Moderate, extremist, dependent, independent — the many avatars of Afghanistan’s Taliban

Taliban, which lost power in Afghanistan in 2001, is violently capturing territory as US presence draws down to a close.

File photo of an Afghanistan defence operation against Taliban | Twitter/MoDAfghanistan

New Delhi: The Taliban is on the rampage in Afghanistan, in the wake of the US gradually withdrawing troops from the country.   

The Islamic fundamentalist group, which lost power in the country in 2001, is making headway in several areas in the war-torn country while it continues with its violent ways — footage emerged Tuesday of Taliban fighters executing Afghan commandos last month. 

This even as efforts are being made by the international community, especially the US, to bring the Taliban into mainstream politics under a democratic process in Afghanistan.

But much has changed in the Taliban since it last held power in Afghanistan in 2001 in terms of its negotiating skills and ability to rub shoulders with governments around the world even though its ideology remains the same.

For one, there is little trace of the old guard as many have been killed by international troops.

The Print takes a look at how the Taliban has evolved in the last two decades, with US troops set to leave the country by 31 August, marking an end to the 20-year “unwinnable war”.

Taliban’s downfall and resurrection

The Taliban’s main objective has always been the creation of an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which the group believes is the legitimate right of the Afghan people. 

The Taliban is composed mainly of members from the Pashtun ethnic group and was ousted from power in December 2001 during the US’ war on terror that was not directly aimed at the Taliban but al-Qaeda terrorists.

The Taliban, then led by Mullah Mohammad Omar, also one of its main founders, was accused of providing sanctuary to Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda terrorists believed to be behind the 9/11 attacks. Mullah Omar went into hiding until his death in 2013, which was only announced in 2015.    

As US troops landed in the country, the Taliban began to retreat. In June 2002, a transitional government under President Hamid Karzai came to power in Afghanistan. 

The Taliban took to insurgency, particularly in Helmand province, and received a major setback in 2007 when Mullah Dadullah, its then top operational commander in southern Afghanistan, was killed in combat.

It was not until 2012 that the group emerged from the shadows once again and opened an office in Doha, Qatar. 

As the Taliban expressed interest in holding peace talks with the US for a political settlement in Afghanistan, hopes of a reconciliation surfaced.

This was followed by several key developments — then US President Barack Obama announced in 2014 a plan to end the war and withdraw his country’s troops by 2016. 

In the same year, a unity government assumed power in Afghanistan under a power-sharing deal between Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his opponent Abdullah Abdullah, who is now the government’s key peace and reconciliation leader.

Taliban of 2021 – two decades after 9/11

Since 2012, the Taliban has also rapidly strengthened. Its top brass, however, underwent a change in 2016 when then chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed by US forces. 

The leadership was passed onto his deputy, hardline religious scholar Hibatullah Akhundzada, who continues to hold the mantle to this day.

In May 2021, as the peace talks under the intra-Afghan dialogue began to collapse, Akhundzada, who hails from Kandahar, gave a clarion call to all Afghans to unite for “redevelopment” of their homeland with international troops leaving that country.

Outside of Afghanistan, the Taliban’s external face is Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, their chief negotiator, who has been heading their Political Office of the Islamic Emirate in Doha since 2019.

Baradar is one of the co-founders of the Taliban who established the group in 1994, along with Omar. It was Baradar, also known as ‘Brother’, who signed the so-called peace deal with Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy for Peace in Afghanistan, in February 2020.

In April this year, one of the Taliban’s high-profile commanders, Mawlawi Ahmad Kandahari, who was their second-most prominent figure, was killed.

How different is the Taliban of today from that of the 90s?

Experts say the Taliban of today is much more fragmented than the Taliban of the 1990s while they continue to remain as fundamental and violent as they used to be.

“The division within the ranks of the Taliban is in the form of moderate Taliban, extremist Taliban, independent Taliban, dependent Taliban… There is no other form,” Jayant Prasad, former Indian Ambassador to Kabul, told ThePrint.

Prasad, who is also a former director general of the Delhi-based Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, added that there is an “easy cohabitation between the Taliban, ISIS and the Haqqani Network”. 

“They are all part and parcel of the same ethos and they have stayed together and are in the fight together,” he said. “Once they get established in Afghanistan, there will be some play between them and Pakistan.”

“It needs to be remembered that the gains that the Taliban is making on the ground in Afghanistan are ultimately helping them in getting more negotiating power in the Doha talks,” Prasad emphasised.

According to a research paper by the United States Institute for Peace (USIP), even as the US military and its NATO partners were struggling to contain an increasingly resurgent Taliban a decade ago, a narrative had already firmly taken root within the international community that it might be possible to exploit the supposedly fragmented nature of the Taliban and to prevail over it with military force alone.

“The Taliban is no more a monolith. It has various branches, groups, affiliations today. But yes, this is true that they are all working towards the main objective of having their dominance in Afghanistan,” a former R&AW officer who was posted in Afghanistan told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity. 

“Baradar has strong links with Pakistan, particularly the Haqqani network and the LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba). The old guard is now somewhat marginalised,” the officer added. 

(Edited by Arun Prashanth)