| November 11, 2001 | Sunday | Shaba’an 24, 1422 |
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DG Khan police firing
Anti-drug campaign
THE fall of Mazar-i-Sharif to the forces of the Northern Alliance can be put down as the US-led coalition’s first land victory in Afghanistan. Conversely, it is the first major defeat suffered by the Taliban — a blow for the Mulla Umar regime both politically and strategically. The Taliban’s image of military invincibility now stands badly dented, while the morale of the Northern Alliance has been boosted. No doubt the Taliban will try to recapture the city, but, knowing America’s complete mastery over the Afghan skies, a Taliban counter-attack is unlikely to succeed. In fact, the Alliance victory would not have been possible without the devastating aerial strikes by the Americans on the Taliban front-lines. Mercifully, the city changed hands without civilian casualties. The human and material toll would have been very high indeed if the Taliban had retreated into the city and decided to fight a street-to-street, house-to-house battle to hold off the Northerners.
The fall of the city gives the Americans their first significant foothold in Afghanistan. It will also dramatically improve their logistic capability. The Americans now have the benefit of a relatively big airport inside Afghanistan to operate from. Also to have fallen to the Northern Alliance is the town of Heratan, which has a rail and road link with Uzbekistan. This means that the Americans can move in troops and supplies from Termez quickly and prepare for the next offensive — obviously on Kabul. While it is too early to say that the Taliban are fighting with their backs to the wall, the tide of war now seems to be turning against them. The Taliban may have stocked up arms and ammunition, and they may even have some vintage Soviet-era tanks with them. But they are not likely to get any replenishments, and what they have will continue to be hit by American air strikes, leaving the road open for more Northern Alliance offensives aiming at the capture of Kabul and Kandahar. This makes the situation grim both for the Taliban and for those who wish to see a reasonably peaceful Afghanistan in the post-Taliban era.
So far, the Northern Alliance is the only Afghan group fighting the Taliban. There are no Pakhtoons on its side, giving it a completely Uzbek-Tajik character. If there are any Pakhtoon elements hostile to the Taliban, they have not surfaced yet, because the Mulla Umar regime had not until Friday suffered a military defeat. But now, with Mazar-i-Sharif having fallen, things could go awry for the Taliban. Worse still, the Northern Alliance could suffer from the notion that they could take Kabul and install a government of their own there. Should this happen, there would be more bloodshed, because there can be no government in Kabul without the representation of the Pakhtoons, who are the single largest ethnic group.
Here one must welcome the realism shown by Colin Powell. Reacting to the fall of Mazar-i-Sharif, the US secretary of state asked the Northern Alliance to stay out of Kabul. Instead, he pleaded for Kabul becoming “an open city.” Such an open city, he said, would have an interim government. The implication of Secretary Powell’s remark is that the interim government will function until a broad-based government acceptable to all sections of the Afghan population is in place. While the Alliance commanders must be euphoric over the victory, they should know that they owe it to America’s firepower. Therefore, they should listen to America. Any attempt by the Alliance to occupy Kabul would be resisted by the Pakhtoons — not necessarily pro-Taliban — and that would mean a continuation of the civil war.
THE police shot dead three protesters near Dera Ghazi Khan on Thursday night, after madrassah students blocked the railway line on the eve of the countrywide strike protesting against the US-led attacks on Afghanistan. The incident left several other protesters seriously injured, the railway line and the Indus Highway blocked for several hours, many vehicles set on fire and some police officials kidnapped. Later, in a related incident, some angry villagers ambushed a police van and freed a number of detained ulema, who had been apprehended and were being transported in that vehicle; the van was also set on fire. The question that needs to be asked is: who ordered the firing on the protesters and under what circumstances?
Initial reports suggest that the nazim of Lond Shahdan village, where the incident took place, was present at the time of shooting. The police were already teargassing the few hundred protesters blocking the rail tracks when suddenly they opened fire. The report does not say the protesters were indulging in violence or were using firearms at any point during the first or the subsequent incidents. When Friday dawned, it was indeed a sad and troublesome spectacle in Lond Shahdan, with funerals of the deceased being held and angry youths playing hide and seek with the police all day. The ensuing violence involved ambushing, arson and road and railway blockading. The whole episode calls for a thorough inquiry to determine whether the situation the previous day warranted the opening of fire by the police and that too in a manner that aggravated rather than diffused the situation.
THE anti-drug drive needs a shot in the arm. The success that has been achieved by the health authorities in the anti-polio campaign ought to act as an impetus to those who are responsible for eradicating the drug menace. The fact that there are still nearly two million drug addicts in the country is evidence that the effort being put in so far to tackle the drug problem is grossly inadequate. While it may be true that eliminating the drug menace is a much more difficult task than eradicating polio since the former is not simply a health issue but a problem with social and economic dimensions as well, this is no excuse for the lack of drive and determination in the anti-drug campaign so far.
Considerable success in the anti-polio campaign has been achieved through various rounds of much-publicized nationwide special polio vaccination campaigns lasting three days each, the last one in August and the latest from November 6 to 8. During these campaigns, polio vaccination teams are deployed all over the country covering every conceivable remote, far-flung and high-risk area. These include slums, katcha abadis, brick kilns, the nomadic populations, railway stations, bus stands, airports and most important of all, the Afghan refugee camps. The periodic campaigns have reportedly reduced significantly the spread and endemicity of polio as a crippling affliction mainly affecting children. According to the National Institute of Health, only 69 confirmed cases of polio have been detected so far this year as compared to the previous figure of thousands annually.
As in the case of the polio campaign, which is being aided by, amongst others, the WHO, UNICEF and the Japanese government, the assistance of foreign donors in the anti-drug campaign will prove essential for its success. According to the Narcotics Control Division secretary, some 17 drug treatment and rehabilitation centres are being set up throughout the country with financial assistance from the United Nations Drug Control Programme. But the thrust for the anti-drug campaign can only be provided by the relevant federal and provincial agencies. The effort not only involves treatment and rehabilitation of the two million or so drug addicts but also ensures that the production and supply of drugs are curtailed and economic and employment opportunities for that category of the population susceptible to drugs are improved.