Afghan history, art, culture obliterated

It is destruction at its worst, perhaps with few parallels in history. The decade-long civil war and the Taliban obscurantism in Afghanistan, incited by outside vested interests, have decimated some of the best preserved treasures of history and virtually all centres of higher modern learning. The treasures of the past and present have simply disappeared from the map of Kabul.
Just as one travels along river Kabul towards the southern outskirts the main Kabul city is located Darulaman, a city King Amannullah built to celebrate the country's independence from British India in 1921. On either side of the broadly laid out road of Jadi Darulaman are Babur Garden, Kabul zoo, Kabul University campus, an imposing polytechnic college, Chilsitoon royal guest house, the main Darulaman Palace and its look-alike Tape Taj Beg.
Magnificent as all these were in their own way, today they no longer exist. They exist only in ruins, perhaps beyond repair. Surely, their glory can never be resurrected. Along with countless people living in the vicinity, these structures and institutions became the victims of discredited Hizb-ul-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's insatiable lust for power in Kabul in the early 1990s. If Mr Hekmatyar's tanks and artillery fire left anything untouched, the Talibans and their foreign jehadis subsequently finished those too.
The Kabul Museum, known for its rare collections from all over the world, is nowhere to be seen today. Pointing to the area where the Museum once stood, an Afghan guide told this correspondent: Today in Kabul everything is was." The entire building that housed the Museum was razed as Hekmatyar's men repeatedly sought to enter Kabul from the south by dislodging the then Rabbani government. Not far away from the museum, only the skeletons of what was once the Kabul zoo can be seen. The famed Babur garden looks more like a graveyard.
The palatial Chilsitoon guest house, where the Mortimer Durand mission from London came to get the Afghan rulers to agree to the Durand Line as the boundary between British India and Afghanistan in 1891, is at best a historical site today. The Darulaman Palace too has taken irreparable beating. It was once meant to be the parliament-cum-secretariat but subsequently used by the defence forces. Not far away from this fallen structure stood its lookalike Tape Taj Beg, which was partially destroyed.
Curiously, however, Tape Taj Beg is the only rebuilding of sorts which the Taliban did. But the Talibans did that only to promote the cause of jehad. It was repaired to house Arabs, Pakistanis and others who came for military training. The training facility complex located nearby was bombed by the US in the first fortnight of its air campaign in Afghanistan. According to locals, over a hundred jehadis where in a late night meeting which four American bombs dropped from the skies devastating the camp and killing all the jehadis.
Perhaps, the loss that would be immediately felt the most is the destruction of educational institutions. The large polytechnic college, where up to five thousand students enrolled in the early 1980s, is gone. Built with assistance from Moscow, the large campus, including the main building, dormitories and residential apartments have suffered extensive damage. The campus has been abandoned. The Kabul University campus, built with extensive American assistance, was not spared either. Not all buildings have gone, though. But, the Talibans have completely destroyed the university library, burning down its vast collection of books and journals. Ironically, Mr Hekmatyar is a product of the university's engineering college.
The area also has an industrial park, housing among others, the country's largest steel works. Only, the remnants of the factory which provided employment to over five thousand people remain. "Only the body remains here, the engines have been taken to Pakistan by looters," said the guide. At least 20 to 30 thousand houses too have been flattened by the bombings around the Darulaman area. There is no life any longer in these localities.

K Subrahmanya