Who is insisting on continuation of war?

Both parties to the conflict in Afghanistan – the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the foreign invaders along with their puppets – are pinning the blame on one another for the continuation of war. Come, let us reflect in the mirror of truth to assess who is truly the agent of war that continues endeavoring to crush the aspirations of peace and stability in Afghanistan through military posturing and threats.

If we take the past week as a specimen and evaluate the actions and communiques of both parties, one can clearly observe that the practical and media actions of the Islamic Emirate communicated a message of attaining peace and security, and also imbued a sense genuine good will.

The Eid brought us a message of the esteemed Amir ul Mumineen (may Allah protect him) filled with the spirit of forgiveness, tolerance and understanding, openly conveying to the opposition our priority towards finding a peaceful solution to problems, alas, the appointment of a powerful negotiation team. The message of Amir ul Mumineen was not mere talk on the face of paper, rather it was acommpanied by actions such as the release of a large number of opposition fighters from jails as a goodwill gesture, a ceasefire over the Eid holiday period and even the use of soft-spoken words by the Islamic Emirate during comments.

However, the opposition again issued military threats and warnings during the Eid holidays and tried its best to pour fuel on raging fire of war. If you examine the recent interviews and comments of Arg spokespersons, Ashraf Ghani, his first deputy and national security advisor, you will find all replete with taunts, slights, military threats and empty bravado.

The Islamic Emirate released a large number of prisoners in Eid whereas the opposition not only failed to show good-will through reciprocity, it went as far as expressing its opposition to the release of remaining prisoners as agreed upon in the Doha agreement. As the Mujahideen observed a ceasefire during Eid, security incidents continued unabated in areas under the control of Kabul administration and DABS announced the destruction of fifteen power pylons during this timeframe by unidentified individuals. The Islamic Emirate condemned these attacks as some media outlets reported that they were perpetrated by fuel mafia with ties to the presidential palace.

On the second day of Eid (Friday), an Imam who backed the call of the Islamic Emirate was targeted with an explosion inside a packed mosque in Kabul, martyring the Imam along with several innocent prayer-goers. The incident was claimed by mysterious “Daesh” group that has longstanding ties to intelligence apparatus of the Kabul administration.

The question raised at the start can be answered quite distinctly from the above analysis – that without an iota of doubt, it is the Kabul officials and puppets of foreign invaders that are insisting on the continuation of war and have recurrently shown bad faith by countering the goodwill gestures of the Islamic Emirate with military threats.