The recent siege and takeover of Kunduz by the Taliban forces was seen as a military as well as a political victory over the Afghan and ISAF forces. In fact, it was seen as an indication of the strategic failure of the ISAF as it happened less than one year after the drawdown of U.S. and its allied forces. Most alarming is the fact that only 500 Taliban fighters drove out over 7,000 Afghan National Security Forces from Kunduz in less than a day without any sturdy resistance. In a broader spectrum, this raises questions about the success of the U.S. and Afghan forces in the near future as many analysts believe that the fall of Kunduz has shattered the mirage of stability, security and an inclusive peace process.
The takeover also proves that the Taliban are still highly effective and retain the power to capture many other major cities. The northern province Kunduz has remained a stronghold of the Afghan Taliban. Surprisingly, the incident occurred at a time when the US military strategists were exploring a variety of options about the number of the troops that would remain in Afghanistan beyond the withdrawal deadline of 2016. However, the Afghan security officials claim that the Taliban insurgents have been pushed backward and the parts of Kunduz city have been cleared.
General Abdul Rashid Dostum, the first Vice President of the Afghanistan, also claimed that the government was aware of the plans of the Taliban attacks on Kunduz, Faryab, Helmand and Kunar provinces. “The people in these areas should not think that we are careless and obviously we are ready to prevent their further penetration in other areas in the coming future”, he further claimed. During his recent visit to Russia, General Dostum emphasized that the Russia should help them by providing the Afghan Security Forces with military equipment such as attack helicopters and long-range mortars and other latest weapons to counter the Daesh and the Taliban militants.
Previously, the Taliban insurgents had attacked a prison of Ghazni province and had released more than 350 most wanted Taliban insurgents and commanders. As a consequence, it has further aggravated the situation and has raised serious concerns about the prevalent impulsive security situation in the country.
For some, the partial failure of the Afghan strategy is also because the U.S. and its allies have largely been relying the corrupt warlords, drug lords and corrupt politicians. Also, the current Unity Government under President Ashraf Ghani is still divided on many issues.
As a result, peace in Afghanistan in the near future seems obscure. The peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government could not reach any fruition mainly due to the Taliban demands of a complete military withdrawal and the revocation of of all military and security accords with the foreign troops in Afghanistan. The other side of speculation is also based on the hypothesis that the U.S. and its allies are not much serious about the complete withdrawal of the ISAF forces and therefore, the ‘dragging-on’ policy will hardly bring complete peace in Afghanistan.
