Afghanistan – A Deceptive Impression
Professor Ali Sukhanver
While going through the details of suicide attack on Asadullah Khalid, the Intelligence Chief of Afghanistan, one feels that Khalid was strolling somewhere in a public park or enjoying a cup of hot Afghani Qahwa in a café along some deserted highway; he was not at a guesthouse used by the National Directorate of Security in a heavily guarded area of the capital Kabul. How could it had been possible for a suicide bomber to introduce himself as a peace messenger from Taliban and reach the Intelligence Chief deceiving all security check-points if Asadullah Khalid were really at the National Directorate of Security. The incident no doubt puts a question mark at the abilities and talents of the Afghan security forces as well as at those of the NATO. The time when the US troops were stepping into the Afghan lands, the US authorities were of the opinion that Afghanistan is suffering badly at the hands of the terrorists and the Afghan security forces don’t have ability to counter the terrorist activities. That time they had assured the people of Afghanistan that the only aim of the US forces is to strengthen the Afghan security forces so that they might be able to counter the activities of the terrorists. Now at the end of 2012, the suicidal attack on the Intelligence Chief of Afghanistan is a proof that the Afghan security forces are still incapable of countering the terrorists. It means the situation would become horribly disastrous if the US forces say good-bye to the Afghan lands.
The suicide attack on the Afghan Intelligence Chief Asadullah Khalid is simply the beginning of another story in Afghanistan. Khalid was targeted when a suicide bomber struck at a guesthouse used by the National Directorate of Security (NDS) in a heavily guarded area of the Afghan capital Kabul. The incident took lives of many officials present at the scene and left Khalid seriously wounded. Just at the closing of 2012, almost a year before the US proposed date of withdrawal of her troops from the Afghan lands, this incident indicates countless possibilities and probabilities, unfortunately all referring to an extension in US stay in Afghanistan. According to the details, the suicide bomber posed himself as a peace messenger from Taliban and exploded him during the negotiations but most of the analysts are not ready to accept these details.
The concocted stories of befooling the officials of Afghan security and NATO are nothing new. There have been so many occasions when different so-called imposters approached Afghan and NATO officials and claimed that they are the representative of the Taliban and have come to settle matters through table-talk and negotiations though the actual Taliban leaders have always maintained their firm public line that they would never consider any negotiations or table-talk until foreign troops leave Afghanistan. Let us look back at a report published in the New York Times on 22nd November 2010 which said the Afghan and US authorities held face-to-face talks with a man who claimed to be Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, the second highest official in the Taliban movement .but later on it was exposed that the man was lying about his identity. Just after the revelation was made public through western media, Joshua Foust commented the episode in a very logical and impressive way. He says, “The story is moderately shocking: a senior Taliban figure was being flown around the region, talking directly with General Petraeus, President Karzai, and other senior figures in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the Afghan government. Think about this for a moment: a man whose identity no one was able to verify was flown, by NATO, for face-to-face meetings with high-ranking members of the coalition. All this is hugely embarrassing for ISAF, for the war, and for any prospects of ending it soon.” Now two years after that episode, same seems the case with the suicide bomber who attacked Asadullah Khalid, the Intelligence Chief of Afghanistan. This ‘incident’ was planned just to defame the Taliban and Pakistan and to give the world around a deceptive impression that the situation in Afghanistan is still so frightening that even the Intelligence Chief is not safe at the hands of the terrorists.
The fact of the matter is that the US conspirators are trying their utmost to find out some lame excuses which could provide logical justification for extension in the stay of US troops in Afghanistan. It is neither Pakistan nor the Taliban behind the assassination attempt on Asadullah Khalid, it is the handiwork of the US agents who are all time busy in disturbing the law and order situation both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Instead of taking care of his own people, unfortunately Mr. Karzai is also playing in the hands of these agents and safeguarding the US interests in the region. Everyone remembers that just after the suicide attack on Asadullah Khalid, Mr. Karzai abruptly issued his statement in which he blamed that the assassination attempt on the country’s intelligence chief was planned in Pakistan. He said, “We will be seeking a lot of clarifications from Pakistan because we know that this man who came there in the name of a guest to meet with Asadullah Khalid came from Pakistan.” The situation needs a very sympathetic and sincere analysis. Afghanistan could never be a peaceful land unless the foreign troops say farewell to it. Only the people of Afghanistan have ability and skill of dragging Afghanistan back to peace and prosperity and Pakistan is the only force which could give a helping hand to the people of Afghanistan in this regard.
