Sunday, August 31, 2003		Books

Pain of living under Taliban
Kanwalpreet

Afghanistan: From Terror to Freedom
by Apratim Mukarji. Sterling Publishers, New Delhi. Pages 321. Rs 500.

"TRUE peace is not merely the absence of tension but is the presence of justice and brotherhood." These words of Martin Luther King can be satisfactorily applied on Afghanistan. This book by Apratim Mukarji, a senior journalist, attempts to highlight all those facts that the world has known all along but ignored—Afghanistan and the misery of its people is brought forth in a dissection of its turbulent recent past.

The writer has gone beyond touching the obvious, taking pains to lay before his readers not only the atrocities committed during the Taliban regime but also views on drug trafficking, warlords, etc. In the Introduction, the writer describers the "destruction and depression" that have converted Afghanistan into "a grey country." The chapter creates an impact with the description of an attempt on President Hamid Karzai’s life. From there the book goes on to the larger picture, talking about the destruction of the Bamiyan caves, the state of natural vegetation, "stray walls standing forlorn amidst ruined homes," the fear that one act of violence can negate dozens of efforts of peace, making clear the aim of the book—to acquaint the reader with the real meaning of terror and how arduous the long walk can be to freedom.

The feet of the larger Buddha in the Bamiyan valley were used as an ammunition dump. It took the Taliban 20 days to finish destroying the statues of Buddha, that too with the help of explosives—it is information like this that makes the book worth reading. The author has rightly titled the chapter, The Dark Age Descends. It reveals how the Taliban intruded in the daily existence of the even women and children, all in the name of religion and culture.

The Taliban did not spare even their fellow Pushtuns, whether it was President Najibullah or commander Abdul Haq, whoever criticised them or talked of a "moderate" Taliban.

Afghan society is traditionally divided on ethnic grounds, which has been the root cause of most feuds. This weakness and how it has been exploited by vested interests is a point to be pondered upon. But still traces of survival of real hope of "building a secular, tolerant, modern and democratic country" are found. The most informative chapter is Horror Called the Taliban. It traces the growth of the Taliban and the atrocities it committed on the Afghans.

We have read about the Taliban outlook on women in various works like The Bengali wife of the Man from Kabul, etc., but the writer goes a step further when he very authentically proves the role of Pakistan. In innumerable examples he chalks out the vested interests of Pakistan in forging alliances or providing military skills and expertise to the Taliban army. Isolation of Afghanistan would mean greater influence of Pakistan on the country. The reader is given facts and figures on the people who have suffered and perished in the Taliban battles.

At many points the writer focuses on the biased role of the US vis-`E0-vis Pakistan, the former talking of eliminating terrorism and the latter not only harbouring terrorists but also training them. The concepts of justice and equality of mankind seem to be different for the US in this part of the world.

Many a line is written for commander Ahmed Shah Massoud of the Northern Alliance that fought the Taliban. His efforts for peace in Afghanistan, his trip to the western world and the European Union and his lofty dreams for Afghanistan, and ultimately his end, all find a mention.

The author has added seven appendixes, which are reports prepared by different journalists for their respective newspapers, detailing the role of Pakistan, or interviews with terrorists, etc. The appendixes also have reports on Massoud’s visit to the European Union and President Bush’s Address to the Congress after the September 11 attack.

A few pictures included in the book help in conveying the story of Afghanistan better. Written in a simple style, the facts and figures are a grim reminder of a life without rights, liberty and equality, in short, a life without democracy. It is a sincere narration of life in Afghanistan, a land from which six million people fled during the Soviet occupation. Up to 2.6 million still live outside their homeland, the largest refugee population in the world.