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| Afghans brave bombs to vote | | | On Thursday Afghanistan went to polls amid tension,bomb attacks,threats from the Talibans trying to wreck the poll.Salute to those who braved these bombs and threats and walked to the polling booth to ensure an era of peace.Whatever may be the polling percentage,whosoever wins are loses it is not as important as peoples' urge to take part in the poll process.Will this force the Talibans to join the national mainstream for which the Afghan Government tried to hammer out treaties for ensuring incident free poll ?Possibilities are remote because of the mindset of the gun crazy Talibans trying to dislodge all those working for the restoration of peace.Ever since the Soviet troops entered into Afghanistan in 1979 the land of Pathans has been witnessing one crisis after another. The battle hardened Pathans,Pasthuns with the support of the Unitd States and Pakistan were able to force the Soviet troops to leave Afghanistan in 1988.The nine-year fight between
the Afghans and the Soviet troops,which ultimately gave birth to the Talibans,has been one major factor responsible for the continued political and security instability in the mountain locked country.The Afghans had braved threats in the previous election too. .In that election Hamid Karzai was elected as Afghan President.He had won the election by polling 55 per cent of the total polled votes.Since then he has managed to pull through facing severe odds and challenges posed by the Talibans.It is a ding dong battle between the Afghan troops,backed by the NATO forces.It has almost been a seek and hit strategy adopted both by the Government forces and the Talibans.The Karzai led Government had initiated measures for hammering out peace treaties with the Talibans for ensuring incident free elections.But these unfinished treaties were honoured in limited areas with the result the Talibans had created scare but the courageous Afghans remained
unfazed.Field reports said that no doubt there were three candidates opposing Hamid Karzai he had the main challenger Abdullah Abdullah,a doctor by profession, who had been sacked by Karzai when he was the Afghan foreign minister.The American Government is quite keen to see peace and normalcy restored to war ravaged Afghainstan.What is surprising is that despite dedicated Afghan troops and the over 10,000 NATO forces Talibans have occupied some belts in Afghanistan where the writ of the Government does not run at all.No doubt the NATO troops have recaptured
Nawzad district of Helmand province there are number of belts which are still under the control of the Talibans.As such the Thursday's presidential election,even if a liberal like Hamid Karzai,is voted to power again,may not mark the end of terrorism in Afghanistan.In fact Karzai has not been averse to a dialogue with the leaders of the Talibans but the bearded and turbaned terrorists are not prepared to play as a second fiddle to either Karzai or to the US administration.Well an unstable Afghanistan is a major danger not only to Pakistan but to India.The nine-year long armed conflict between the Afghan and the Soviet troops saw American weapons and the seized Soviet weapons finding place in Jammu and Kashmir after the rise of militancy.Unstable Afghanistan creates instability in Pakistan and agencies across the border try to defuse the situation by pushing into the Indian territory foreign mercenaries for kickingup violence.Holding of elections
in Afghanistan is welcome.Support to dialogue channels remaining open is a welcome step.But these steps need to be backed by effective and sustained multidimensional operations by the Government and the NATO forces against the recalcitrant Talibans.
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