On this day, August 14, 2021, two years ago, the number of provinces succumbing to the Taliban’s control reached 24. The nation stood on the precipice, one day ahead of the republic’s fall to the Taliban.
The provinces of Balkh, Faryab, Paktia, Paktika, Laghman, Kunar, and Logar all fell to the Taliban simultaneously. In a pre-recorded address, the former president, Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, reassured the populace of his commitment to curbing the spread of instability.
“As your president, my foremost focus is to mitigate the expansion of instability, violence, and displacement among our people,” Ghani affirmed in his video statement.
Parallelly, prominent former political figures Ata Mohammad Noor and Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum engaged the Taliban across three key sectors in Mazar-e-Sharif city, the central hub of Balkh province. However, as the day drew to a close, both leaders departed for Uzbekistan via the Hairatan port in the north, a move that led to the city’s fall under the Taliban’s control.
Former Member of Parliament from Paktika, Khalid Assad, revealed that foreign actors urged ex-military personnel to cease hostilities.
“Forces were positioned in Paktika. Foreign influences advised their withdrawal from bases, signaling a shift in Afghanistan’s trajectory. ‘Leave your bases and converge in Kabul,’ their directive went,” Assad recounted.
Meanwhile, former Logar governor Abdul Qayum Rahimi recounted his capture by the Taliban. Following his efforts to equip and arm defenders of the province, he found himself in Taliban custody, ultimately resulting in the capture of Pul-e-Alam.
“They apprehended me and seized control. It was an unsettling experience. When you persist until the last bullet, favorable treatment isn’t to be expected,” Rahimi disclosed.
On the political front, endeavors to foster consensus among disparate factions gained momentum. Insider sources revealed that a political delegation, featuring luminaries such as former president Hamid Karzai and ex-chief of the High Peace Council Abdullah Abdullah, was slated to embark on a journey to Doha on August 16, 2021.
However, these efforts were perceived as belated, according to Massoum Stanekzai, the former head of the republic’s negotiation team.
