Panjshiris attempt to form Afghan government-in-exile

Tribune News Service

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New Delhi, October 16

Exiled leaders from Afghanistan’s ethnic minorities have resumed their efforts to form a government-in-exile after their first attempt last month failed to make a splash.

Most of these exiled leaders had made brief attempts to thwart the Taliban from entering their strongholds in northern Afghanistan but reasoned analysis later showed that for want of international support, most of their efforts were on social media.

It remains to be seen whether, Tajikistan where many of these leaders fled to after the collapse of their resistance, will be willing to back their attempt to hold a grand show of the exiled Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara leaders who were from the Mujahideen stock and have been opposed to the Taliban which had dislodged them in 1996 and again this year.

Though there is no indication whether any government is willing to bankroll and host these leaders, their efforts have been supplemented by diarchy – while the Taliban controls Afghanistan, all missions abroad are still manned by loyalists of the old regime. Of these diplomats, a large number are Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras who are supporters of leaders from their ethnic groups.

The names being mentioned are Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, Amrullah Saleh, Ahmad Masood, Salahuddin Rabbani, Abdul Rashid Dostum, Muhammad Mohaqiq and Mohammad Hanif Atmar.

Last month too, there was an announcement about the formation of a government-in-exile led by the Panjshiri, Amrullah Saleh, the First Vice President in the Ashraf Ghani regime. This was facilitated by pro-Saleh diplomats in the Afghan embassy in Switzerland. But the Taliban had responded swiftly, declaring that such efforts are bound to fail and describing its proponents as “opportunistic people” out to “deceive the international community”.