Osama dead: Afghans see it as another chapter in conflict

May 3, 2011/Economic Times

It was the explosion of sms messages and phone calls that alerted many Afghans across Kabul city that Osama bin Laden, the man who had made Afghanistan coterminous with the centre of global terrorism, was dead.

But here in Afghanistan, the response to his death was not the visceral show of emotion that was evident among Americans gathering spontaneously outside the White House and on Ground Zero. In Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan, Afghans reacted more analytically, pondering the impact of the death and seeing it as yet another chapter in their endless conflict rather than as a closure.

While Afghans seem divided between hope and concerns for the future, they were united in their assertion that the operation had provided proof of what they had been saying for several years -- that the centre of terrorism was not in their country, but in neighbouring Pakistan.


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The sentiment was articulated most clearly by Afghan President Hamid Karzai who said: "The world should realise, as we said many, many times, and continue to say every day, the fight against terrorism is not in Afghanistan's villages, the fight against terrorism is not in the houses of poor and oppressed Afghans, the fight is not in bombing women and children. The fight against terrorism is in its sanctuaries, in its training camps and its finance centres, not in Afghanistan, and today it has been proved we were right."

Karzai was tapping into a widespread feeling echoed by a cross-section of society. "Afghans are sure that they have been targeted without any reason while the centre of Al Qaeda has been based in Islamabad," said Danish Karokhail, the managing director of Afghanistan's first multilingual independent news agency, Pajhwok. "Why have we lost so many Afghan lives in the last few years? It is better that the international community focus on the real place now."

"It should help Obama and NATO realign their strategy," said Halim Fidai, the Governor of the province of Logar, which has seen an escalation of violence over the past two years. "They should focus and expedite their efforts to disrupt leadership of the terrorist cells."

Karzai also called on the Taliban to "learn from what happened yesterday and stop fighting". While the Taliban had not reacted to the event at the time this went to press, there was a widespread feeling that the successful operation would help anti-insurgency operation by denting the Taliban's feeling of invincibility.

Although US President Barack Obama expressed appreciation for the help from Pakistani counterparts, Afghans were not forthcoming with praise. "If they had known there would be an operation, they would have helped him escape," said Fahim Dashty, the editor of Kabul Weekly, who had been with Ahmed Shah Masood, when he was killed by a suicide bomber days ahead of 9/11. Masood played a leading role in driving the Soviet army out of Afghanistan and was also at the forefront of the battle against the Taliban.

Bin Laden's removal achieves one of the strategic goals of the US, something that has left many Afghans with a sense of foreboding. "I hope the international community will not abandon Afghanistan saying 'mission accomplished' and leave behind an unstable government," said Shahmahmood Miakhel, the chief of party for the United States Institute for Peace.

(Aunohita Mojumdar is an Indian journalist based in Kabul)