'Taliban - Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia' is a foundation book for any study on Taliban movement. Written by Ahmed Rashid much before 9/11 when the World slept silently and Taliban marauders and other war lords devastated Afghanistan with impunity killing lakhs of Afghans and perpetrating worst of the genocides.
Taliban (plural of Talib, meaning students) movement started with the help of Pakistan in the confusion of a bloody civil war that devastated Afghanistan after the fell of Nazibullah government in 1992. The departure of Russians created a power vacuum in Afghanistan causing various warlords to occupy as much power as possible. The weakness or the strength of Afghanistan lies in its demography - it is a very diverse country with about 40% population Pashtuns, 27% Tajiks (closely related to Persian people and they speak a dialect of Persian), 9% Uzbeks, 8% Hazaras (they are Shias and occupy Hindukush region centered around Bamiyan), 4% Turks and with a sprinkling of Baluchs, Nuristani etc. Pashtuns had ruled Afghanistan for about 250 years from the advent of Ahmad Shah Durrani to the ouster of Zahir Shah. The ouster of Zahir Shah and the entry of USSR gave US and Pakistan to execute their designs in Afghanistan. US brought the cold war into Afghanistan while Pakistan used US and Afghanistan to create a pro-Pakistan power centres in Afghanistan so it can concentrate all its forces against India.
Thus US and Pakistan with the money power of Saudi Arabia created Mujahideen warlords. These warlords played a major role in bleeding Soviets out. The disintegration of USSR triggered a bloody civil war in Afghanistan. The non Pashtuns Mujahideens led by Tajik Burhanudeen Rabbani, his commander in chief Ahmad Shah Masud and Uzbek commander Rashid Dostum occupied Kabul in 1992 ousting the Najibullah government. This was the first time non-Pashtuns had occupied Kabul in last 300 years of history. This sent shock waves among Pashtuns who dominated the southern Afghanistan. Pakistan aided one such Pashtun warlord Gulbuddin Hikmetyar. He started bombing Kabul after its occupation by non-Pashtun forces. Kabul was destroyed but he was not able to oust Rabbani and Masud from Kabul.
Pakistan had to plan other strategy so he cultivated Taliban movement. The main recruits came from the Madrasas that were functioning in border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. These Madrasas gave half baked knowledge of Islam to the misplaced children and refugees. These were easy recruits because they had only seen civil war and deaths. The Taliban movement started in the winter of 1994 in Pashtun stronghold of Kandhaar. Mullah Omar, a Pashtun from Kandahar, started the movement in late 1994 to get rid of degenerated warlords and to give justice and peace to the suffering population. The movement swept across the entire Afghanistan and occupied Kabul by winter of 1996. Najibullah was brutally murdered and his body hanged from a post. The Taliban imposed a strict form of Sharia, closed down all girl schools, forced all men to follow strict version of Islam. The resistance against this movement was led by a Northern alliance under the leadership of Rabbani and his commander Ahmad Shah. Countries like Iran, Russia and India supported the resistance. The lion of Panjshir (i.e. Masud) kept Taliban at bay for 5 years till his assassination by Taliban just few days before 9/11.
In the bloody civil war since the advent of Taliban many brutal genocides happened. The Hazaras were killed in huge numbers by Taliban when they occupied Hazarat and Hazaras killed Taliban in large numbers in failed Taliban attempt to capture Mazar-e-Sharif.
There was one more angle to Taliban movement. Pakistan and western oil companies wanted to build pipelines across Afghanistan to supply oil and gas from central Asian fields in Turkmenistan to Iran, Europe and to South Asia. They helped Taliban many a times for this reason alone.
This book is a masterpiece and a must read for anyone who wants to know about Afghanistan, growth of fundamentalist Islam and Taliban.
Highly Recommended (9/10)
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