Winston Churchill famously described the former Soviet Union, during a radio broadcast on October 1, 1939, as "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma". That characterisation fits today's Afghanistan more than any other country. From avid opposition to Hindu India not very long ago, the so-called emirate of pious Muslims is in cahoots with the infidel Hindus, the enemies of Islam and perpetrators of brutalities in Kashmir over fellow Muslims. The same India which kept calling the pious emirate 'terrorist' and shunned all contact throughout the First Afghan Republic (2001-2021). And ironically, Afghan Taliban in their mangled and befuddled understanding continue to champion the cause of Islam, a religion that emphasises education to the extent of asking Muslims to go to the farthest China, to seek ilm (knowledge), as the beloved Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) is frequently quoted. However, the ruling clique in Kabul continues to exclude women from public life, denying them their religious, social and moral rights to education, work, inheritance, choice and fair treatment.

The ruling Muslimist cabal is also daggers drawn with Pakistan – their neighbour, benefactor and only interlocutor; and their home and hearth in bad times. Pakistan, where they lived in peace with their families, rested, regrouped and recouped while the hated ISI and the Punjabi Miltablishment was organising jihad; first to free their Afghanistan from the Socialist sickle and hammer, and later from the stranglehold of Christian West Plus. Calling themselves the stalwarts of Pashtunwali and the torch bearers of Durrani suzerainty from Qandahar,........

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