At least eight people were killed and twenty were wounded when gunmen stormed the house of Afghan Defense Minister Bismillah Mohammadi, just minutes after a powerful car bomb exploded there in the Afghan capital, Kabul. At the time of the attack, the minister wasn’t at home. 

The fighting between the Afghan forces and the Taliban lasted at least five hours in one of the high-security areas of Kabul. Zabiullah Mujahid, the spokesperson of the Taliban, claimed the responsibility for the attack.  
 
Soon after the attack, at least two more explosions were reported in Kabul last night at a time when thousands of people were chanting  “Allah o Akbar” (God is great) on the streets and fromrooftops in Kabul and many other cities. It was an epic organic show of resistance, defiance against the Taliban, and support of the Afghan government. 

It was a historic night in Kabul on Tuesday. The videos were widely circulated online, showing people marching on the streets and unmoved by the bombs exploding in their vicinity. 

“Nothing will stop us, I am still going to shout ‘Allah o Akbar’ in support of Afghan forces against these brutal Taliban. What is the worst they can do? Kill us? Look around, they are already killing us” Ruchi Kumar, a Kabul-based journalist, quoted a survivor of the explosion as saying.

The sounds of the explosions quickly faded away in the echoes of‘ Allah o Akbar’ by thousands of Afghans, who were also joined by Afghan vice president Amrullah Saleh, in support of their forces. 

This trend of resistance was started from Herat, a western Afghan city of 400,000 people, on Monday. And, within a day, it became an epic way for millions of Afghans, resisting the Taliban, which is pushing into the cities after the withdrawal of foreign forces. 

Meanwhile, the insurgent group is on the verge of capturing Lashkargah, the provincial capital of Helmand in the country’s south. Of the total ten districts, the group captured nine, and fighting has been going in populated areas. 

The United Nations Assistance Mission Afghanistan (UNAMA) estimated that at least 40 civilians were killed and over 118 were wounded. Expressing deep concern over intensified fighting, it called on parties to immediately cease fighting in the city where almost 200,000 civilians were trapped. 

General Sami Sadat, who is leading Afghan forces fight in Helmand, has asked the people in the city to evacuate as they planned to intensify airstrikes and fighting in Lashkargah. He said he knew that people would face hardship for few days but he didn’t have any other option to avoid civilian casualties.

Taliban insurgents have taken positions in homes and shops of civilians in the city, making it tough for security forces to retaliate.

As the Taliban pushes for major Afghan cities, killing and displacing thousands of Afghans, the resistance shown by common people is changing the narrative of war swiftly. For the last two decades, the Taliban took the moral high ground, claiming to wage jihad against the western occupational forces. However, that subterfuge has gone now. 

Failure to agree on a peaceful negotiated settlement when the foreign forces are gone, the Taliban is finding it hard to justify its war against its own people. The misery brought upon its own people by the renewed violent campaign is cementing its image as the proxy tool of Pakistan, with little sympathy to the Afghan. 

“I can say openly to Afghans that this war, it is not against the Taliban and the Afghan government,” Ismail Khan, who is leading the resistance against the Taliban in Herat, said, adding, “It is Pakistan’s war against the Afghan nation. Taliban are their resources and they are working as their servant.” 

 (SAM)