Pashtuns
The Pashtuns are Afghanistan’s biggest ethnic group, making up more than 42 per cent of the population.
The group, predominantly Sunni Muslim and speaks the Pashto language, has dominated Afghan politics since the 18th century.
Many Pashtun leaders over the years have stressed a “right to rule” Afghanistan, which has angered other ethnic groups.
The Taliban, in control of Afghanistan for a second time after their 1996-2001 regime, are a Pashtun-dominated group.
Even the two presidents under the previous US-backed governments — Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani — were Pashtuns.
Traditionally based in the south and east of the country, the dominant position of the Pashtuns has often caused resentment among other groups, especially because of political, economic and cultural marginalisation.
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Tajiks
The Tajiks are the second-biggest ethnic group, making up more than a quarter of the Afghan population.
The main language among Tajiks is a dialect of Farsi called Dari, also the lingua franca of Afghanistan.
The group is mainly distributed in the north and west of the country, with strongholds in the Panjshir Valley, the western city of Herat and some northern provinces.
The Panjshir Valley is famed for resisting occupation by the Soviet military in the 1980s and by the first Taliban regime.
While not politically dominant, several prominent Tajik leaders have emerged in recent decades.
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The revered mujahideen leader Ahmad Shah Massoud — “The Lion of Panjshir” — who fought the Red Army and the Taliban is at the top of that list among Afghans.
Burhanuddin Rabbani, a Tajik from Badakhshan province in the north, served as Afghan president from 1992 to 1996 before Kabul fell to the Taliban.
Abdullah Abdullah, former chief executive and the main peace negotiator for the previous Afghan regime is of mixed Pashtun-Tajik ethnicity but is widely considered the latter.
Hazara
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The Hazara, believed to have origins in Central Asian and Turkic peoples, are around 10 per cent of the population and are mainly based in central Afghanistan.
They speak a Dari dialect and are predominantly Shia Muslim.
For more than a century, the group faced violent oppression and discrimination in Afghanistan over both religion and ethnicity.
In recent decades, they have also suffered massacres across various Afghan governments, but especially under the Taliban — hardline Sunni Muslims who have usually labelled Shias heretics.
Other militants active in Afghanistan such as the Islamic State groups have also targeted the Hazara with deadly bomb attacks, not even sparing their schools and hospitals.
RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER, SERGEI LAVROV: Afghan ethnic groups need to gather for talks.
— Tajuden Soroush (@TajudenSoroush) August 17, 2021
Uzbeks
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Afghan Uzbeks are also around 10 per cent of the population, mainly based in the north of the country close to the border with Uzbekistan.
A Turkic people, are mainly Sunni Muslims.
The most famous, and notorious, Afghan Uzbek is the warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, who fought with the Soviets against the mujahideen before changing sides and effectively setting up his own stronghold centred on the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
He was a leading figure in the Northern Alliance that helped end Taliban rule after the US invasion of 2001 and later joined the Ghani administration as a first vice-president.
He fled to Uzbekistan when Mazar-i-Sharif fell to the Taliban this month.
The NSC reaffirmed that Pakistan would "continue to work with the international community and all Afghan stakeholders to facilitate an inclusive political settlement", terming it as "the way forward" for the representation of all Afghan ethnic groupshttps://t.co/PLB1XKhnPr
— Dawn.com (@dawn_com) August 16, 2021
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Smaller ethnic groups
The Afghan constitution of 2004 officially recognised more than a dozen ethnicities. In addition to the four biggest groups, the nomadic Aimaq, the Turkmen and the Baloch were also listed.
Also included were the Nuristani people in the northeast of Afghanistan, who were forcibly converted to Islam in the 19th century.
2/ Baghlan province is mostly Tajik & Hazara. Panjshir & Andarab is mostly Tajik. These ethnic groups have deep animosity for the #Taliban
Panjshir province is controlled by the Afghan army, local militias & by Vice President Amrullah Saleh. #Afghanistan#Panjshir valley ⬇️⬇️⬇️ pic.twitter.com/RUXxECgVjG
— Indo-Pacific News – Geo-Politics & Defense (@IndoPac_Info) August 20, 2021
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© AFP with inputs from GVS