One man by the name of Mullah Umar who had graduated from a
Deeni Madrsah, had fought against Russians and suffered many injuries.
s pained to see the brutalities being perpetrated by his countrymen
on each other and wanted to stop this madness. He returned to his alma
matter and appealed to his old friends and colleagues to help him in this
new jihad. While agreeing with his views, most were reluctant to take up
arms against these brigands. Only seven students or Taliban joined hands
with Mullah Umar and promised to sacrifice even their lives for this
cause. In their surprise raid, they took over the first check post leading to
Kandhar. This is how the Taliban movement started. Taliban basically
belong to Sunni Sect.
After the first successful raid more Taliban joined hands with
Mullah Umar and the local population also supported and welcomed them
One check post after the other fell until they reached Kandhar. By then
many Taliban with the experience of operating tanks, helicopters an
missiles had joined this movement spreading like wildfire througho
Afghanistan.
Mullah Umar is now known as Amirul Momineen and the Taliba
control 26 out of 31 provinces. Their government is run by governors,
each province and guided by the Ulema and Majlise Shoora. Their rule
are framed according to the Quran, Sunnat and Shariat. There are no VII
among the Taliban and everybody is equal in the eyes of the law. Some
their rules and punishments may be judged harsh by western standards
they seem to have achieved peace in the areas under their control. And
spite of mass unemployment and object poverty, the crime rate is alm
negligible. One thief’s hands has been amputated.
The Amirual Momineen’s orders are implemented by the authorit
and obeyed by the public without any exception. When the public
asked to surrender illegal arms. They voluntarily deposited their weap
within two days. Similar orders were passed by Mian Nawaz Sharif w
he was Prime Minister, Begum Nasim Wali Khan openly flouted
order by declaring that arms are the Pathan’s ornaments and nobody make them surrender these. Everyone knows how many lives have fallen
victim to these ornaments’.
Poppy cultivation and the role of heroin and cigarettes has been
were destroyed and music on the radio is prohibited. Very old women are
banned and no one is seen smoking in public. TV sets and alcoholic drinks
seen without burqa in Kandhar but no young women can step out of her
house without being covered from top to toe. Even men are expected to
wear a cap or turban outside their houses and a beard, of course is
mandatory.
People are willingly putting up these inconveniences because for the
first time in many years their lives and property were secure and the
leaders and rulers are themselves practising what they have preaching.
Ministers and Governors are working without any pay and living like
ordinary citizens without any pomp and, ceremony. It is difficult to
distinguish a governor from his driver. The Governor’s House, where Dr.
Najibullah’s prestigious Buick still stands on flat tyres, is being used by
the present incumbent as his office. It is also used as a guest house for
official visitors from other towns, 10 to 12 people sleeping in a room, the
governor and everyone else served from the same `langar’.
Taliban sources deny the charge that they are receiving·help from
America or the Pakistan Government. They insist that the arms and
ammunition they are using have been captured from the enemy. Judging
from the austere life they are leading, they definitely seem short of money
and resources: But they appear to be making an honest effort to restore
peace and rebuild war-torn Afghanistan with or without foreign help. In
spite of their strict Shariat Laws and other rules, infringing upon personal
freedom, the general public is cooperating.
People do not seem overly disturbed about the Taliban system of
justice and administration. May be because most Afghan men sported
beards and the womenfolk observed ‘purdah’ long before the Taliban
appeared. After all, these part of their tradition and culture and do not
conflict with the Afghan perception of Islam.
People living in areas on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border have
beginning of the Russian-Afghan war, the border has really become
many things in common: race, religion, language and culture. Since the
going unchecked. It is feared that the Taliban will find many sympathisers
blurred and the two people, especially the Afghans, have been coming and enrich themselves at the cost of the nation, then the Talibans movement
this side of the border. And if our present leaders and rulers continue to
might just be welcomed throughout Pakistan. The poorer section of the
populace, in particular, may want a Taliban style coup; not so much for
their pure Shariat Laws as for social justice and security of life and
property.
