Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Big and Small Extremism

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Big and Small Extremism

Traveling by road from Kabul to Kandahar or vice-versa has always been a painful experience for me. I have been warned by my parents, relatives and friends many times not to travel on this dangerous road where you can often meet Taliban on the way and if they see anyone looking educated, wearing a bit modern clothes or carrying a book or computer, they bring down the person from the vehicle and if they get a small proof that one belongs to the national security forces or works with foreigners or has any link with the government, he is shot down or beheaded on the spot.

In last ten years, dozens of people were either killed on the way or they were taken away and released in exchange for one of their comrades or after the payment of heavy ransom. But I could not give up this dangerous adventure because of two reasons; firstly, Taliban never kill or abduct anyone without doing proper investigation and if a person is neutral and has no affiliations with any of the groups mentioned above, he is released immediately. He is also given some money to compensate for the loss of his time. Secondly, I learn and experience so many things on the way that I cannot get out of the trance of this few hours journey for many days. It is the place where one can see the true picture of Afghanistan which is not possible while living in the artificial world of Kabul.

The road which was the most beautiful highway of the country when it was first constructed some eight years ago has turned into a bumpy track with large number of holes and ditches due to the bomb blasts. After every 100 or 200 yards, there is a hole in the road which forces the vehicle to decrease its speed and take a break. It is the reason why, the distance of almost 300 miles takes almost 7 hours which makes the journey boring and exhausting. Many times it happened that a vehicle got stuck in one of these places and blocked the traffic for many hours.

One gets angry as how blowing the road and bridges can help anyone attain its objectives but then there are so many different stories in this regard. At times, American forces were accused of being involved in these activities because it was not possible for a bare-handed person to dig such a deep hole in the middle of the road and hide the explosives. It needed heavy and sophisticated machinery with which the foreign troops are very well supplied.

Starting from the bus terminal of one city to the bus terminal of the other, the scenes and events are all painful, distressing and many times one’s eyes are filled with tears. In the bus terminals of both the cities, you can find large number of youngsters, with their pale and worried faces, carrying their backpacks, intending to go to Iran and if their luck worked, from there to Turkey and into the Europe. They start their journey with a lot of dreams in their eyes but some of them are killed on the way and many of them are caught and deported to Afghanistan.

They once again start their efforts and try their luck as unemployment and miserable living conditions in the country are no less than getting killed in the mountains of the way or being imprisoned in Iran or any other European country.

Police appears to be tired and exhausted. On this highway, there is not present a day when there should not be any sad incident. The oil tankers and heavy trucks are torched, sometimes an unlucky car or bus meets the roadside bomb in which the vehicle is destroyed and its commuters deceased or injured.

Most painful is the condition of small tunnel-like bridges that were constructed to give way to the rain water but now, almost all of these small bridges have been destroyed by bombs and majority of them have been completely closed and filled by government so that militants should not put their explosives in them. This has disturbed the natural system of distribution of water when villages on both the sides of road got benefitted from rain water.

Once when the road was secure and there were no security threats, billboards were fixed on different places where government or private businesses could put their advertisements but now, these boards have been destroyed and one can see their old and worn out skeleton lying beside the roads. Soon, they will be carried away by the scrape dealers.

Houses near the road have been vacated by their residents and one can see large number of deserted houses from which their owners have managed to take the doors and windows while their walls are still standing. Whenever government forces were attacked by militants, they used to hide in these houses and their residents were sandwiched between the fire of militants and security forces. I also witnessed a deserted mosque which also became the victim of same conflict. I could not digest the good intentions of militants to impose religion when the most sacred and respected element of religion has not been spared of disrespect.

My last sentence should not belittle the importance of lives and property of hundreds of people who had to flee their houses to save their lives. The importance of human lives has been asserted by all the religions but unfortunately, it has lost its meaning in this conflict. Once again, I don’t want to start the controversial discussion of the dirty power game being played in this country by large number of international and regional powers and their puppets have been given the title of religion to justify their acts and also defame the religion itself.

The feelings and condition inside the bus is also not less painful. There are women who have to stay in the bus throughout the journey. It doesn't mean that they can’t come out of the bus but it is really unfortunate that our society treats them like animals and there is not present any facility of toilets and proper place of lodging for them. Their babies cry and they feel really helpless as how to silence them.

On the way, large number of villages and towns pass and one feels pity on their condition. They don’t have any good hospitals or doctors, their lives are void of facilities of electricity and gas, they don’t have any good schools or universities, they don’t have access to internet and other technologies. Not having these things is not a big problem but their difficult lives are really miserable.

All these difficulties are blamed to the religious extremism. It would be really unfortunate if we just nod our head and agree with this because large numbers of international players are involved in this bloody game and this extremism is only a part of their game but I have to make one small request here. Why not our religious scholars condemn this extremism when they see its disastrous and catastrophic impacts? Why they don’t promote all the good things of religion like kindness, good behavior and respecting humans and if they don’t do so, they give space for extremism.

And one more request to the international powers who have taken their self-presumed role of being the policeman of the world. The extremism will not finish by killing large number of people including of both criminals and innocents but by cutting the roots of extremism and terrorism. This will happen by promoting education that will help people understand their religion better and by bringing more economic prosperity which will stop the way of unemployment that has been identified as the main reason of unemployed people joining the lines of terrorists and militants.

(Muhammad Rasool Shah works as Academic Coordinator at Barakat Int’l School, Kabul. He can be reached at muhammadrasoolshah@gmail.com)

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