Form of words:
New Delhi: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan landed in hot water last week for mistakenly calling a tribe in Afghanistan, the Haqqani Network, a terrorist organization on the UN sanctions list.
“Americans do not understand what the Haqqani Network is. Haqqani is a tribe. It is a Pashtun tribe, which lives in Afghanistan. Forty years ago, when the Afghan jihad happened, we had five million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, some of them Haqqanis.” KHAN said one in CNN Interview.
Social media users were quick to signal There is no Pashtun tribe in Afghanistan by the name of Haqqani. The Haqqani Network, which is affiliated with the Afghan Taliban and is responsible for several attacks including the 2017 bombing in Kabul, was founded by the late Sardar Jalaluddin Haqqani who was from the Jadran tribe.
Jalaluddin’s son Sirajuddin now serves as the interior minister in the new Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
The Taliban, which means ‘student’ in Pashto, derived their power mainly from the dominant Pashtuns in Afghanistan. They first seized Kabul in 1996 from President Burhanuddin Rabbani, an ethnic Tajik, to whom they belonged. saw As anti-Pashtun and corrupt.
Read also: SAARC foreign ministers’ meeting canceled after Pakistan insists on Taliban involvement
Who are the Pashtuns?
The Pashtuns, also known as Pushtans, Pakhtuns or Pathans, are the major ethnic group in Afghanistan, which includes 40-50 percentage of population. Small ethnic groups in the 14 recognized countries include Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras.
There are also a large number of Pashtuns in Pakistan. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan. They were separated from Afghanistan by the ‘Durand Line’, which divided the territory between British India and Afghanistan in the late 19th century.
The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), a growing civil rights group that started in Pakistan in 2014, has long criticized the Imran Khan government and the military establishment for human rights violations against the community.
Pashtuns are mostly Sunni Muslims. However, there are Shia Pashtuns in eastern Afghanistan. 2002 intelligence report good by the US Marine Corps Intelligence Activity (MCIA).
Pashtuns speak Pashto, which became The national language of Afghanistan in 1936.
‘Pashtunwali’, blood feuds and tribal councils
The center of Pashtun lifestyle is ‘Pashtunwali’ Code of honor that emphasizes individual autonomy. A major aspect of this code is the blood feud or vengeful killings that have been going on for generations between families and tribes.
US-based social anthropologist Thomas Barfield wrote in one, “Not personally seeking blood vengeance is considered a sign of moral weakness, even cowardice, not only of the person who was wronged.” , but also of his entire relative group.” 2003 research paper Topic Afghan customary law and its relation to formal judicial institutions.
Blood feuds cannot go on in government controlled societies. Therefore, people living in marginal rural lands far from state control see themselves as “true Pashtuns” who can maintain strict standards of Pashtunwali, Barfield said.
Decisions are taken and disputes are resolved by consensus in the Tribal Council or ‘jirga’, and its participating members are usually prominent village men and religious figures such as mullahs. Women and children are not allowed, because Told Country of Origin Information Center by ‘Landinfo’, an independent body that works with the Norwegian Immigration Authority.
Hospitality, protection of property and protection of female relatives are other important principles for Pashtuns.
Original
as far as basic principle Go, some say that the Pashtuns are descendants of Eastern Iranians while others speculate that they originated from the ancient tribes of Israel.
Pashtuns believe that they are descended from a common ancestor, even though there is no consensus on what this ancestor is named. Some call him Qais Abdurrashid, others refer to him as Daru Nika or Baba Khalid, the great commander in the Prophet Muhammad’s army.
German ethnographer Bernt Glatzer, who published several works on nomadism in Afghanistan, Iexplained The family tree from which many tribes are believed to have originated under this common ancestor.
The common ancestor is said to have had four sons: Sarban, Bitan, Ghurghushta and Karran. Sarban had two sons: Sharjanun and Kharshbun; Bitaan had three sons, Ismail, Ashboon, Qazin, and a daughter, Bibi Matu; Ghurghushta had three sons, Danay, Babe and Mando; And Karran had two sons, Kode and Kake.
Important Pashtun rulers include Ibrahim Lodi of the Lodi dynasty, who ruled Afghanistan and northern India during the Delhi Sultanate period and was eventually defeated by the Mughal emperor Babur.
Who are Durrani and Gilzai?
There are countless tribes, sub-tribes and sub-units under the larger umbrella of Pashtuns. The two major tribes include the Durrani and the Ghiljai. MCIA report good Let’s take a look at the sub-tribes below these two.
Under Durrani come the Achakzai, Alizai, Barakzai, Mohammadzai and Popalzai. Ahmedzai, Kharruti, Hotaki, Wardak, Jaji and Jadran come under Gilzai.
Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Baradar and former Afghan President Hamid Karzai belong to the Popalzai tribe in the Taliban cabinet.
‘-zai’ or ‘-zai’ is a common suffix in the names of larger tribal units and means “son…”, while ‘-khel’ refers to smaller sub-units, Explained Glatzer. He added that tribes that end with ‘-zay’ are usually found in the southern or western parts of Afghanistan. Most of the Eastern tribes like Afridi, Mohmand, Jadran, Shinwari and others lack this suffix.
(Edited by Amit Upadhyay)
Read also: Jaishankar discusses Afghanistan situation and Indo-Pacific with global counterparts at UNGA
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