Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (Chapter 3)

Part 1 History of the Taliban Movement

Chapter 3
KABUL 1996: COMMANDER OF THE FAITHFUL

Travelling by jeep, truck and horseback hundreds of Afghan mullahs began to descend on Kandahar in the cool spring weather of 1996. By 20 March more than 1,200 Pashtun religious leaders from south, west and central Afghanistan had arrived in the city. They were housed and fed in government offices, the old fort and the covered bazaar, which were turned into enormous dormitories by the simple act of throwing hundreds of carpets on the floor so that the mullahs could sleep.

It was the biggest gathering of mullahs and ulema that had ever taken place in modern Afghan history. Significantly absent were local military commanders, traditional tribal and clan leaders, political figures from the war against the Soviets and non-Pashtun representatives from northern Afghanistan. Only religious leaders had been summoned by Mullah Omar to debate a future plan of action, but more importantly to legitimize the Taliban leader as the all powerful leader in the country.

Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (Chapter 2)

Part 1 History of the Taliban Movement

Chapter 2
HERAT 1995: GOD’S INVINCIBLE SOLDIERS

In March 1995, on the northern edge of the Dashte-e-Mango-the Desert of Death-plumes of fine white dust rose in the air above the narrow ribbon of the battered highway that connects Kandahar with Herat, 350 miles away. The highway, built by the Russians in the 1950s skirted through the brush and sands of one of the hottest and most waterless deserts in the world. After years of war, the highway was now rutted with tank tracks, bomb craters and broken bridges, slowing down the traffic to just 20 miles an hour.

The Taliban war wagons-Japanese two-door pick-ups with a stripped-down trunk at the back open to the elements-were streaming towards Herat laden with heavily armed young men in their bid to capture the city. In the opposite direction a steady flow of vehicles was bringing back wounded Taliban lying on string beds and strapped into the trunk as well as prisoners captured from the forces of Ismael Khan who held Herat.

Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (Chapter 1)

Part 1 History of the Taliban Movement

Chapter 1
KANDAHAR 1994: THE ORIGINS OF THE TALIBAN

The Taliban Governor of Kandahar, Mullah Mohammed Hassan Rehmani, has a disconcerting habit of pushing the table in front of him with his one good leg. By the time any conversation with him is over, the wooden table has been pushed round and round his chair a dozen times. Hassan’s nervous twitch is perhaps a psychological need to feel that he still has a leg or perhaps he is just exercizing, keeping his one good leg on the move at all times.

Hassan’s second limb is a wooden peg-leg, in the style of Long John Silver, the pirate in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. It’s an old wooden stump. The varnish rubbed off long ago, scratches cover its length and bits of wood have been gouged out-no doubt by the difficulties of negotiating the rocky terrain outside his office. Hassan, one of the oldest Taliban leaders at over 40 and one of the few who actually fought Soviet troops, was a founder member of the Taliban and is considered to be number two in the movement to his old friend Mullah Omar.

Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia

Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia
by Ahmed Rashid

Preface and Acknowledgements

Maps

Introduction: Afghanistan’s Holy Warriors
Part 1: History of the Taliban Movement
Chapter 1 Kandahar 1994: The Origins of the Taliban
Chapter 2 Herat 1995: God’s Invincible Soldiers
Chapter 3 Kabul 1996: Commander of the Faithful
Chapter 4 Mazar-e-Sharif 1997: Massacre in the North
Chapter 5 Bamiyan 1998-2000: The Never-Ending War

Part 2: Islam and the Taliban
Chapter 6 Challenging Islam: The New-Style Fundamentalismf the Taliban
Chapter 7 Secret Society: The Taliban’s Political and Military Organization
Chapter 8 A Vanished Gender Women, Children and Taliban Culture 105
Chapter 9 High on Heroin: Drugs and the Taliban Economy 117
Chapter 10 Global Jihad: The Arab-Afghans and Osama Bin Laden

Part 3: The New Great Game
Chapter 11 Dictators and Oil Barons: The Taliban and Central Asia, Russia, Turkey and Israel
Chapter 12 Romancing the Taliban 1: The Battle for Pipelines 1994-96
Chapter 13 Romancing the Taliban 2: The Battle for Pipelines 170 1997-99
Chapter 14 Master or Victim: Pakistan’s Afghan War 183
Chapter 15 Shia and Sunni: Iran and Saudi Arabia
Chapter 16 Conclusion: The Future of Afghanistan