The ideology of the Taliban is also unclear, to foreigners, beyond a
commitment to inspiring Islamic rule. However, Sher Mahmood
Stanikzai, the deputy foreign minister who has become the Taliban’s main
point of contact with the outside world, dismisses suggestion. “There is no
such group as fundamentalists or moderates. We are all the some from top
to bottom. There is no difference in our belief or in our way of doing”.
Confusion about the Taliban’s intent arose from the speed of their
victory, which came as a surprise even to them. Now that the other
Mujahideen groups have been routed from two- thirds of Afghanistan,
they are unsure what to do. The Confusion is evident in the Taliban’s
dealings with international aid organizations in Kabul. The United Nations
still cling to the hope that Taliban will be transferred by the task of
administering Kabul.
In December, 1996 UN representatives said they had secured a
promise from the Taliban that the ban on education for girls would be
lifted when schools reopen in March, 1997. “It is happening, the windows
have been opening in the last week or two,” said Terry Pitzner of the UN
high commissioner for refugees. “I think they are discouraging that Kabul
is a different culture and has had to be dealt differently”.
However, Mr. Stanikzai was unbending, maintaining the Taliban
could not be pressurised into lifting their ban on women’s work or
education. “We are living in this society. They are our nation, they are
our people”. “We know our problem better than I am not required to give
a guarantee to the world. It is our own problem and our own business”.
While talking to UN representative, Taliban spokes man repeated
“that decisions on the rights of women and girls would have to be deferred
until fighting in all Afghanistan had stopped”.
Pakistan has been endeavouring to promote a peaceful settlement
compromise and consensus among the warring factions., based on
However, ethnic and factional rivalries which have been exacerbated by increasing foreign involvement have prolonged the internecine conflict and
even affected Islamabad’s relation with some of the other interested
powers notably Iran and Russia.
Afghanistan’s Taliban militia will soon send a high level delegation
to Tehran for talks on Iran’s support to its opponents and related matters.
This has announced the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) agency on 3rd January
1997. Taliban foreign minister Mullah Muhammad Ghaus will lead the
delegation in the Taliban’s first ever talks with the Iranians since it seized
power in Kabul from Iran backed Afghan groups.
By an international scale, the war ravages in Afghanistan are
horrendous. Upto one in 10 Afghans suffer from some physical disability
or the other, including amputations of limbs, blindness, paralysis, etc. The
emotional and physiological scars caused during the war, on people of all
ages, remain incalculable. The rate of infant, child and maternal morality.
which is quite preventable if medical facilities are available, is said to be
the highest in the world. An estimated two million Afghans are forced to
stay on in exile in Pakistan, Iran and other countries because of the
continuing war and instability. Threat to human life as a result of the land
mines left buried by the Soviet and later by Afghan warlords in area
under their occupation, is highest in the world with an estimated 10
million mines unspecified and unspecified areas of the country still
embedded in fertile and barren fields.
China, which had a border with Afghanistan, of 76 Km, wz
scrupulously following a policy of non-interference while supporting UN
efforts to promote a solution. The contiguous, Central Asia Republic
(CAR), notably Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were backing their respective
ethnic groups, led by Rabbani and Dostum respectively with Turkmenistan
maintaining neutrality, while waiting for the dust to settle that its gas and
oil pipeline projects through Afghanistan and Pakistan could be taken i
hand.
While agreeing on the urgent necessity of restoring peace
Afghanistan. Some sort of international conference appears in dispensable
to bring together all the countries involved. Again the perceptions of
various interested parties remain divergent. Pakistan advocates a mod
confined to the countries that in mediate neighbours of Afghanistan, sinc
if India were included, as Iran would prefer, there would be eve
justification to enlarge the list to include Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Gulf countries. A larger group is unlikely to reach agreement, Perhaps the
answer would be to hold a smaller meeting first, and seek the involvement
of the five permanent members of the Security Council, both to underwrite
a settlement that would be durable, and to mobilise international financial
and technical aid for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.