Taliban
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| Taliban طالبان | |
|---|---|
| Participant in the Civil war in Afghanistan, the War in Afghanistan (2001–present) and the Waziristan War | |
 Taliban flag | |
| Active | September 1994-December 2001 (government) 2004-present (Islamic Insurgency) |
| Ideology | Islamism |
| Leaders | Mullah Mohammed Omar Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Mullah Obaidullah Akhund |
| Area of operations | Afghanistan and Pakistan[1] |
| Strength | 45,000 (2001 est.)[2] 11,000 (2008 est.)[3] 36,000 (2010 est.).[4] |
| Originated as | Students of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam |
| Allies | Al-Qaeda Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin Haqqani network Islamic Emirate of Waziristan Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan East Turkestan Islamic Movement |
| Opponents | ISAF (led by NATO) Participants in Operation Enduring Freedom |
| ||
The Taliban, alternative spelling Taleban,[5] (Pashto: طالبان ṭālibān, meaning "students") is a hanafi Islamistpolitical group that governed Afghanistan from 1996 until it was overthrown in late 2001. It has regrouped since 2004 and revived as a strong insurgency movement governing mainly local Pashtun areas and fighting a guerrilla warAfghanistan, Pakistan, and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force[6] It would be a misnomer to term Taliban movement a Wahabi movement as Abdullah Wahab followed interpretation of Zahiri School and the forerunners of this School are Imam ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Hazm. The Taliban movement is a tribal confederacy of Ghilzai and their allied tribes and are staunch Afghan/Pashtoon Nationalists (strictly follow the social cultural norm called pashtoonwali) and also are Hanafi traditionalists i.e., followers of Imam Abu Hanifa School of interpretation. The Taliban movement is primarily made up of members belonging to ethnic Pashtun tribes,[7] along with volunteers from nearby Islamic countries such as Uzbeks, Tajiks, Punjabis, Arabs, Chechens and others.[8][9][10] It operates in Afghanistan and Pakistan, mostly in provinces around the Durand Line border. U.S. officials say their headquarters is in or near Quetta, Pakistan, and that Pakistan and Iran[11][12][13][14][15] although both nations deny this.[16][17] against the governments of (ISAF). provide support,
The main leader of the Taliban movement is MullahMohammed Omar, who is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan with a $25 million reward for information leading to his capture.[18][19] Omar's original commanders were "a mixture of former small-unit military commanders and madrassa teachers,"[20] while its rank-and-file was made up mostly of Afghan refugees who had studied at Islamic religious schools in Pakistan.[citation needed] The Taliban received valuable training, supplies and arms from the Pakistani government, particularly the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI),[21] and many recruits from madrasas for Afghan refugees in Pakistan, primarily ones established by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI).[22]
Although in control of Afghanistan's capital (Kabul) and most of the country for five years, the Taliban regime, which called itself the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan", gained diplomatic recognition from only three states: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. It has regained some amount of political control and acceptance in Pakistan's border region, but recently lost one of its Pakistani leaders, Baitullah Mehsud, in a CIA missile strike.[23] Pakistan has launched an offensive to force the Taliban from its territory.[24]
While in power, the Taliban enforced one of the strictest interpretations of Sharia law ever seen in the Muslim world,[25] and became notorious internationally for their treatment of women.[26] Women were forced to wear the burqa in public.[27] They were allowed neither to work nor to be educated after the age of eight, and until then were permitted only to study the Qur'an.[26] They were not allowed to be treated by male doctors unless accompanied by a male chaperon, which led to illnesses remaining untreated. They faced public flogging in the street, and public execution for violations of the Taliban's laws.[28]
In mid-2009, the Taliban established an ombudsman office in northern Kandahar, which author David Kilcullen[29] describes as a "direct challenge" to the ISAF.
