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Story : Eric Albert
Photos : Piyavit Thonsa-Ard |
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"Yes, we are supporting the Taliban," Rahimullah says. As an Afghan refugee living in Pakistan, Rahimullah sheds some light on the perspective of Afghan refugees still sympathetic to the Taliban. "At least," he muses, " they brought peace inside Aghanistan." Indeed, in 1994, when the Taliban Movement was born, Afghanistan was almost totally destroyed by the civil war waged by the various mudjahadeen factions - during that time, rapes, murders and robberies were common. In stark contrast, the religious students of the Koran, referred to as the Talibs (Taliban is the plural), although to some quite repressive, were more organized and disciplined, and they brought with them a message of order and stability. Within a mere two years, the Taliban were able to seize the capital city of Kabul, finally controlling 95% of Afghanistan. "But I still don't know if we'll go and fight to defend them," Rahimullah carefully adds. |
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To the two million Afghan refugees in Pakistan living in such border cities as Peshawar, who were party to the grief and conflict of decades of fighting and instability, the Taliban did represent some sort of relief. Taken at least in that context, the strikes on Afghanistan in retaliation for the terrorist attacks on the United States, disrupted that period of relative stability...
In the 200 religious schools in Peshawar, students aged roughly 12 - 20 sleep, pray and learn in the same room, with no beds or tables, and only carpets on the floor. Afghan refugees unsurprisingly represent the majority of the students - the school is free, and housing and food has been taken care of. Many analysts accuse these schools of garnering support for the Taliban. Mullah Mohamed Hajed, Director of one of these schools, sees otherwise, "we are only teaching religion here. But if the students want to go and fight, we cannot stop them." Itisham, 18, agrees, as he himself, fervently dreams of joining the training camps in Afghanistan. |
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Although the level of conviction in the minds of these young would-be warriors is high, and the majority of the Afghan refugees seem sympathetic to the Taliban, the actual unfolding of events following the strikes on Afghanistan have not yet confirmed masses of popular support for the Taliban. Still, the threat of an engagement of warring troops on the ground remains, as does anxiety over definite victory for American and British forces trying to usher in a sense of security at the end of this current reign of terror. The outcome is dependent now, on how much real support the Taliban commands from both within and outside of Afghanistan, and how strongly the US and Britain can justify their continued campaign against a country that has already suffered so much.
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