Questions being raised over Taliban's ability to protect minorities: Report

Amid the rise in terror attacks in Afghanistan, questions are been raised over the Taliban's ability and willingness to protect the civilians especially the minorities of the country, said a media report.

Di Valerio Fabbri, writing in Geopolitica.info, said the Taliban is now facing its biggest test of managing the country's governance as it struggles with the tag of being a 'rogue state', outcast by the international community.

"Moreover, the mounting terrorist attacks by the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP) have raised questions over the Taliban's ability and willingness to protect religious minorities and Afghan civilians. Unless the Taliban steps up to tackle these challenges, Afghanistan is undoubtedly destined to descend into civil war," Fabbri said.

In its report, Fabbri highlighted the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report. Earlier, issuing its most dire warning to date, the UNDP recently cautioned that the 38 million Afghans are at risk of being plunged into near-universal poverty, faced with a "catastrophic deterioration" of the country's heavily aid-dependent economy due to the Taliban's capture of power.

The UNDP's study suggested that as many as 97 per cent of Afghans can potentially slide below the poverty line by next year - a staggering increase of 25 per cent. This negates the significant progress made in the last two decades, when expanding economic prospects and substantial foreign aid created new employment opportunities for the Afghans.

According to Fabbri, Taliban's governance tests are too many. But it looks like the regime doesn't realise the enormity of the challenges as it pursues the single-line agenda of international recognition.

"Taliban has pressed the Western financial institutions to release Afghan Central Bank's money. Probably by now, the group would have realised that capturing a country through force and violence is easier than governing it, Fabbri added.

(ANI)

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