But ideologically, even the Taliban rank and file are misogynistic. They refuse to concede the humanity of those who are in dissent. So they keep unleashing a campaign of violence and terror, threaten constitutional rights, especially towards women who take on the Taliban and have achieved hard-won gains over the past two decades.

For the Taliban, the peace is illusion and terror is reality. Their peace posture is mired in hypocrisy. The Islamic militant outfit seeks to thrive on the minor role after the withdrawal of 2500 remaining US troops by mid-September. The US special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad will be more a spectator than a participant in the peace process.

Nonetheless, the Afghan women have remained fearless in defending their gains. They are at the negotiating table in Doha, although there are just four women . But they assert as blue stockings during negotiations, but for which the backward bending by the Taliban was unthinkable. At Istanbul negotiations that the Taliban boycotted Women’s rights advocates of Afghanistan put forward their views formidably. The constitutional rights and status as guaranteed by the current constitution that came into force in 2004 are firmly defended by them.

The peaceful milieu is still willow-the-wisp in the landlocked Afghanistan, solely due to the Taliban. According to a recent NATO report, there is a 37 percent surge in Taliban attacks over the last year and all this is inspired by the US announcement about withdrawal of forces. The Talibans have ramped up attacks in the first quarter of the year, with continued bonhomie with the Al Qaeda, according to Pentagon’s internal watchdog. The report was uploaded in the website of the office of the Inspector General, US Defense Department in mid-May

Al Qaeda l continues to rely on the Taliban for protection “and the two groups have reinforced ties over the past decades”, it stated. The Afghan security forces, Afghan National Defense and Security Forces’ (ANDSF), clashed with the Taliban armed group, frequently after the signing of the US-Taliban agreement. The report forecasts reveals, “From 2020 to February 2021, Taliban fighters strived to control highways, limit the ANDSF ability to resupply its forces, and isolate Afghan government forces at outposts and checkpoints,” the report says.

The likelihood of large-scale attacks on provincial capitals by the Taliban is high, more so as the armed group is e striving to control highways,, reports the US Defense Intelligence Agency.

There is a real apprehension that even if this agreement is successfully implemented, sections of the Taliban might revive their militancy to demolish the peace potentials. This is not at all desirable for a country like India. Indian assets in Afghanistan have been targeted by the Haqqani group, a major Taliban faction and recurrence of this cannot be ruled out. India has invested substantially and the presence of U.S.-led troops was a guarantee for Indian investment. Given the stability at risk, ‘India needs to urgently reposition its priorities’.

A well-known Afghan analyst Enayat Najafizada, agrees that Afghanistan is heading towards a “tough” summer fight between the Afghan government and the Taliban armed group. “The summer battle will make or break the Afghan peace process and the country’s future,” he envisions. In 28 provinces of Afghanistan, the fighting continues. to cause unprecedented death toll on the ANDSF - in some days more than 100 soldiers in 24 hours,” he said adding that the fight is a test for the ANDSF.

However, ANDSF is in a combative mood to beat back the Taliban. Javid Ahmad Qaem, Afghan Ambassador to China, in an opinion piece in Global Times, the official daily of the Government of Peoples Republic of China, stated, ANDSF ‘bravely took the responsibility and defended the motherland’. But Kabul’s emphasis is for a sustained peace which the overwhelming majority of Afghan people too want very genuinely.

The Afghan envoy referred to the Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf’ Ghani’s explanatory opinion piece in Foreign Affairs magazine, and his interview to Der Spiegel articulating articulate his ‘vision and framework for the peace process of Afghanistan’. Indeed, now is the critical time for national unity, a stand which is realistically too difficult for the Taliban to utter..On the e The Afghan authorities have no reasons for pessimism. Khalilzad too think that the reality is not adverse for Kabul and there is no point in thinking that the Afghan forces ‘will collapse right away’ in confronting the Taliban. (IPA Service)