How Taliban Gets Fighters, Money – Free PDF Download

Why we are discussing this?

• As the last US troops get ready to leave Afghanistan, the Taliban has swiftly moved to seize control of more territory and launch unrelenting campaigns against the Afghan national forces across the country.
• But without crucial US air support, the Afghan forces have struggled to counter the Taliban war machinery and the insurgents have now added to the territory.
• Close to 20 years of fighting with the US seems to have
• made little difference to the Taliban’s capabilities and, as Washington formally withdraws from the scene,
• It threatens again to overrun the country and impose its version of harsh Islamic law on Afghanistan.

How many fighters does the Taliban have?

• According to a Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) report, the Taliban have between 55,000-85,000 full-time fighters and “the group is stronger now than at any point in the last nineteen years”.
• Experts say that while they have suffered tens of thousands of fatalities among its rank following the US invasion, the Taliban have a well-oiled recruitment network inside Afghanistan and
• Its leadership also draws on the close to 2 million Afghan refugees in neighbouring Pakistan to fill its ranks.
• A report earlier this year by the Combating Terrorism Centre at the US Military Academy said that the group comprises “60,000 core fighters”.
• The report says that “the group’s total manpower exceeds 200,000 individuals”.
• Compared with this, the Afghan national forces is made up of about 185,000 personnel across the army, air force and special operations forces as of July last year.
• Further, the country’s total police forces number a little over 100,000.

Does Taliban enjoys the support among Afghans?

• The Taliban is made up of mainly the Pashtuns, who are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan.
• “Pashtuns comprise a plurality in Afghanistan and are the predominant ethnic group in much of the country’s south and east. They are also a major ethnic group in Pakistan’s north and west”.
• In fact, ‘Taliban’ means ‘students’ in the Pashto, the language spoken by the Pashtuns.
• After the departure of the Soviet forces, the group gained support among Afghans with its promise of bringing stability as rival mujahideen, or local militias, fought among each other to gain control of the country.
• The group is still seen as enjoying support among Pashtuns in the country’s interiors who were against the western occupation of Afghanistan and the imposition of western forms of government and administration.

How does the Taliban fund itself?

• Drugs, levies on movement of goods, illegal mining have all contributed to the Taliban now enjoying earnings of over $1.5 billion annually.
• According to a NATO report cited by RFE/RL, “the Taliban has expanded its financial power in recent years through increased profits from the illicit drug trade, illegal mining, and exports”
• And made an estimated $1.6 billion in the fiscal year ending March 2020.

• “That financial independence enables the Afghan Taliban to self-fund its insurgency without the need for support from governments or citizens of other countries,” the report says.

Support from Pakistan?

• Recently, at a conference on regional connectivity in Uzbekistan, where Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was one of the attendees,
• Afghan President Ashraf Ghani slammed his neighbouring country, saying that “more than 10,000 jihadi fighters” had entered Afghanistan from Pakistan as US troops withdrew.
• He also alleged that Islamabad had not been able to push the Taliban to participate “seriously” in the peace talks.

• But it is common knowledge that Pakistan has long sheltered the top Taliban leadership and has supported the insurgents to regroup as it fought with the US troops.
• So much so that the former US President Donald Trump had accused the country of seriously undermining the US efforts in Afghanistan.
• “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools.
• They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” Trump had said in a 2018 tweet.

Q) Buzkashi is the national sport of Afghanistan. It is played on which animal?

1. Horse
2. Yak
3. Camel
4. Buffalo

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