The Kabul Takeover: Emerging Threats to the Region

Abstract

Kabul takeover on August 15, 2021, by the Taliban has attracted the world's attention towards the region in general and Afghanistan in particular. The Taliban appear to be disinterested in adhering to the Doha Agreement signed between the US and the Taliban in February 2020. The Taliban interim government shows that there is no room for an inclusive government, resulting in further political polarization, ethnic division, and human rights violations. It is too early to say that the Taliban would live up to their commitments of not giving sanctuaries to the terrorist groups. The takeover of Kabul, by and large, emboldens Al-Qaeda, Islamic State (also known as ISIS), Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). Afghanistan is likely to emerge as an epicenter for the militant groups mentioned. Ideologically speaking, the Taliban tend to support Islamic groups. Most considerably, in the 21st-century, states that eschew symmetric warfare are obsessed with asymmetric war by supporting non-state actors presumably, Afghanistan would remain a battlefield for the non-state actors and there is possibility of a new wave of terrorism. However, there is a need for a proactive role to be played by the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) in the current scenario to syndicate the capabilities and efforts of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to eliminate terrorism and extremism. This paper, thus, would assess the emerging threats emanating from non-state actors to the region after the Kabul takeover.