Where is the Taliban. Taliban movement
REFERENCE: The Taliban movement (from Arabic "talib" - "student") arose in October 1994, when a group of fanatical theology students numbering no more than 400 people. crossed the Pakistani-Afghan border. The vast majority of these were children of Afghan refugees, Pashtuns by nationality. The Taliban were trained and armed by the Pakistani intelligence agency AIS, which hoped to use them to pacify the country by force and thus make it possible to lay pipelines through it and use its natural resources. Tired of the civil war, the local population supported the Taliban, and in 1996 they took Kabul.
YES, unfortunately, the front of the civil war in Afghanistan has come close to the borders of the Central Asian states. Russian politicians and the military sounded the alarm. The most pessimistic of them consider two possible scenarios.
1. The Taliban break through the border, and the war is transferred to the borders of Central Asia, where there are forces on whose support they can rely. Next comes the domino effect. Masses of refugees are crossing the undefended border with Russia, while at the same time the activation of Islamic movements in the republics of the Volga region and the North Caucasus. The religious war covers the territory of the former USSR.
2. The Taliban are not trying to break through the borders, but there is a gradual "Afghanization" of the Central Asian states. Their own Taliban appear there, waging war according to the Afghan scenario. Further, everything happens in accordance with the first scenario.
That the front of the civil war in Afghanistan came close to the borders of the Central Asian states. Russian politicians and the military sounded the alarm. a similar development of events, the correspondent of "AiF" Dmitry MAKAROV talks with the doctor of historical sciences Viktor KORGUN.
Viktor Grigoryevich, how big are the fears about the "Talibanization" of the countries of Central Asia?
Let's look at these concerns in relation to each of them.
Let's start with Tajikistan. The whole situation there is under the strict control of the Russian troops, government agencies, and, importantly, the Islamic opposition, which controls the religious situation in the country and does not allow it to go beyond the bounds of reason. It should also be remembered that Tajiks living in the north of this country, led by Ahmad Shah Massoud, are now fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. For Afghan Tajiks, the Taliban, most of whom belong to the Pashtun people, are, one might say, a historical rival.
In Turkmenistan, even tighter control has been established over the political and religious situation. And although President Niyazov promotes the freedom of Islam, in fact, his Islam is tame. There is no opposition at all in Turkmenistan, even underground.
Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan are approximately in an equal position. Like all former nomads, the Kyrgyz and Kazakhs are not too religious, so any extremism on this basis is practically excluded there.
The situation is much more complicated in Uzbekistan, as well as in those regions of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan where ethnic Uzbeks live. These are the districts of the cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad, it is there that caravans with drugs and weapons most often break through.
In Uzbekistan itself, President Islam Karimov harshly suppresses any religious extremism. But the situation there is still more difficult. In some areas, for example, in Ferghana, this is expressed in a low standard of living, overcrowding of the population, and mass unemployment. All this is fertile ground for religious extremism. But the government is taking serious steps to improve the situation in the social sphere. In addition, Uzbekistan is a state with strong centralized power, which is able to block any inclinations of religious extremists.
How close is Moscow's position to the policy of the Central Asian states?
Theoretically, the threat posed by the Taliban brings us together. However, in practice, the leaders of the countries of the region take different positions on the Afghan issue. Ashgabat has consistently maintained neutrality, maintaining ties with both warring parties in Afghanistan. Dushanbe, being under the Russian military umbrella, fully supports Moscow's policy, Tashkent seeks to play a more independent role in the region, which does not always meet Russian interests. Without stopping military-political cooperation with Moscow, Uzbekistan withdrew from the CIS Collective Security Treaty and made an unexpected turn in its Afghan policy, entering into unilateral contacts with the Taliban, apparently without coordinating this step with the Kremlin.
"Afgan" in Chechnya
From time to time, the Russian government speaks of Taliban links to Chechen fighters and has even threatened to bomb bases in Afghanistan where terrorists are trained for Chechnya.
There are certainly some connections between the Taliban and Chechnya. Morally and politically they support Maskhadov and Basayev. But I think this support should not be exaggerated. Speaking about the possibility of strikes against bases where militants are trained for Chechnya, the Russian leadership was clearly bluffing. I am sure that our military does not have maps of these bases. They cannot exist, if only because the bases that specialize in training Chechen fighters simply do not exist. Another thing is that these camps train Arabs from different countries, some of whom are then thrown into Chechnya. They form the backbone of the Wahhabi formations of Khattab, Emir Omar and others.
