“I have witnessed air strikes” where civilians including women and children were killed by the U.S.-led forces and a wedding was atrociously turned into a funeral, said Qamar Yousafzai, a Pakistani investigative journalist, in an interview with GDToday & Newsgd.com. “Every month, every month... They didn’t miss a single month,” added Qamar indignantly.

Qamar Yousafzai (Photo provided to Newsgd.com)

Since he first entered Afghanistan in 1996, Qamar Yousafzai has been probing deep into Pakistan and Afghanistan affairs, now more than 25 years. Besides this, he has worked for Daily Baakhabar Quetta, Norwegian TV 2, ARY OneWorld, and many other news outlets after the outbreak of the Afghan war, where he witnessed multiple crisis in Afghanistan such as warfare, pandemic, and famine.

“I would say that was war crime,” commented Qamar. “This is in the American history that they’ve never remained sincere with their friends. Americans are only just taking care of their own. They are not taking care of the outsiders.”

“The U.S. will never give up using Afghanistan to resist China”

On August 6, the Taliban launched an assault on the Afghan provincial capitals, where most of the towns surrendered without a fight. Only 10 days later, the Afghan capital Kabul fell to the Taliban as the incumbent President, Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

The Taliban’s rapid takeover took the U.S.-led forces and people in Kabul by surprise, leading to evacuation mayhem at the Kabul airport. People were videoed falling from a U.S. aircraft in flight when trying to flee Kabul by clinging to the airplane. Human remains were also found in the plane’s wheels. The video has gone viral, attracting worldwide criticism of the U.S.’s handling of the evacuation.

Qamar said that the U.S. has actually planned to withdraw from Afghanistan since the peace talks in Doha. He further pointed out the reasons why the Taliban could take control of more than 80% of Afghan territory so swiftly. First of all, the U.S. is not willing to “waste a single life of their soldiers” for Afghanistan any more. And meanwhile, the Taliban has also gained support from the Afghan people.

Qamar then showed a video to the reporter which displayed myriads of U.S. dollars seized by the Taliban. Over the past 20 years, a large quantity of weapons and money that the U.S. offered to the Afghan military have fallen to the Taliban by various means. However, funding and training Afghan forces was the only contribution the U.S. has ever made to the country. “In shock, I would say that there are no constructions having been done by the U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.”

What will be the U.S.’s role in Afghanistan after the withdrawal? Qamar believes that the U.S. will not abandon any of its interests in the region and “will never give up using Afghanistan to resist China”. “I think that they were just looking for their own allies” after Bin Laden was killed in 2011. He thus pinpointed 2 potential strategic plans of the U.S.: One is to secure the route from Pakistan through Tajikistan up to Russia; the other is to incite Uighur secessionists to separation of Xinjiang.

The Taliban must dissociate itself from terrorism

On August 19 (Afghan time), Zabihullah Mujahid, one of the Taiban’s spokesmen, declared the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” on social media and announced its national flag.

In spite of having been detained by the Taliban in 2006, Qamar tends to trust the change of the Taliban. He indicated “this is a different type” from the Taliban in 1990s, which is more mature and more moderate. Nevertheless, he insisted that the Taliban can only obtain support from its neighbouring countries such as China, Russia, and Pakistan if they guarantee the country will never become a hotbed of terror again. The Taliban must dissociate itself from ISIS and ETIM, underlined Qarma.

The reporter noticed that in June, 2019, Qamar revealed the actions of U.S.-backed ISIS militants on social media, causing resistance from the Taliban.

For Pakistan, it is also of great significance if Afghanistan can achieve stability since there are already 3 million afghan refugees there, according to Qamar. What’s more, in light of the fruitful cooperation between China and Pakistan through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, he believes Afghanistan will also benefit from its future collaboration with China.

Should China and Pakistan be able to participate in the reconstruction of Afghanistan jointly, it will be beneficial for all three countries, anticipated Qamar.

Reporter: Keane Wong

Author: Lydia Liu

Editor: Jerry Grey