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The peoples that were under the influence of or ruled by the Hindu Sahi dynasty belonged to the territories of Kabulistan, Gandhara and parts of Northern Punjab. Kabulistan was what is currently known as the province of Kabul in present-day Afghanistan. Gandhara is the ancient name for the country that includes the valley of Peshawar in modern-day Pakistan. The parts of Punjab that were under Sahi influence are now a part of Punjab that currently belongs to Pakistan.

One country that was never conquered by the Sahis but was to play a big part in their history was Zabulistan. Zabulistan included the areas of modern-day Zabul and Ghazni provinces, located now in present-day Afghanistan.

The history of these lands is the stories of men and women that were destined to rule these lands, if not in their own name, then in the name of more powerful kings, these men were responsible for providing security, order and supporting local culture.

The history of these lands is a story of countless invasions, sometimes by generals and armies and at other times by the migration of whole tribes, migrating masses of men, women and children. The history of these lands is also one of competing religions, first Hinduism and then Buddhism. It is here that Buddhism, a native of India thrived, prospered and spread to other parts of the world. Then, after the decline of Buddhism, there was a resurgence of Hinduism under the Hindu Sahis before the arrival of Islam.

Though the history of these lands is ancient, for me, a good starting point would be a quick background and summary of the history of the lands before the Hindu Sahis. I choose to begin with the most famous of the conquerors of these lands, another childhood hero of mine, the great conqueror, Alexander.

A young Alexander the Great succeeded his father Philip II to the throne at the age of 20 in 336 BCE. Alexander commenced a great campaign to conquer the territories of the Persian empires. He began with Asia Minor, across the sea from Greece, continuing to campaign through the Levant and Syria, then west until he took Egypt. After this conquest he marched to the east and took the provinces of Assyria and Babylonia. After defeating the Persian king Darius III in the battle of Guagamela in 331 BCE, the whole of Persiaand the East fell to him.

Alexander then campaigned in central Asia, founding new cities, all named Alexandria, including modern Kandahar in Afghanistan, and Alexandria Eschate (The Furthest) in modern-day Tajikistan. The campaign took Alexander through Media, Parthia, Aria (West Afghanistan), Drangiana, Arachosia (South and Central Afghanistan), Bactria (North and Central Afghanistan) and Scythia.

He then turned to the Indian subcontinent. He invited the chieftains of the former satrapy of Gandhara to submit to his authority. The ruler of Taxila complied, but other chieftains of the hill tribes refused to submit.

Alexander himself campaigned in the Kunar Valley (Afghanistan), the Panjkora Valley in Upper Dir (modern-day Pakistan) and the Swat and Buner valleys.

Alexander crossed the Indus and fought and won the epic battle of the Hydaspes (Jhelum) in 326 BCE against King Porus, who ruled a region lying between the Jhelum and the Chenab. East of Porus kingdom, near the Ganges River, was the Nanda Empire of Magadha. The struggle with Porus had an impact on the courage of the Macedonians. Exhausted by years of campaigning, Alexanders army mutinied at the Hyphasis River (Beas) and refused to march further east.

Reluctantly, Alexander agreed and turned south, marching along the Indus. Most of the army marched with General Craterus into Iran. Alexanders admiral, Nearchus, took a fleet to explore the Persian Gulf while he led the rest back to Persia through the more difficult southern route, along the Gedrosian Desert and Makran.

When Alexander died, his son was still an infant. His generals and former companions wanted a bigger say in how the territories would be divided. This, inevitably, led to a civil war. The fate of the empire was decided at the Battle of Gaza in 312 BCE. When the spoils were divided, a young officer named Seleucus managed to obtain Persia and the east as his share, with his capital at Babylon.

Seleucus Nicator (358281 BCE) had been successful in his military career. He was reputed to have fought with distinction, though he had only fought in a junior role under Alexander and was not considered one of his close companions. By 302 BCE he had established his authority over the territories Alexander had conquered all the way up until the Jaxartes (modern-day Syr Arya river in Central Asia).

He was known to the Greeks as Sandracottus and was said to have met Alexander while the latter was in India in 326325 BCE. Under the guidance of his wily preceptor, Vishnugupta, better known as Chanakya or Kautilya, Chandragupta attacked the Macedonian garrison in the Indus Basin after the death of Alexander. After havingexterminated and overthrown the Nanda dynasty, he took the throne of Pataliputra (modern-day Patna).

Seleucus now set his designs to take back these territories in India. He marched against Chandragupta with the intention of attacking him, but he later reasoned against this and negotiated a treaty in 302 BCE. It is more likely that the Greeks were defeated as the subsequent treaty was quite one-sided, favouring the Indians. This treaty led to peace and terms that included a matrimonial alliance between the two kings.

