Welcome admission

Some sanity seems to have hit the Taliban government thinking. The Taliban's acting deputy foreign minister has come up as a strong advocate for reopening schools for Afghan girls. Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, who had led a Taliban team of negotiators in Doha before the withdrawal of the US-led foreign forces from Afghanistan in 2021, has said in unambiguous terms during a public speech that restrictions on education of girls and women are not in line with Islamic Sharia law. Stanekzai's words constitute the strongest public rebuke, from within, of a policy of the interim Afghan government that has contributed to its international isolation.

Simultaneously, there are reports that officials of the Afghan government have - in recent closed door meetings with Pakistani authorities - conceded that the banned TTP is a problem. However, this is not to assume that any action in Afghanistan against the terrorist outfit which is out to bleed Pakistan may be coming up - more so because of the split within the Afghan Taliban ranks on the lines of Haqqani and Kandahari factions. Even though, the Taliban rulers still suggest a dialogue with the TTP rather than taking a hardline approach against them, their admission of the outlawed group being a problem does give a hint of Kabul having taken a step forward and decided to look inward.

The Taliban must have realised by now that they can no more afford to squander the dividends of a peaceful Afghanistan in this fast-changing modern world of today that is defined by regional connectivity and collaboration across borders. Afghanistan, the gateway to the Central Asian Republics and onwards to Europe, must now see peace and tranquility for the sake of its own war-stricken populace as well as those in the region and beyond. The onus is squarely on the Taliban 2.0.