Taliban's first conquest of Afghanistan came in 1996 when, as a military movement, Taliban stormed Kabul, the capital. The conquest resulted in the first Taliban rule of Afghanistan which lasted for almost 5 years from 1996-2001. After the US military intervention in Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the Taliban were removed from power. They had no political role to play in Afghanistan until their return to power in August 2021. It is in this gap of almost 20 years that the world treated the Taliban only as a militant organisation and a rogue military outfit that had no role to play in Afghan politics.

Did the world miss the opportunity to engage with the Taliban? Wouldn't the world be different if the Taliban were politically engaged during that period? Could such a world assist in transition of the Taliban from a military movement to a political force?

Ultimately, the US chose to directly engage with the Taliban movement and created the circumstances for the Taliban's return to power in August 2021. The lost opportunity of dealing with the Taliban for 20 years may be considered a big mistake. After being removed from power in 2001, the Taliban were willing to surrender, yet they were deprived of this opportunity and with it the opportunity to become part of any political process in Afghanistan. The political consequence of this mistake was that the movement returned to power in 2021, with no political experience in the last 20 years that they were left out of Afghan politics. Today, the Taliban are considered a political force, but only a force that the world is struggling to deal with, as it is considered a repressive regime that rules over 40 million Afghans in a........

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