Ten long years of war have passed in Afghanistan and although it is finally coming to an end, the details of the enemy are still murky. The Taliban are the modern day band of misfits which have occupied the lime light on newspapers, headlines and talk shows. A lack of true understanding about the nature and motives of the Taliban has propagated the formation of stereotypes which have further made it confusing for the common man to understand the war in which thousands of lives and millions of funds have been sacrificed. The nuances in Taliban’s belief and objectives already pose a challenge for policy makers to reach a mutually acceptable deal, in addition to which, the public’s confusion regarding the Taliban becomes another knot to entangle in the yarn of disorder.
The aftermath of the Soviet War in Afghanistan left a power vacuum. Local tribes now battled against each other for control of areas. Security deteriorated and many human right violations were committed against women and children. It was in these conditions that the Taliban movement emerged under Mullah Omer in Kandahar in 1994. It was a simple localized movement that sought to restore order in line with the local culture and Islamic teachings. With the Pakistanis and the Saudis backing the Taliban, the movement picked by momentum and by 1996, Kabul had been captured.
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