. The supremacist Modi government has brought Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the NDS under Indian influence. Under Indian thumb, the NDS has been providing safe launching pads to the fleeing fugitives of the Pakistan Taliban in conflict-torn eastern Afghanistan with the malicious intent that these terrorists will continue creating debilitating insecurity and instability inside Pakistan. What the crisis-ridden Afghan government should not forget is that by allowing India to sponsor, train and arm Pakistani terrorists and insurgents has thus far backfired and further exacerbated the already convoluted insurgency landscape of war-battered Afghanistan.
Since peace and political stability in Afghanistan are vital to the greater security of Asia, all major regional countries along with the US should shun their differences over Afghanistan and formulate a joint strategy to counter militancy and terrorism while cleansing the Afghan political set-up of massive corrupt practices. It is of paramount importance that the international community must not permit India to employ the Afghan soil against Pakistan. Such Indian designs will impede all efforts at lasting peace, stability and socio-economic prosperity in Afghanistan.
