One thing is clearly visible that the Taliban have brought reliable peace and stability in Afghanistan

KABUL: The arrival of winter yet again brings another challenging season for the rulers of Afghanistan as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) government shifts its focus to providing food and energy for the millions in need during the harsh months between November and March.

Travelling from Torkham to Kabul via Nangarhar and Laghman provinces, or going to Kabul’s neighbouring provinces Logar, Parwan, Maidan-Wardak or Bamyan; one thing is clearly visible that the Taliban have brought reliable peace and stability in the country or at least in provinces adjacent to the capital.

Even for first-time travellers to new destinations in the beautiful mountainous terrain, the journey is safe and one feels secure enough when they come across welcoming and polite Taliban soldiers guarding the roadside checkpoints. For the soldiers, tourists not only mean the arrival of some foreign cash into the community or local market but also a recognition of their achievement of maintaining peace across the country that faced 42 long years of external and internal wars.

“Movement on roads between towns, cities and provinces has eased up. Unlike in the past, the behaviour of the soldiers at the checkpoints is soft and they don’t trouble people with unwanted questions or cause delays in their journeys,” informed Abdur Rahman, our Afghan companion at the steering wheel on our way to Bamyan. For me, it was a noticeable change in one year since I remembered the way Abdur Rahman used to criticize the Taliban during our first time travelling only days after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021.

Like any war-ravaged country, children and widows are often seen on roadsides, streets and markets asking for alms. And while one wishes to help as many as they can, giving charity to any deserving person in the open is inviting trouble as within seconds dozens of more such persons appear from nowhere and surround you.

In recent travelling across seven Afghan provinces, we were asked for travel documents on only three instances. Once each on entering and exiting the country via the Pak-Afghan Torkham border. The only other time to take out our travel documents was on our way to Bayman province when the Taliban soldiers at the checkpoint at the gateway to Bamyan province asked for passports as I and my journalist colleague informed them that we were Pakistani nationals going to see the Buddha statues on our way to Band-e-Amir national park and dam. The soldier checked the passports and offered us green tea before allowing us entry to Bamyan province.

“He immediately recognized you by your appearance and your Pashto dialect. Most of the time, the people at the checkpoints are polite and speak to most people in a nice way even if they suspect someone to be from another country,” informed our Afghan co-traveller Farooq Ahmadzai.

Afghans are amazing people in many ways. Even the poorest will feel obliged if you accepted their offer for food or at least, green tea. The Hazara- Shia community in Bamyan is exceptionally well-mannered and soft-spoken and despite their poverty and lack of access to resources, the people in Bamyan have such care for their environment and resources that not even a single road sign was damaged or missing. “The easiest signs of knowing that you have are in Bamyan province are the clean and completely protected roads and the sign boards on both sides of the roads. Unlike many other places, people protect their roads, and keep their streets and markets clean,” Zahid revealed.

With over 70,000 population, Bamyan is the largest city in the Hazarajaat at an altitude of about 8,366 feet above sea level. The valley separating the Hindukush Mountain range from the Koh-e Baba mountains lies about 180 kilometres northeast of Kabul and is connected to the capital by roads through Parwan and Maidan-Wardak provinces. It is the cultural centre of the ethnic Hazara, mainly the Daizangi Hazara people of Afghanistan.

Most of the population lives in Bamyan city which is situated on the ancient Silk Route and was once at the crossroads between the East and West when all trade between China and the Middle East passed through it.

Bamyan city has several tourist attractions, including the Buddhas of Bamyan, which were carved into cliffs on the north side of Bamyan city in the 6th and 7th century CE, dating to the Hephthalite rule. Nearly 90 per cent of the province is covered in mountains. The winters can be up to six months long and clod as temperatures sometimes go down to -20 degrees Celsius.

An hour’s drive further west of Bamyan city is situated Afghanistan’s first and most glorious Band-e-Amir National Park. Established in April 2009, the national park in Central Afghanistan holds a natural dam formed from mineral-rich water seeping out of faults and cracks in the mountainous desert landscape high in the Hindukush range. A series of six penetratingly blue lakes, with Band-e-Zulfiqar being the largest with nearly 6.5 kilometres diameter; are contained by travertine walls of layers of hardened minerals.

The effect of tough financial conditions and cold weather was hard to miss as only a few daring tourists braved the cold to reach Band-e-Amir on a windy afternoon as the temperature dropped to 4 degrees Celsius in late October. Staff at over two dozen hotels endlessly kept waiting for the arrival of unexpected tourists.

Showing compassion to guests, a Hazara community soldier of the Taliban at the checkpoint in Band-e-Amir warned the visitors against eating any meat since it was “weeks old”. Even the ‘naan’ we were able to get from a bakery was two days old as the bakers stopped baking fresh naan in absence of visitors.

Despite being one of Afghanistan’s poorest regions, Bamiyan remains one of the safest in the country. This scribe witnessed a fair example of the on-ground situation on the way back to Kabul as a young lady walked all alone towards a far-located cluster of houses only a few minutes before 10 pm.