Taliban creates “Parallel System” with the government in Kundoz

The New York Times from the quotes of local officials and resident of Kundoz on condition of anonymity reported that Taliban has created a parallel system with the government.

The New York Times added that With just two months left before the formal end of the 13-year international combat mission, Western officials insist that the Afghan security forces have managed to contain the Taliban’s offensives on their own. But the insurgents’ alarming gains in Kunduz in recent weeks present a different picture.

Local residents and officials in three of the province’s most challenged areas, the Chahar Dara, Dasht-e-Archi and Imam Sahib districts, described a military and police force unable to mount effective operations. Rather than pushing back on the ground, Afghan forces have opted to shell areas near the capital under Taliban control.

“The fighting in Kunduz did not start this year,” said the acting provincial governor of Kunduz, Ghulam Sakhi Baghlani. “But in past years, we had international forces helping the Afghan security forces.”

Residents and an aid official said that local commanders had been allowing schools to stay open and even distributing pens and notebooks — including at girls’ schools, which were often targets for violence under the Taliban’s rule in the 1990s. They said the insurgents had even given their blessing to international development projects in some areas, which would once have been unthinkable.

“They have a parallel system to the government, one that approves the development projects,” said a stabilization adviser for a U.S.A.I.D. contractor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he works in Taliban areas. “We can’t do anything without the Taliban approval.”