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[edit] Etymology
The word Taliban is Pashto, طالبان ṭālibān, meaning "students", the plural of ṭālib. This is a loan word from Arabicطالب ṭālib,[30] plus the Indo-Iranian plural ending -an ان (the Arabic plural being طلاب ṭullāb, whereas طالبان ṭālibān is a dual form with the incongruous meaning, to Arabic speakers, of "two students"). Since becoming a loanword in English, Taliban, besides a plural noun referring to the group, has also been used as a singular noun referring to an individual. For example, John Walker Lindh has been referred to as "an American Taliban" rather than "an American Talib". In the English language newspapers of Pakistan the word talibans is often used when referring to more than one taliban. The spelling 'Taliban' has come to predominate over 'Taleban' in English.[31]
[edit] Early history
[edit] Emergence
Main article: Taliban's rise to power
At the conclusion of a speech[32] given on September 26th 2008 at the Seattle Central Library, the journalist Robert Fisk relates the account of one Captain Mainwaring given in the official British report of ca. 1882 on the Battle of Maiwand, which took place on July 27th 1880 during the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Mainwaring wrote of how particular Afghan fighters wearing black turbans would charge the British infantry lines and, upon reaching a British soldier, would proceed by cutting open his throat; of these suicidal Afghan fighters Mainwaring reveals 'they were called the Taliban'.
The most credible and often-repeated story of how Mullah Omar first mobilized his followers is that in the spring of 1994 Singesar neighbors told him that a warlord commander had abducted two teenage girls, shaved their heads and taken them to a camp where they were raped repeatedly. 30 Taliban (with only 16 rifles) freed the girls and hanged the commander from the barrel of a tank. Later that year two warlord commanders killed civilians while fighting for the right to sodomize a young boy. The Taliban freed him.[33][34]
The Taliban's first major military activity was in 1994 when they marched northward from Maiwand and captured Kandahar City and the surrounding provinces, losing only a few dozen men.[35] They captured a border crossing at Spin Baldak and an ammunition dump from warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar on October 29. Kandahar fell November 3–5. A few weeks later they freed "a convoy trying to open a trade route from Pakistan to Central Asia" from another group of warlords attempting to extort money for permission to pass their checkpoints. The convoy owners paid a large fee and promised ongoing payments for this service.[36]
The areas in which the Taliban emerged were not under the control of the central government in Kabul which had no hands in the affairs of southern Afghanistan during that time. The Taliban were first viewed as a force of liberation.
Over the next three months this hitherto unknown force took control of twelve of 34 provinces not under central government control, disarming the "heavily armed population". Militias controlling the different areas often surrendered without a fight.[25] The Taliban imposed on the parts of Afghanistan under their control their interpretation of Islam. The Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) analyze: "To PHR’s knowledge, no other regime in the world has methodically and violently forced half of its population into virtual house arrest, prohibiting them on pain of physical punishment ..."[28] Women were required to wear the all-covering chadof, they were banned from public life, denied access to health care and education, windows needed to be covered so that women could not be seen from the outside and they were not allowed to laugh in a manner they could be heard by others.[28] The Taliban, without any real court or hearing, cut people's hands or arms off when accused of stealing.[28] Taliban hit-squads watched the streets conducting brutal public beatings.[28]
With the strong support of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Osama Bin Laden the Taliban proceeded further to Kabul see video, where for the first time they faced the troops of defense minister Ahmad Shah Massoud who then controlled parts of the capital and provinces in the north and east of Afghanistan. Ahmad Shah Massoud had been named "The Afghan who won the cold war" by the Wall Street Journal.[37] He had defeated the Soviet Red Army nine times in his home region of Panjshir, in north-eastern Afghanistan.[38] Massoud, unarmed, went to talk to some Taliban leaders in Maidan Shar to convince them to join a peaceful political process so that democratic elections could be held to decide on a future government for Afghanistan. He hoped they could be allies in bringing stability to Afghanistan before the Afghans could choose their future government themselves. But the Taliban declined to join such a political process. When Massoud returned unharmed to Kabul, the Taliban leader who had received him as his guest paid with his life (he was killed by other senior Taliban) for failing to execute Massoud while the possibility was there. Over the following weeks Massoud handed the Taliban their first major military defeat. Some months later, however, after Taliban forces had again encircled the capital, Massoud ordered a retreat from Kabul on September 26, 1996.[39] Massoud and his troops retreated to the northeast of Afghanistan.[40][41]
[edit] War against the United Front (Northern Alliance)
Main article: Afghan Civil War (1996-2001)
The Islamic State of Afghanistan (ISA) which had been created after the Soviet and Afghan communist defeat, whose president was Burhanuddin Rabbani and whose defense minister was Ahmad Shah Massoud, from 1995 onwards came under attack by Mullah Omar's Taliban, Pakistan and Al Qaeda. In September 1996 the Taliban with their allies succeeded in taking power in Kabul.
