Anarkali Kaur Honaryar, a Member of the Afghan Parliament, has taken shelter in India. Upon her arrival in New Delhi on August 23, Honaryar thanked the Narendra Modi Government for giving her Political Asylum, thus, saving her from the Taliban. She also requested the Government of India to rescue Afghan Shiks and Hindus from the war-ravaged country. There is a big difference between what the Taliban say and what they do, said the Afghan lady.

Asked why she left Afghanistan even after being a Parliamentarian, Honaryar replied: “The whole world knows what is happening in Afghanistan. The situation has changed very quickly and it was not expected. Everyone is helpless, scared. We love our country, but we had to leave. There was no other way.”

Meanwhile, Honaryar, a Dentist working with Afghanistan Human Rights Commission who had won the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize in 2011 for helping women suffering from domestic abuse, forced marriages and gender discrimination, has claimed that many Sikh and Hindu families have taken refuge in Gurdwaras, a place of assembly and worship for Sikhs who are people associated with Sikhism, a monotheistic religion that originated in the 15th Century in the Punjab region of the Indian Subcontinent on the basis of the revelation of Guru Nanak. She has expressed serious concern over their security, stressing that the Taliban fighters could kill them at any point of time.

Referring to the return of Taliban to Power, Honaryar said: “When it all started, I planned not to leave my country. But soon everything changed. My mother is still scared. She thinks the Taliban are outside our room and doesn’t want me to leave. We have lost everything…” Days before leaving for India, Honaryar and her family thought that they could stay in Afghanistan and wait for the international community to save them. However, the family lost all hope on August 15 after ousted President Ashraf Ghani fled Kabul. “I was in office and saw the President a day before. I thought we were going to work and protest for peace. Soon, everyone in office was receiving calls about Taliban seizing Kabul. We had to leave. I was in my car when I noticed people running on the streets,” she added.

As Honaryar has no idea about her future, she stressed: “I want to return home and live in peace, but I don’t know if I will ever see my country again.”

In a separate development, the Washington Post has reported that William Joseph Burns, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), held a secret meeting with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul on August 23. As expected, such a revelation has triggered a fresh controversy over the Joe Biden Administration’s role in creating troubles for the Afghan people.

However, there is a doubt about whether the meeting took place at all! Experts in International Relations are of the opinion that if the meeting did take place, it would have been the highest-level meeting between the US and the Taliban since the fall of Kabul on August 15, 2021. Interestingly, the US intelligence agency has rejected the report, with a senior CIA spokesperson saying: “The movements of the CIA chief can never be made public.”

Earlier, the White House had assured the Taliban that all US troops would leave Afghanistan by August 31. Immediately after the terror outfit captured Kabul on August 15, the US nationals started leaving Afghanistan. Although nearly 17,000 Americans have left the South Asian nation, many are still there. Washington DC has hinted that it will take more time to repatriate each of them and complete the withdrawal process.

Meanwhile, the Taliban has made it clear that the repatriation of US citizens must be completed within the stipulated time. A Taliban spokesperson has told the British media that the US would have to face dire consequences, if the Biden Administration failed to keep its promise. So far, none of the two parties has kept promises made by them. While the Taliban fighters keep harassing the common people, especially the women; the US is taking time to withdraw its troops. The ultimate sufferers are Honaryar and her countrymen…

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das