Afghanistan Is On The Verge Of A Humanitarian Catastrophe. World Should Not Stand As Mute Spectator

Afghan Internally displaced families live in dire condition (Image Source: Getty)

Pulitzer award winning Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui was recently killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. They mutilated his body in signature Taliban style as reports say Siddiqui’s body had tyre marks on his face and chest, and that there were nearly a dozen bullet wounds.

On July 26, Afghan comedian Nazar Mohammad was dragged from his home in Kandahar by Taliban gunmen and tied to a tree. His body was later found with his throat slit. For the insurgents, killing a man who was in the business of making people laugh came naturally. It fits well in their scheme of things — to impose a reign of fear in the minds of people.

The Islamist militia is also learnt to have asked villages to submit a list of girls above 15 and widows under 45 to be “married” off to their fighters as “sex slaves”. Again, signature Taliban.

As the United States leaves Afghanistan and the militia on the way to capturing the embattled country, democracy will suffer with human rights becoming the first casualty. The audacious manner in which Danish and Nazar were killed is an ominous sign of what the future holds for Afghanistan.

It is hardly a surprise that the number of people trying to flee Afghanistan is running into thousands already, with the number exponentially increasing each day. The tragic irony is that the Taliban want the world to see the brutalities as their “Islamic duty”. 

Women and children are worst victims

There cannot be a disagreement that universally, women and children are the worst victims of armed conflicts. The gravity of the present situation can be understood by the fact that more women and children were killed and wounded in the first half of 2021 than in the first six months of any year since records began in 2009, according to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

The state of women and girls in areas under Taliban control is worse than the rest of Afghanistan, which itself has a bleak record. The situation of women is extremely pitiful as the militia imposes a strict, virulent and ferocious version of Shariat, the Islamic law. 

The offence of zina (sexual activity among two unmarried individuals), in particular, attracts violent reprimands.   

The kangaroo court judgments meted out to ‘convicts’ of perceived transgression are horrific. The punishments are worse than what was handed out in the medieval ages and certainly unacceptable to the modern civilised world.

Due to the fear of reprisals and their second-rate status, women as it is do not report incidents of violence against them. As a result, according to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), there exists “widespread impunity for the perpetrators of beatings, killings, torture and other ill-treatment, and corporal punishments”.

Last year, a maternity ward in the Dasht-e-Barchi hospital was attacked by the Taliban, who killed 24 people including newborns, pregnant women and health workers, reflecting the impunity and heartlessness with which the Islamist militants operate.

The Taliban are not alone

The UNAMA reported that teachers, health workers, humanitarian workers, judges, tribal and religious leaders, and state employees have been deliberately targeted and killed. It said the Taliban alone was responsible for 45 per cent of the civilian casualties in the battle-hit country.

The Taliban are not alone, though. The Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP), the Afghan branch of the Islamic State, accounts for 7 per cent of the civilian casualties last year. In March 2020, ISKP attacked a gurdwara in Kabul, killing more than 25 people — majority of them Sikhs, a minority in Afghanistan. 

ISKP claimed the attack was conducted by an Indian ISIS member who was originally from Kerala, confirming reports that suggested ISKP had serious long term India outreach plans.

Children are being recruited for armed fighting by the militia as well as by the government security forces and its allies. These children are victims of several abuses, including sexual abuse. The number of children killed in armed strikes remains very high. ‘Bachcha Bazi’ is a practice that requires serious intervention.

Also, children are frequently used as suicide bombers for what they call “martyrdom missions”. No wonder, UNAMA called it one of the deadliest countries for children.

The disregard for international humanitarian conventions can be well gauged by the fact that the Taliban, in April last year, revoked security guarantees for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) operating in areas under its control without any hesitation. 

After the dispute was resolved in September, the ICRC could resume its operations. 

The Taliban went to the extent of even banning the World Health Organization’s polio vaccination campaigns.

Its record with the media and other defenders of citizens’ rights are equally worrisome. Almost two journalists have been killed every month this year. More than 200 human rights defenders and media representatives reported receiving serious threats. These attacks are aimed at silencing peaceful dissent in the name of puritanical Islam.

The US State department notes that “widespread disregard for the rule of law and official impunity for those responsible for human rights abuses were serious, continuing problems”. “The government did not investigate or prosecute consistently or effectively abuses by officials, including security forces,” it added.

International community should not stand as mute witness

The condition of religious and ethnic minorities in Afghanistan is one of the worst in the world. Most of them have been wiped out, converted or forced to flee. Widespread abductions, especially of women and children, are due to the Taliban’s involvement in human trafficking.

We can well imagine how deeply scarred the country must be with over two decades of armed conflict. These examples are just to point out the humanitarian catastrophe that awaits in Afghanistan. It must be a matter of great concern to all of us that such dehumanisation is getting normalised. The international community should not stand a mute witness to the barbaric crimes against humanity.

I am sure the world will never be able to forget the Taliban’s destruction of the 1,500-year-old Bamiyan Buddhas, a heritage for the entire human race.

The space for dissent and independent voices in Afghanistan is already small and it is bound to shrink further in the event of the Taliban taking control of the war-ravaged nation.

It would even impact the South Asia’s geopolitics, emboldening jihadi terror organisations that may consider Taliban-ruled state as a safe haven and a source of men and material for continuing their violent agenda.

Lashkar-e-Tayyaba has already shifted base to Afghanistan. It has allied with Jaish-e-Mohammed, Afghan Taliban and Haqqani Network to target India’s assets in the country.

An axis of Islam with Pakistan and Turkey along with Afghanistan is a distinct possibility that will certainly seek support from the larger Islamic world whose human rights records are also disgraceful.

In the light of American withdrawal from Afghanistan, the US hypocrisy is only laughable when it warns the Taliban that any government that does not respect human rights and seeks to rule at the barrel of a gun will lack international legitimacy.

On almost every parameter of human rights, Afghanistan seems to be on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe. It is incumbent upon the world community to take urgent note of it. There is a need for like-minded nations to come together and force the Taliban to mend its ways and accept global human rights standards and provide equal rights to women besides allowing full democratic rights to all, including the freedom of the press.

Rahul Kashyap is a former journalist with Press Trust of India (PTI) and also covered Pakistan.

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