Ahmad Shah Massoud, who still represented the legitimate government of Afghanistan as recognized by most foreign countries and the United Nations, and Abdul Rashid Dostum, one of his former archnemesis, for the survival of their remaining territories were forced to create an alliance against the Taliban, Pakistan (who had 28 000 Pakistani nationals fighting alongside the Taliban) and Al Qaeda coalition which was about to attack the areas of Massoud and those of Dostum.[42] see video The alliance was called United Front but in the Western and Pakistani media became known as the Northern Alliance.
As the Taliban committed massacres, especially among the Shia and Hazara population which they regarded as "sub-humans" worse than "non-believers" an thus according to them were without any rights [43] many Hazaras fled to the area of Massoud. The Hezb-i Wahdat, main faction of the Hazaras, consequently also joined the United Front. The National Geographic concluded: "The only thing standing in the way of future Taliban massacres is Ahmad Shah Massoud."[43] In the following years many more were to join the United Front. These included Afghans and Afghan commanders from all regions and Afghan ethnicities including many Pashtuns such as Commanders Abdul Haq, Haji Abdul Qadir and Qari Baba or diplomat and future Afghan president Hamid Karzai.
Closely tied with Pakistan's JUI party, the Taliban not only received help from regular Pakistani army troops and Bin Laden's 055 Brigade but also manpower from madrasas in Pakistan’s border region. After a request from Mullah Omar in 1997, JUI's Maulana Samiul Haq shut down his 2,500+ student madrasah (Darul Uloom Haqqania) and "sent his entire student" body hundreds of miles to fight with the Taliban. The next year, he helped persuade 12 madrasas in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province to shut down for one month and send 8,000 students to reinforce the Taliban.[44] Meanwhile in Pakistan followers of Mullah Omar were also imposing their interpretation of Islam. By 1998 some Pakistani groups along the "Pashtun belt" were banning TV and videos, imposing Sharia punishments "such as stoning and amputation in defiance of the legal system, killing Pakistani Shiʻa and forcing the people, particularly women, to adapt to the Taliban dress code and way of life."[45] In December 1998 the Tehrik-i-Tuleba or Movement of Taliban in the Orakzai Agency ignored Pakistan’s legal process and publicly executed a murderer in front of 2,000 spectators. They also promised to implement Taliban-style justice and ban TV, music and videos.[46] In Quetta, Pashtun pro-Taliban groups "burned down cinema houses, shot video shop owners, smashed satellite dishes and drove women off the streets".[47] In Kashmir Afghan Arabs attempted to impose a "Wahhabi style dress code" banning jeans and jackets. "On 15 February 1999, they shot and wounded three Kashmiri cable television operators for relaying Western satellite broadcasts."[48]
In 1998 the forces of Rashid Dostum were defeated by the Taliban in Mazar-i-Sharif and Dostum lost his territories. When the Taliban captured Mazar-i-Sharif in August 8, 1998, they killed thousands of civilians and several Iranian diplomats. Subsequently Dostum went into exile. Meanwhile the Taliban in an major effort to also retake the Shomali plains, indiscriminately killed young men, while uprooting and expelling the population. Kamal Hossein, a special reporter for the UN, reported on these and other war crimes. Arab militants under Bin Laden were also responsible for some of the worst massacres in the war, killing hundreds of civilians in areas controlled by the United Front.[49]
The only leader to remain in Afghanistan and who was able to defend vast parts of his area against the Taliban was Ahmad Shah Massoud. Massoud also set up democratic institutions including political, economic, health and education committees. Massoud signed the Women's Rights Charta in the year 2000. In the area of Massoud women and girls did not have to wear the Afghan burqa. They were allowed to work and to go to school. In at least two known instances Massoud personally intervened against cases of forced marriage.[50] While it was Massoud's stated conviction that men and women are equal and should enjoy the same rights, he also had to deal with Afghan traditions which he said would need a generation or more to overcome. In his opinion that could only be achieved through education.[50]
The Taliban repeatedly offered Massoud a position of power to make him stop his resistance. Massoud declined for he did not fight for the sake of power. He explained in one interview: "The Taliban say: “Come and accept the post of prime minister and be with us”, and they would keep the highest office in the country, the presidentship. But for what price?! The difference between us concerns mainly our way of thinking about the very principles of the society and the state. We can not accept their conditions of compromise, or else we would have to give up the principles of modern democracy. We are fundamentally against the system called “the Emirate of Afghanistan”. I would like to return to the question of the emirate in a moment. In fact it is Pakistan that is responsible for deepening the crack between the ethnic groups in Afghanistan. It is again the old method of “divide and rule”. Pakistanis want to make sure that this country will not have any sovereign power for a long time."