AFGHANS DREAM OF LIFE AFTER WAR

Possible US-Taliban deal on Feb 29 sparks hope of peace among Afghans

WITH a partial truce under way yesterday and a deal between the United States and the Taliban likely on the horizon, Afghans are daring to dream of the war ending and their country finally opening up.

The “reduction in violence” agreed by the Taliban, the US and the Afghan security forces came ahead of a possible deal between the insurgents and Washington, which would see the US pull thousands of troops out of Afghanistan.

While the move is fraught with uncertainty, it marked a potentially historic step in the country’s more than 18-year-old war.

Afghans had been sharing their hopes for peace on social media, tagging posts with hashtags in Dari and Pashto — Afghanistan’s two main languages — that translate to #ifPeaceComes and #whenThereIsCeasefire.

“In the past 15 years, people have not been able to travel on highways safely. The Taliban stop them, kill them or kidnap them,” Ramin Mazhar, a poet who helped spread the hashtags, said.

If the reduction in violence holds, Mazhar said he would go to Nuristan, an inaccessible province in the northeast of the country.

“I want to go to Nuristan, run, laugh, sing, dance, whistle and eat yogurt,” he said.

“I want to touch its green hills, crazy rivers and blue sky. I want to climb its trees, and know its pigeons.”

Afghanistan was once a popular destination on the “hippie trail” that saw foreigners from across Europe travel to the country by bus en route to India in the 1960s and 1970s.

Tourism was destroyed following the Soviet invasion in 1979 that led to over 40 years of continuous fighting and instability.

Few Afghans have been able to visit areas outside of their immediate home ever since, while millions have relocated to urban areas or moved abroad.

The burst in enthusiasm comes as the Taliban and US are expected on Feb 29 to strike a deal that would see American troops withdraw from the country in exchange for security guarantees, after more than a year of gruelling talks.

Most analysts agree a subsequent agreement between the Taliban and the Kabul government would take years, but the breakthrough has spurred hopes.

Heela Najibullah – the daughter of former Afghan president Najibullah Ahmadzai, who was tortured and murdered by the Taliban in 1996 – said she hoped to visit her father’s grave in southeastern Paktia province.

“I will walk to my father ’s grave. I will cry and pray that no other Afghan child becomes an orphan,” she tweeted.

“I will make a school there, and teach at the university.”