Worry, despair and more terror attacks in Pakistan: 2 years of Taliban takeover in Afghanistan

August 15, 2023, marks two years since the the Taliban stormed back to power in Afghanistan as US and NATO forces withdrew from the country following two decades of brutal war.

Two Years Since Kabul’s Fall: How life changed for Afghan women since the Taliban took power

Since the takeover of the hardline Islamist group, the country has been isolated globally and is struggling to kickstart its fledging economy. Its series of severe restrictions against women has further pushed it away from international assistance and funds.

India has been slowly gaining ground in Afghanistan on the diplomatic front, and has been towing a fine line between offering assistance in infrastructure projects and humanitarian aid but also reiterating the global position for need of an inclusive government.
Here is a look at 2 years of Taliban rule in Afghanistan:
Taliban in strong position
In the two years, the Taliban have entrenched themselves and face no significant opposition that could topple them.
They have avoided internal divisions by falling in line behind their ideologically unbending leader and they have kept a struggling economy afloat, in part by holding investment talks with capital-rich regional countries, even as the international community withholds formal recognition.

They have also improved domestic security through crackdowns on armed groups such as the Islamic State, and say they are fighting corruption and opium production.
It’s same old Taliban, not Taliban 2.0
As the group stormed back into power on August 15, 2021, its top leaders had tried to woo the international community by promising that they would take a softer approach to social reforms and that the new Taliban administration would be more development oriented.
The promises never panned out.
The Taliban say they are committed to implementing their interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, in Afghanistan.

This leaves no space for anything they think is foreign or secular, such as women working or studying. It’s what drove them in the late 1990s, when they first seized power in Afghanistan, and it propels them now, ever since they took control again.
Their supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has praised the changes imposed since the takeover, claiming life improved for Afghan women after foreign troops left and the hijab became mandatory again.
Foreign governments, rights groups, and global bodies have condemned the restrictions.
The UN said they were a major obstacle to the Taliban gaining international recognition as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. Overseas aid is drying up as major donors stop their funding, pulled in different directions by other crises and worried their money might fall into Taliban hands.
Women and girls pay the price
Their slew of bans on Afghan girls and women that dominated the Taliban’s second year in charge has put a spotlight on their brutal rule.
They barred them from parks, gyms, universities, and jobs at nongovernmental groups and the United Nations – all in the space of a few months – allegedly because they weren’t wearing proper hijab — the Islamic head covering — or violated gender segregation rules.
These orders followed a previous ban, issued in the first year of Taliban rule, on girls going to school beyond sixth grade.
Economy on cliff edge, infrastructure in shambles
The lack of funds, as well as the exclusion of Afghan women from delivering essential humanitarian services, is hitting the population hard, pushing more people into poverty.
Nearly 80% of the previous, Western-backed Afghan government’s budget came from the international community. That money — now largely cut off — financed hospitals, schools, factories and government ministries.

The Covid-19 pandemic, medical shortages, climate change and malnutrition have made life more desperate for Afghans. Aid agencies have stepped into the breach to provide basic services like health care.
Afghanistan is struggling with its third consecutive year of drought-like conditions, the ongoing collapse in families’ income, and restrictions on international banking. It’s also still suffering from decades of war and natural disasters.
The World Bank said last month that the local currency, the afghani, gained value against major currencies.
Customers can withdraw more money from individual deposits made before August 2021 and most civil servants are being paid. The World Bank described revenue collection as “healthy” and said most basic items remained available, although demand is low.
The Taliban have held investment talks with countries in the region, including China and Kazakhstan. They want sanctions removed and billions of dollars in frozen funds to be released, saying these measures will alleviate the suffering of Afghans.
Bilateral ties, the Taliban way
Despite a lack of international recognition, high-level meetings with powerful states like China and Russia aresigns that the Taliban are building bilateral relations in their own way.
Qatar’s prime minister met supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada in Kandahar in June, the first-such publicly known meeting between the supreme leader and a foreign official.
Even though the Taliban are officially isolated on the global stage, they appear to have enough interactions and engagement for ties with countries to inch toward normalization. Cooperation with the Taliban on narcotics, refugees and counter-terrorism is of interest globally, including to the West. Countries like China, Russia and neighboring Pakistan want an end to sanctions.
Terror attacks on the rise in Pakistan
Once Taliban’s clandestine mentor, Pakistan is now growing increasingly incensed with its former ally for providing refuge to terrorists who are targeting its forces with a series of deadly attacks.
In perhaps one of the boldest rebukes yet, Pakistan in July accused the Taliban-led Afghanistan of providing safe haven to terrorists involved in bloodshed in his country. “Pakistan will no longer tolerate this,” thundered then defence minister Khwaja Asif as he warned the Taliban for providing refuge to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants.

The TTP has become emboldened ever since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 after the pullout by US.
In January this year, the group killed at least 100 people in a suicide bombing in the northwestern city of Peshawar — one of the deadliest attacks in its history.
According to reports, some of the Taliban fighters helping the TTP have brought over weapons that the US left behind, including M-16s and sniper rifles with night-vision thermal goggles, the people said.
Hundreds of TTP fighters released from a Kabul prison by the Taliban after the group retook power also returned to fight in Pakistan, they added.
India: Slowly but surely gaining some ground in Afghanistan
While Pakistan is losing its grip on Taliban leadership amid friction in ties, India is slowly, but surely, gaining a foothold in Afghanistan.
India has supplied several consignments of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan and the Indian embassy in Kabul has resumed full operations.
The Taliban has said India’s diplomatic presence in Afghanistan would result in the completion of “unfinished projects” that India had initiated and the commencement of new ones.
Trade between the countries has also flourished of late.

India has not dithered from its position that it wants an inclusive government in Afghanistan that ensures that Afghanistan soil is not used as a safe haven for terrorists. Pretty much in line with what US seeks to achieve in the country.
With a cautious return to Kabul, New Delhi can maintain its ear to the ground and retain its role as a key stakeholder in Afghanistan. More importantly, it will help India keep a check on Pakistan-based terror groups using Afghan soil to pose a threat to India.
US still taking out targets
Despite not having any boots on the ground since August 2021, the US has been carrying out targeted strikes to neutralise terrorists and militant leaders in Afghanistan.
The most noticeable strike took place on July 31 last year.
Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri was killed in a drone strike conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency in Kabul.
The Taliban said that the strike was conducted in the Sherpur area of Kabul on a house owned by a top aide to Sirajuddin Haqqani, a senior official in the Taliban administration.
China, Taliban ties close but transactional only
China has played a visible role in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power in 2021. Beijing is among only a handful of countries to maintain a diplomatic presence in Kabul, where the Chinese ambassador regularly meets with Taliban officials.
There has also been a surge in Chinese traders visiting Afghanistan to explore business opportunities and ink deals.

The Taliban, meanwhile, has boasted of Beijing’s interest in expanding trade and investing billions of dollars in Afghanistan’s mining sector.
Despite the appearance that China and the Taliban are becoming allies, experts say the relationship is limited and largely transactional.
Experts say Beijing’s primary concern in Afghanistan is the threat posed by members of the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) — an Uyghur extremist group that Beijing blames for unrest in its western province of Xinjiang and refers to by its former name, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).
The Taliban has been accused of sheltering Uyghur militants and done little to alleviate China’s security concerns.