[51] Massoud, instead, wanted to convince the Taliban to join a political process which would have ensured the holding of democratic elections in a foreseeable future.[51] His proposals for peace can be seen here: Proposal for Peace, promoted by Commander Massoud. American journalist Sebastian Junger who frequently travels to war zones stated in March 2001: "They [the Taliban] receive a tremendous amount of support by Pakistan. ... without that involvement by Pakistan the Taliban would really be forced to negotiate ..."[37] Massoud stated in early 2001 that without the support by Pakistan the Taliban would not be able to sustain their military campaign for up to a year.[52][53] He also said: "There should be an Afghanistan where every Afghan finds himself or herself happy. And I think that can only be assured by democracy based on consensus."[53] In early 2001 Massoud employed a new strategy of local military pressure and global political appeals.[54] His plans were for his allies to seed small revolts around Afghanistan in the areas where the Afghans wanted to rise against the Taliban. Resentment was increasingly gathering against Taliban rule from the bottom of Afghan society including the Pashtun areas.[54] Massoud would publicize their cause "popular consensus, general elections and democracy" worldwide. Massoud was very wary not to revive the failed Kabul government of the early 1990s.[54] Instead, already in 1999, he started the training of police forces which he trained specifically in order to keep order and protect the civilian population in case the United Front would be successful.[50] "The Taliban are not a force to be considered invincible. They are distanced from the people now. They are weaker than in the past. There is only the assistance given by Pakistan, Osama bin Laden and other extremist groups that keep the Taliban on their feet. With a halt to that assistance, it is extremely difficult to survive."
In 2001 one million people had fled the Taliban, many to the areas of Massoud where they sought protection from the commander. There was a huge humanitarian problem because there was not enough to eat for both the existing population and the refugees. In early 2001 Massoud and a French journalist described the bitter situation of the refugees and asked for humanitarian help in front of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium.[55] see video[56] The president of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, Nicole Fontaine in 2001 called him the "pole of liberty in Afghanistan". see video Massoud further went on to warn that his intelligence agents had gained limited knowledge about a huge-scale terrorist attack on U.S. soil being imminent.
Massoud, then aged 48, was the target of a suicide attack by two Arab extremists, who are believed to have strong connections to Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama Bin Laden, at Khwaja Bahauddin, in Takhar Province in northeastern Afghanistan on September 9, 2001.[57][58] Commander Massoud died in a helicopter that was taking him to a hospital. The funeral, although happening in a rather rural area, was attended by hundreds of thousands of people. Sad day (video clip). The assassination on September 9, 2001, was not the first time Al Qaeda, the Taliban, the Pakistani ISI and before them the Soviet KGB, the Afghan communist KHAD and Hekmatyar had tried to assassinate Massoud. He survived countless assassination attempts over a period of 26 years. The first attempt on Massoud's life was carried out by Hekmatyar and two Pakistani ISI agents in 1975 when Massoud was only 22 years old.[59][54] The assassination of Massoud is considered to have a strong connection to the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. soil which killed nearly 3000 people and which appeared to be the terrorist attack that Massoud had warned against in his speech to the European Parliament several months earlier. John P. O'Neill was a counter-terrorism expert and the Assistant Director of the FBI until late 2001. He retired from the FBI and was offered the position of director of security at the World Trade Center (WTC). He took the job at the WTC two weeks before 9/11. On September 10, 2001, John O’Neill told two of his friends, "We're due. And we're due for something big. ... Some things have happened in Afghanistan. [referring to the assassination of Massoud] I don’t like the way things are lining up in Afghanistan. ... I sense a shift, and I think things are going to happen. ... soon."[60] John O'Neill died on September 11, 2001, when the south tower collapsed.[60] In early 2001 Al Qaeda would-be assassins were captured by Massoud's forces while trying to enter his territory.
For many days the United Front denied the death of Massoud for fear of desperation amongst their people. The United Front managed to hold together, however. The slogan "Now we are all Massoud" became a unifying battle cry. It was Massoud's troops who ousted the Taliban from power in Kabul in 2001 with American air support after the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 on U.S. soil had killed 3000 people. The United Front also played a crucial role in establishing the post-Taliban interim government in late 2001.
