Taliban finds potential nemesis in Afghan's teenagers

An Afghan girl shot dead two Taliban fighters and wounded several more after they dragged her parents from their home and killed them for supporting the government, officials said. The incident happened last week when insurgents stormed the home of Qamar Gul, a teenager from a village in the central province of Ghor. The fighters were looking for her father, the village chief, local police head Habiburahman Malekzada told the media. Her father was a government supporter, which is why the Taliban fighters went to his house and dragged him out, Malekzada said. When his wife resisted, the Taliban fighters killed the couple outside their home, Malekzada said.

Revenge of the daughter leaves several other militants wounded. Reports suggest that "Qamar Gul, who was inside the house, took an AK-47 gun the family had and first shot dead the two Taliban fighters who killed her parents, and then injured a few others," he said. Gul is aged between 14 and 16, according to different officials. It is common for many Afghans not to know their precise age. Now it depends on how we look at the story. Is it simply about the bravery of the teenage girl in the most vicious places on earth? Or is it about the brutality of the Taliban encouraged by the Pakistani Army and the ISI of the country? Or shall we look at the long turmoil that Afghanistan was subjected to by the tribal chieftains as well the world powers which made Afghanistan their playground for their vested interests? The tragedy called Afghanistan is multi-fold and cannot always be called as the cause and effect of a particular reason.

The US withdrawal was the most important issue for Donald Trump facing elections this year as he had promised the same during the campaign for his first term in the office. He forced the Taliban and the Afghan government into talks and rushed through them against abundant caution leaving behind a handful of men to defend the Afghan government forces. He neither cared to look at the Pak theatre and its players nor at the role of Pakistan once he stepped out. Be it under the occupation of erstwhile Soviet Union or later under the US forces, Afghanistan always posed a challenge to outsiders. The Taliban shall never agree to the role of foreigners in the country's internal affairs and nor would the Pakistani forces allow it.

They could conveniently blame, in turn, India for the turmoil in Afghanistan just as they do, for the mess in Balochistan, where repression unleashed against the Balochs is on an unprecedented scale. It is under these circumstances that a reprisal by anyone against the mighty Taliban should be an eye-opener. Commoners cannot put up with the violence forever. They want peace and job opportunities. Whether it is a Malala then or a Qamar Gul now, youngsters are speaking for their country. In fact, Gul's extraordinary courage led to the locals pick up weapons when several other Talibans came back to attack her. That Gul and her brother are in a safe house now sheltered by the Afghan forces is a different story.