This is the latest in an ongoing series of conversations I have been having with an Afghan friend about the conditions inside his country since the Taliban took over last August. Afghanistan is one of the few countries in the world that still has many nomadic groups. My friend, who is Hazara, describes how the Taliban are letting their fellow Pashtun nomads, the Kochi, encroach on Hazara farmlands.
Dear David:
It was two p.m. when the bus departed on schedule from the caravanserai for my recent trip to see my parents in Hazarajat. I had bought the ticket the day before for 900 afg or about ten US dollars, which is more than 40 percent more expensive than it was before the Taliban took over Afghanistan.
Along the way, I listened to audiobooks and music, trying to ignore the stench inside the old vehicle, which is rarely if ever cleaned.
The pavement on our roads are grooved and broken due to the heavy load of trucks and the many past explosions from landmines. Junk from the war was laying everywhere – scavengers had pulled it apart.
When I arrived in Hazarajat at my parents’ home, what I noticed immediately was that there were Pashtun nomads everywhere. Like most Afghans, my parents are farmers, mainly they engage in sheepherding. This work is difficult all over Afghanistan because there is not enough good grazing area for the animals.
For this reason, before the Taliban takeover the nomads weren't allowed to enter Hazarajat. But now their herds of sheep are ravaging the fields in the valley.
That is a key reason that these days my parents and their fellow villagers are worried and feeling desperate. They worry that the nomads’ herds will eat their crops, that the war will return, and that the overall insecurity of their situation is increasing all the time. The ongoing drought has only added more pressure.
For now there is no hope for relief in sight.
For more on the Taliban’s war on the Hazara, see:
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