All of them have a Klashnikov in one hand and the Quran in the other to kill, intimidate, detain and mutilate our people arbitrarily.

All are violently misusing Islam, interpret the Quran according to their own personal whims and political interests, and use religion as a cover to hide their heinous crimes.

They are all proud of stoning men and women to death, cutting their limbs, public executions and punishing the people without trial in an authorized court.

Educational affairs during more than four years of the jehadi fundamentalists' rule were not better than what we find today under the Taliban. All of them are equally hostile to science and culture. If Taliban simply close the doors of all schools and name Radio Kabul as so-called Radio Shariat, the Rabbani and other bands of jehadi fundamentalists were not different. They called schools "the doors of hell" and termed radio as "devil's box" and TV as "Satan's mirror"! Book burning ceremonies were held in Kabul and elsewhere under the personal supervision of the infamous Seddiqu Chakari, the so-called minister of information and culture of Rabbani's administration.

All of them are not indigenous and are dependent on foreign countries. The Taliban too cannot last long without foreign support and the same holds true for other jehadi fundamentalists as well.

They are not only incapable of providing any economic relief to the Afghan people but are also unwilling to take any step that benefits the masses. The conditions are so disastrous in Afghanistan that people are forced to sell their children just to save them from dying of starvation in cold winters. Unprecedented abuses of human rights were committed on mass scale under the domination of both types of fundamentalists.

On the international scene, both have lost their reputation. If the Taliban arrest the UN officials, Rabbani and Masoud's henchmen raided the embassy of Pakistan killing at least one and leaving behind many injured, including the Pakistani ambassador. Rabbani was also engaged in sending his agents to Pakistan for terrorist activities.

Although Taliban's hostility against our women goes far beyond in intensity than what they had been experiencing during the rule of Rabbani & Co., it must be noticed that it was Mr Sibghatullah Mujaddedi who instead of paying heed to any of the numerous serious problems of Afghan people, raised hue and cry for imposition of "Islamic hejab". It was in the light of such injunctions that Rabbani & Co. too started to ban women from appearing on TV and working in the offices.

Both have brought a bad name to Afghanistan by cultivating and smuggling opium and its products around the world.

Of course, presently the rate of murdering, raping young girls and boys, and looting houses by the Taliban has been somehow less than jehadi fundamentalists; but the degree of brutalities of Taliban only against Afghan women is enough to understand the bigotry and fanaticism of this group. They physically force people to pray and destroy audio/video cassettes as haram (forbidden), and regard hearing even the sound of a woman's steps as a sin! It is quite likely that if Taliban succeed to consolidate their position all over the country, they will become even more cruel, ferocious and rigid in the name of Shariat.

Ironically, the former jehadi rulers are now trying their best to present themselves as more 'civilized' than the Taliban. They had their own women speaking out in defense of their fundamentalist bosses to justify their crimes against humanity. The Taliban, on the other hand, do not even pretend -- at least for the time being -- to be 'civilized'. They do not hesitate to issue commands of absurd nature like the one which orders that no human being should be photographed!

In view of what we said, it is easy to understand that the current infighting among different types of fundamentalists is nothing but a bloody war of Islamic bandits over booty. And since they are controlled by their foreign masters, the conflicting interests of these patron countries are also playing havoc with the fate of the Afghan people. The role of these masters is an important factor in the continuity of the war to which there seems to be no end in sight.