Some believe that this meant Chandragupta marrying the daughter of Seleucus. Others interpret it to mean that the treaty may have recognised marriages between the subjects of the two kingdoms. Whether the marriage did take place or not, we do not read of the Mauryans and Greeks in conflict after this. The treaty also recognised Mauryan suzerainty over Paropamisadae and Arachosia. What the Greeks received in return were 500 elephants and a large amount of gold.

The elephants obtained from the Indian king were a valuable weapon that Seleucus could now use in his continued wars against the remaining successors.

The improved relations allowed Seleucus to send an envoy called Megasthenes to the court of the Mauryas in Pataliputra. Megasthenes subsequently became a great source of information for the history of India.

Asoka expanded the Mauryan empire to its greatest extent. It included modern-day Afghanistan in the west and stretched all the way east to include what is now Bangladesh. In fact, for one of the few times in Indias history, nearly the whole of the subcontinent of India was united as one political entity (excluding parts of present-day Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala). The capital continued to be Pataliputra, but Asoka maintained provincial capitals at Taxila and Ujjain.

Excerpted with permission from Forgotten Kings: The Story of the Hindu Sahi Dynasty, Changez Jan, Simon & Schuster India,

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This book recounts the near-forgotten tale of the Hindu Sahi kingdom in present day Afghanistan - Scroll.in

Pashtana Durrani:

Oh, yes, definitely.

I'm most time most of the time. I'm worried about the fact that, what if somebody follows them? What if all this number of girls are going there, what if somebody follows them? What if somebody just raids the school? It has always been a concern.

I talk to the teachers most of the time. Sometimes, they do tell me, oh, the Da'esh is going to attack this particular place. And I'm like, what if the Taliban do the same thing?

So it's always a conflict. At the same time, when you talk to the students, they have lost everything. Within the year, I was talking to my students. She was telling me the Afghanistan you got educated in and the Afghanistan I'm getting educated in are two different Afghanistans. They it's not the same of understand that you left.

And, at the same time, you feel sorry for the fact that they could have had a better future, better than ours, but they don't.

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Afghan women, girls push for education in the face of Taliban ...

ISLAMABAD -- Hundreds of people have been killed in Afghanistan since the Taliban overran the country nearly a year ago, even though security on the whole has improved since then, the United Nations said in a report Wednesday.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan also highlighted the poor situation of women and girls since the Taliban takeover and how they have been stripped of many of their human rights under Afghanistan's current rulers.

It is beyond time for all Afghans to be able to live in peace and rebuild their lives after 20 years of armed conflict. Our monitoring reveals that despite the improved security situation since 15 August, the people of Afghanistan, in particular women and girls, are deprived of the full enjoyment of their human rights, said Markus Potzel, deputy special representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan.

The report said as many as 700 people have been killed and 1,400 wounded since mid-August 2021, when the Taliban overran the Afghan capital of Kabul as the United States and NATO were in the final weeks of their withdrawal from the country.

The majority of those casualties were linked to attacks by the Islamic State group's affiliate in the country, a bitter rival of the Taliban which has targeted ethnic and religious minority communities in places where they go to school, worship and go about their daily lives.

Afghanistan has seen persistent bombings and other attacks on civilians, often targeting the mainly Shiite Muslim ethnic Hazara minority. Most of the attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State groups affiliate in the country.

The report added that the Taliban have made clear their position on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of expression and freedom of opinion.

They have limited dissent by cracking down on protests and curbing media freedoms, including by arbitrarily arresting journalists, protestors and civil society activists and issuing restrictions on media outlets.

The report catalogued human rights violations affecting 173 journalists and media workers, 163 of which were attributed to the de facto authorities. Among these were 122 instances of arbitrary arrest and detention, 58 instances of ill-treatment, 33 instances of threats and intimidation and 12 instances of incommunicado detention.

Six journalists were also killed since August, 2021, including five by self-identified Islamic State affiliates and one by unknown perpetrators.

The right to the freedoms of peaceful assembly, expression and opinion are necessary for the development and progression of a nation, said Fiona Frazer, the U.N.s human rights representative in Afghanistan.

"They allow meaningful debate to flourish, also benefiting those who govern by allowing them to better understand the issues and problems facing the population, she added.

The U.N. also said an amnesty for former government officials the Taliban announced last year has not been consistently upheld. Frazer said the U.N. recorded 160 extrajudicial killings and 178 arrests of former government and military officials.

The report said human rights violations must be investigated by the authorities, perpetrators held accountable, and incidents should be prevented from reoccurring in the future.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid called the U.N. report baseless and propaganda and its findings not true.

Arbitrary arrests and killings are not allowed in the country and if anyone commits such crimes, they will be considered guilty and face legal action, he added.

