10. To understand the complex state of Afghanistan, it is essential to dwell into its past, since the customs which have evolved over the years, continue to dictate the events even today. Afghanistan, due to its strategically important location has always been an area of interest for global powers. Its nationhood has always been influenced by regional and global factors. Some important issues that merit attention are the facts that Afghanistan was never colonised and remained primarily a monarchy with power vested with the tribal warlords divided along the ethnic lines. Present-day Afghanistan was formed in 1747 by Ahmed Shah Abdali, a Pashtun bodyguard of the Persian emperor, Nadir Shah after the latter's death. He came to be known by the title 'Durrani' and is often regarded as the founder of modern Afghanistan. In the nineteenth century, the country became the focus of the Great Game, played out between the British who were ruling the Indian subcontinent and Russian Empire expanding its territorial boundaries across Central Asia under the Czar rule.
11. The period from 1839 to 1919 was marked by the Afghan struggle to retain their independence from any foreign rule and led to three Anglo-Afghan wars. The first Anglo Afghan War was fought from 1839 to 1842 and resulted in the destruction of the
complete contingent of the British army and is remembered as an apt example of the ferocity of Afghan resistance to foreign rule. The Second Anglo Afghan War was fought
from 1878 to 1880 and was sparked by Amir Shir Ali's refusal to accept a British mission in Kabul. This conflict brought Amir Abdur Rahman to the Afghan throne and it was during his reign from 1880 to 1901, that the British and Russians officially established the boundaries of what would become the present day Afghanistan. In 1893, the Afghan rulers under the British pressure agreed to the formal boundary between British India and Afghanistan being drawn along a line, called 'Durand Line'. This was done in utter disregard to the fact that the Pashtun majority population of Afghanistan, which lived on both sides of this border, would never recognise it. "The origins of today's turmoil can be traced back, in important measure, to the creation of this artificial frontier" [3] .
12. Amir Abdur Rahman was succeeded by his son Habibullah and Afghanistan remained neutral during World War I, despite German encouragement of anti-British feelings and Afghan rebellion along the borders of British India. In 1919, Habibullah was assassinated possibly by family members opposed to the British influence. His third son, Amanullah, regained control of Afghanistan's foreign policy after launching the Third Anglo Afghan War in 1919 with an attack on India in the same year. "During the ensuing conflict, the war-weary British relinquished their control over Afghan foreign affairs by signing the Treaty of Rawalpindi in August 1919. In commemoration of this event, Afghans celebrate 19 August as their Independence Day" [4] .In November 1929, Prince Mohammed Nadir Khan, cousin of Amanullah Khan, in turn defeated and
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executed Habibullah Kalakani and was declared the King. In 1933 he too was assassinated and Mohammad Zahir Shah, Nadir Khan's 19-year-old son, succeeded to the throne and reigned from 1933 to 1973. Afghanistan continued to be ruled by the monarchy till as late as 1973. In 1973 King Zahir Shah was overthrown by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan and Afghanistan was drawn into a long power struggle.
13. Complicating the situation was the fact that successive Afghan governments, and even influential sections of the Pashtun population in Pakistan, refused to acknowledge the Durand Line as an international frontier. "Pashtuns remember the words of their legendary seventeenth-century poet Khushal Khan Khattak, who proclaimed "Pull out your swords and slay anyone that says Pashtun and Afghan are not one. Arabs know this and so do Romans: Afghans are Pashtuns and Pashtuns are Afghans" [5] . This problem remains one of the major issues of concern affecting the Afghanistan-Pakistan relations. The issue of 'Durand Line' is very relevant since India and Pakistan were still under the colonial rule, while Afghanistan was a free nation that had never been colonised by any western power. In 1947 when Pakistan was carved out of India, the Afghans refused to accept its entry into the United Nations in light of their disputed boundary along the 'Durand Line'.
14. The seeds of the present day Afghan problems were sown during the period beyond 1973 by the Soviets, under whose influence the Communist inclined Afghan Government carried out massive reforms on issues like education for women, land
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distribution etc. This was strongly objected to by the conservative Afghani people of various classes. Seizing the opportunity, the US Government authorised funding for the anti-communist guerrillas through Pakistan's ISI. Pakistan therefore got to form and train a resistance force called the 'Mujahedeen' against the Afghan Government
which was not Pakistan friendly and also wanted to sideline the issue of the 'Durand line' by making Afghanistan a weak nation that was at war within itself.
15. A historic blunder was committed by the Soviets, in December 1979 when they intervened militarily in Afghanistan. This led to the direct involvement of the Americans in this 'Cold War Era' conflict being fought in the country of the Great Game once again. The Americans were determined to oust the Soviets from Afghanistan whom they described as the "evil empire" as also to avenge the American defeat in Vietnam. This US action involved supporting General Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan who was a conservative Islamist to fight the Soviets. CIA financed the ISI operations being carried out against the Soviets in Afghanistan and it was during this period, under the rule of General Zia that weapons provided by the CIA found their way into the hands of radical Islamist groups within Pakistan.
16. This war was termed as the 'Global Jihad' and the armed struggle drew Muslims from across the world. Osama Bin Laden was also drawn by this jihad. Saudi Arabia also financed this movement besides a large number of western countries. All these developments and large scale casualties to the Soviets led to their withdrawal in 1989.
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Before the Soviet withdrawal, they installed a government led by President Mohammad Najibullah who was an ethnic Pashtun. He held on until Soviet assistance totally dried up in 1992. This led to the battle for the control of Kabul by various rival groups. The civil strife took on an ethnic colour with the Non-Pashtuns from Northern Afghanistan, backed by Russia, India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Iran, confronting the Taliban, composed of Pashtuns drawn from the madrassas of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and armed, trained, and backed by the ISI and the Pakistani Army.
17. "By late 1994 the Taliban fighters fully supported by Pakistan Army were gaining control of one province after another and swiftly moved towards Kandahar. The first quarter of 1995 saw an influx of ISI and Pakistan Army officials on a variety of missions" [6] . This nexus continued unopposed as long as the target was India in the name of "Resistance movement in Jammu and Kashmir". Things took a different turn on 11 September 2001, when US was targeted and the attackers were traced back to Afghanistan based Al-Qaeda and their Taliban hosts. US launched 'Operation Enduring Freedom' in response to the attacks but this operation failed to place enough boots on the ground to block the exit routes of the Taliban. Though the Taliban was ousted from Kabul by the Northern Alliance backed by US and its allies, the Taliban leadership along with the leadership of al-Qaeda including Osama bin Laden escaped across the 'Durand Line' into the tribal areas of Pakistan's NWFP. These groups were only dispersed rather than being destroyed by Operation Enduring Freedom.
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The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 led to total dislocation and the disintegration of political structures on a large scale. The US and other foreign powers pushed in military support in form of money and the hardware for the newly formed resistance groups through Pakistan. Pakistan's ISI enabled the 'mujahedeen' to wage the 'holy war' against the Soviets. Pakistan being an important instrument of the US and its western allies was at the fore front of this campaign. ISI and Pakistan Army played a crucial role in the training of various mujahedeen groups operating in Afghanistan.
