Hundreds of Afghan civilians took to the streets and chanted Allah Hu Akbar in support of the Afghan forces against the Taliban. Reportedly, it started after 2 large explosions in Kabul on Tuesday that killed at least 3 people and injured 7. No militant group claimed responsibility but the city quickly flooded with protestors aiming to stand united with their security forces to topple the tyrannical rule.
Something like this has never happened in the past. The civilians and Afghan forces were standing on the same page for the first time in a long time. As the clashes between both groups intensified, the civilians picked their side and joined the fight. Some men and women even took up arms to resist the advancements by the Taliban. Other cities also joined in on the chant from their homes. It was history repeating itself from the 1980s when civilians fought against the soviet-backed communist rule and its army.
Allah Hu Akbar Chants to Defy Taliban Rule
Allah Hu Akbar became the war-cry of civilians suffering from assaults by the Taliban. Videos of protests started to go viral on social media with Afghans from all over the world supporting the cause. The fight is becoming vicious over time since the day the US quit. During one of the recent clashes in Lashkar Gah, around 40 civilians were killed.
Most of the city was captured by the Taliban, who were reportedly planning to lay siege on Kabul as well. However, the civilians have also joined the fighting force and swore they will not let the capital fall into the Taliban’s hands.
Demonstrators who did not take part in combat, lighted candles and raised Afghan flags to show their collective opposition to the Taliban with the same chant. The terrorist group has assaulted the cities of Kandahar, Herat, and Lashkar Gah within one week.
Significance of the Chant
President Ashraf Ghani supported the advance by civilians and the ironic chant they were using to defy the Taliban. Ghani said that this was exactly what the chant represented, poking sarcasm at the Taliban who used it in a misguided manner. Allah Hu Akbar chant is basically a declaration of supreme authority which is (or should be) only God. It does not matter how ruthless or monstrous the Taliban may become; the civilians still recognized them as something that can be beaten.
They started chanting it over and over to defy the overwhelming power of an oppressor. However, some entities on social media associated these cries with the support for the Taliban. Reportedly, it turned out that those kinds of accounts were either ill-informed or fanatics.
Taliban Taking Control of the Country
Taliban claimed that they have controlled 85% of Afghanistan with 250 districts out of 400. However, the Afghan government denies this and the independent media has also failed to verify. It is clear that the Taliban have been successful in seizing territory after territory since the US withdrawal. The map illustrates the pattern of rising Taliban control in Afghanistan.
It seems highly unlikely that there can be a unified government in Afghanistan with the Taliban. Moreover, the international pressure to make peace deals with the Taliban is also not enough. The world can only push verbally if it does not want to fight violence with violence and that is not likely to work. This is why civilians have been buckling themselves up with cries like Allah Hu Akbar, for facing whatever happens to Afghanistan.