After their takeover last year, the Taliban quickly started enforcing a sharply tougher line, harking back to similar radical measures when the Taliban last ruled the country, from 1996 to 2001.

They issued edicts requiring women to cover their faces except for their eyes in public, including women presenters on TV, and banned girls from attending school past the sixth grade.

The U.N. report added that the erosion of womens rights has been one of the most notable aspects of the de facto administration to date. Since August, women and girls have progressively had their rights to fully participate in education, the workplace and other aspects of public and daily life restricted and in many cases completely taken away.

The decision not to allow girls to return to secondary school means that a generation of girls will not complete their full 12 years of basic education, the U.N. said.

The education and participation of women and girls in public life is fundamental to any modern society. The relegation of women and girls to the home denies Afghanistan the benefit of the significant contributions they have to offer. Education for all is not only a basic human right, it is the key to progress and development of a nation, said Potzel, the U.N. envoy.

During the previous Taliban rule in Afghanistan, they subjected women to overwhelming restrictions, banning them from education and participation in public life and requiring them to wear the all-encompassing burqa.

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UN slams killings, rights abuses under Afghanistan's Taliban - ABC News

Kabul [Afghanistan], July 20 (ANI): After Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August last year, over 700 families have been displaced from Panjshir to Parwan due to security reasons.

Faraidoon Noori, an official at the refugee and repatriations department of Parwan said, 748 families were displaced from Panjshir to Parwan province. They left their houses due to conflict, reported Tolo News.

Bebe Begom, a 90-year-old woman, who was displaced from Panjshir said that she left her house behind due to fighting in the region. She along with her family live in a small room in Charikar city (capital of Parwan province).

We were not allowed to take clothes, we were even not allowed to drink a cup of tea. We came to Charikar, and are staying here without food, said Bebe Begom.

It is one month since we left our home there (in Panjshir). My family and I brought nothing with us, said Dilawar.

They have beat us, saying bring the arms, you are in the resistance party, you are part of Ghanis government, said Mohammad Haneef.

Meanwhile, local officials of Panjshir province confirmed the arrival of the families, saying that a precise number of displaced families were not available.

Panjshir officials said that the department is planning to provide families with cash assistance and pledged to seek ways for the displaced families to return to their homes, reported Tolo News.

The refugees and repatriation department is considering providing assistance with the families who sustained damages, said Nasrullah Malekzadah, head of information and culture of Panjshir.

Earlier, in June, a London-based rights group raised concerns about the reports of unlawful killings and arbitrary arrests in Afghanistans Panjshir province.

Constantly, reports are coming of arbitrary arrests and unlawful killings of civilians by the Taliban in Panjshir. Events in the last couple of weeks leave little room for doubt that there is a growing pattern of extrajudicial executions and arbitrary arrests committed by the Taliban, said Zaman Sultani, Amnesty Internationals South Asia Researcher.

The amnesty researcher in a statement said these serious human rights violations create a climate of fear and distrust in the region and violate international humanitarian law and may constitute war crimes.

While the Taliban have rejected any reports of civilian deaths, these incidents are accompanied by a lack of accountability within the Taliban rank and file.

As the de facto authorities in the country, the rights groups have asked the Taliban to take immediate steps to conduct thorough, impartial and independent investigations of these incidents and prosecute those responsible for the torture, arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial execution, according to rights groups.

To ensure accountability, transparency and safeguard civilians from torture, arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances, the Taliban must release information on all those who have been arrested or detained and permit detainees to communicate with their families. (ANI)

This report is auto-generated from ANI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.

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Afghanistan: Post Taliban takeover, more than 700 Panjshir families displaced to Parwan - ThePrint

Health officials in Badghis province of northwest Afghanistan say that a passenger car overturned in the province, killing one person and injuring at least nine others.

The incident reportedly took place on Tuesday, the 19th of July, in the Khair Khana area of Qadis district in Badghis province.

A car of Corolla wagon type drove off the road and overturned, according to Sanaullah Sabit, the nursing head of the provincial hospital in Badghis.

The vehicle is said to have been en route to a wedding.

Sabit stated that nine people were wounded in this incident, including one man, five women, and three children, in addition to the one woman who tragically died.

The official told the media that the condition of the injured is good and that they are recovering from the wounds inflicted.

In a recent traffic event where a passenger car overturned in the Bala Murghab district of the same province killing four people and injuring another eight.

The main causes of the daily traffic fatalities in Afghanistan are drivers who disobey traffic laws, deteriorating roads, speeding, and the absence of traffic signals.

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Overturning Passenger Car Kills One and Injures Nine in Northwestern Afghanistan - The Khaama Press News Agency - The Khaama Press News Agency