3 yıl önce

Afghan govt gathers local militias to halt advancing Taliban

Key politicians with background of anti-Taliban or anti-Soviet resistance are converging in their areas of influence to mobilise forces for a likely face-off with the marching Taliban. But rights groups fear such militias could become abusive force.

Reuters

Armed men attend a gathering to announce their support for Afghan security forces, on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan June 23, 2021.

Afghan government has turned to armed militias at grassroots levels with tainted past to push back the advancing Taliban as worries mount the insurgents could retake power in the war-torn South Asian country.

In the wake of the US withdrawal, the Taliban are on a nationwide offensive, overrunning dozens of districts, while the Afghan security forces claim killing more than 100 insurgents in counter-terrorism operations daily.

Key Afghan politicians with a background of anti-Taliban or anti-Soviet resistance are converging in their areas of influence to mobilise forces for a likely face-off with the marching Taliban.

Supportive of the idea is the new Defence Minister General Bismillah Muhammadi, who served as a key commander of the former Northern Alliance against the Taliban in the 1990s.

"Don't worry, we are alive, defending Afghanistan at all costs and not allowing the Taliban to achieve their nefarious goals and re-impose their illegitimate regime on our countrymen," said General Muhammadi in a message on Wednesday.

'Uprising forces'

With the new defence and interior ministers taking charge this week, the process of forming "popular uprising forces" gained momentum.

"We have communicated to the 'jihadi' leaders in neighbouring provinces of Parwan, Kapisa, and Panjshir to provide at least 10,000 men each for resistance against the Taliban," Noor Habib, a militia leader in the northern Jabal Siraj district told Anadolu Agency.

He said needs for arms and other resources would be assessed and the militiamen would be properly registered.

Similar anti-Taliban fronts are emerging in the southern as well as eastern provinces as the Taliban's advance seems more focused on the northern provinces at the moment.

Civilains under government and Taliban rule

According to Long War Journal, an American news website, out of 398 districts in Afghanistan, the Taliban now control 107 while the government controls 92 and some 199 remain contested between the two.

An overwhelming majority of Afghans, nearly 12 million, live in the government-controlled areas, around six million in areas under the Taliban control, while some 15 million people live in the contested areas.

"The entire family of persons providing support to the Taliban would be expelled from the area," said a declaration by the militia forces in the eastern Nangarhar province.

"At least 200 men in Guzara district of Herat have taken up arms and are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the security forces against the Taliban," said the governor's office in the western Herat province bordering Iran.

In the restive southern Kandahar province, described as the heartland of the Taliban movement in the 1990s, a 100-member force has emerged in the Arghandab district.

District Governor Mohammad Sharif Rasuli told Anadolu Agency that the men are well-armed and will be paid a special salary.

"They will be deployed in five key areas of Arghandab, and will fight alongside the Afghan police and the Afghan National Army against the Taliban."

Fears of militias becoming abusive force

Analysts, however, remain skeptical of the drive to form armed militias.

Nezam Uddin, the chairman of the Peace and Human Rights Organization, said that without a robust regulatory mechanism, the distribution of arms and extension of impunity would plunge the country further into a deeper crisis.

"The drive of forming and arming local militias in remote areas away from regulatory mechanism and oversight means anyone can exploit the situation for personal or factional gains in a lethal way," he told Anadolu Agency.

The idea of forming a militia had previously also caused concerns among the rights group, with the Human Rights Watch [HRW] calling for completely scraping the idea.

It warned in a report that such militias with reduced training and potentially less oversight risk being yet another abusive power group operating outside the military’s chain of command.

"The Afghan government's expansion of irregular forces could have enormously dangerous consequences for civilians," said Patricia Gossman, a senior researcher at HRW.

"Instead of creating additional local forces, which are hard to control and prone to abuses, the Afghan government, with the US and NATO support, should be strengthening training and oversight to ensure that all forces respect the law."

Fears gripped Afghanistan's remote districts and countryside where lethal turf wars continued to drive more and more people out of their homes.

According to a US intelligence report, after US forces withdraw from Afghanistan, the Taliban could capture Kabul within a year but its fall is not inevitable and will depend on a much better-run Afghan defence force.

READ MORE: Karzai: US has failed in Afghanistan

Taliban warns against forming militias

On the heels of a stalled peace process and an uptick in violence, the Taliban's Deputy Chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar last week issued a statement to solace the masses.

"We take it on ourselves as a commitment to accommodate all rights of citizens of our country, whether they are male or female, in the light of the rules of the glorious religion of Islam and the noble traditions of the Afghan society," he said in a statement, vowing to establish a "genuine Islamic system" in Afghanistan.

The Taliban also issued a stern warning on Wednesday against those forming the militias.

"Those individuals who are still fanning the flames of war and conflict in the country, arming Arbakis (militias) in the name of defence or exploiting common people in the name of uprisings to maintain their illegitimate hold on power, should know that the attitude of the Islamic Emirate towards them will be stern and they will be deprived of amnesty.

"Hence, they should refrain from engaging in hostile activities and the general public should also stop and not place their children in the service of such war-mongering circles," said the group in a statement.