Majority of the eleven presidential candidates say they back the peace process deeming political solution as the only way of ending the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan. However, their ideas coincides with the current government polices at some points, especially in categorizing the Taliban.
Negotiation with the Taliban was not such a hot debate during the previous two election campaigns, especially in that of 2004. That indicates how the Taliban have resurged after they were ousted from government in late 2001. The Taliban continue to portray their strength by launching terror attacks across the country, even in the heart of capital Kabul. Although the government seems more inclined towards negotiating peace than launching extensive military operations against Taliban, they lack any true intentions to talk. Inconsistent operations against them and the government’s efforts to create a divide among Taliban by attracting their ground fighters through national reintegration program over the past few years have terribly failed.
The presidential candidates follow the policy of the government when it comes to categorization of Taliban. They too, like the government, divide the Taliban into the bad ones and the good ones or the moderators and the hardliners. The basic question that remains unanswered is, “How could the members of a terror group be labeled as good and bad?”
Are the Taliban, who the government says have joined the reintegration program, good Taliban? Indeed no! Hundreds of individuals disguising as Taliban came to High Peace Council (HPC) provincial offices, obtained some financial rewards and then disappeared. The HPC officials even did not realize that they were fake Taliban. Some true Taliban fighters who joined the reintegration program have been reported to have rejoined the Taliban.
The Afghan government has also released hundreds if not thousands of Taliban prisoners over the past few years. Since transfer of control of Bargram Dentention Facility from the US to Afghan government in March last year, hundreds of dangerous terrorists belonging to Taliban have been set free. Were they the good Taliban? The government thinks so but if they had been good why would they be arrested in the first place? Some of the released insurgents have been found planning and executing terror attacks against the ANSF and ISAF. That is in fact a good example of hammering on one’s own feet.
The presidential candidates, therefore, should not follow a failed strategy i.e. categorizing Taliban into goods ones and bad ones. They must come up with better ways of dealing with them and be bold enough to speak against the brutalities, crimes and stubbornness of the Taliban. The Taliban only know how to kill, torture and bomb. It is naïve to expect any goodness from them.