But the Chechens themselves, except for those who stained themselves with participation in the captures of people, explosions and other terrorist attacks, have not supported the Wahhabis for a long time. By nature, Chechens are conservative and profess a completely different Islam than the one that is imposed on them from the outside.
Russian politics
Who do you think modern Russia is for the Taliban: friend or foe?
Certainly an enemy. Judge for yourself. Two weeks after the capture of Kabul by the Taliban in October 1996, at the initiative of Russia and with its participation, a meeting of the heads of Central Asian states was convened in Alma-Ata, where a decision was made not to recognize the power of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Now Russia is not only sticking to this, in my opinion, short-sighted decision, but is even stepping up efforts to isolate the Taliban government on an international scale. In May s. President Putin signed a decree imposing political and economic sanctions against the Taliban, and in August Russia participated in a meeting of the 6+2 group (Central Asian states plus the US and Russia) that called for increased sanctions against the Taliban.
Do you think this is a mistake?
I find this position inflexible. Efforts to achieve peace in the region must also extend to the Taliban.
How do you assess the visit of presidential aide Sergei Yastrzhembsky to Pakistan in this connection?
This visit is a confirmation of the fact that there has been a turn in the understanding of Afghan realities by Russian politicians. There was a frank bargaining in Islamabad. The Pakistanis spoke on behalf of the Taliban. Yastrzhembsky suggested that the Taliban not get involved in the affairs of Central Asia through them, and Russia, for its part, would promise to stop supporting Ahmad Shah Massoud.
But this was not enough for the Taliban: in addition, they demanded that Russia officially recognize the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (this is now the name of the territories controlled by the Taliban), promote their official recognition by the world community and commit themselves not to participate in the future peace process in Afghanistan as a peacekeeper as a country that has compromised itself with aggression. These demands are not only absolutely outrageous, but from the point of view of Afghanistan's interests, they are also erroneous. Russia cannot be excluded from the peace process because it has a strong influence in Central Asia.
Is it really necessary to pay such close attention to Afghanistan if the Taliban do not pose a direct threat to Russia? Let them boil in their own juice.
This is impossible, if only because Afghanistan is located too close to the Russian borders, to the zone of our state interests in Central Asia.
The leader of the radical Taliban movement in Afghanistan, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, was killed in an American drone strike on the Afghan-Pakistani border. The Lev Gumilyov Center prepared a special expert analysis on the genesis and prospects of this organization
From the history
The Taliban, an ultra-conservative political and religious faction, emerged in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar in 1994 after the withdrawal of Soviet troops. Self-name "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan". The faction got its name from the fact that it consisted mainly of students (“Taliban” is Pashto for “students”) studying in madrasas (Islamic religious schools) established for Afghan refugees in the 1980s in northern Pakistan. Ethnically, the Taliban consisted mainly of Pashtuns, Sunni Muslims of Afghanistan, in defiance of the "Northern Alliance", which included Afghan Shiites and Ismailis of Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks and Turkmens.
Enlisting the support of the southern Pashtun ethnic groups of Afghanistan and the financial assistance of foreign well-wishers, in 1996 the Taliban, taking advantage of military clashes between the warring "parties" of the Northern Alliance, took Kabul without a fight and overthrew the regime of President Burhanuddin Rabbani and his Minister of Defense Ahmad Shah Massoud. By 1998, the Taliban managed to unite and control most of Afghanistan, except for 15% in the north, inhabited by ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks. There are statements in the press about the significant financial and ideological support of the US CIA in the 80s of some groups of militants who fought with the USSR (up to 30,000 people), including the future Taliban.
The Taliban gained popular love due to some success in eliminating corruption, restoring peace and resuming commerce. The Taliban claimed that they were creating a peaceful and stable Islamic state under Sharia law without the corruption and lawlessness that the leaders of the Northern Alliance could not build. The Taliban followed a very strict interpretation of Sharia, introduced the public death penalty, abolished women's rights to education and professional activities, banned television, music, fine arts, movies, computers and the Internet, men were required to wear beards, and women were required to cover their bodies completely in public places.
Despite the fact that the Taliban received the main income from the smuggling of opium poppy, under pressure from the world community, by 2000 they managed to reduce the world production of opium by two-thirds. Unfortunately, they have not introduced an alternative source of income for thousands of Afghans. Continued drought and a very harsh winter (2000-2001) brought famine and increased the flow of refugees into Pakistan.
Recognizing the need for international ties, the Taliban leadership made no effort to curb terrorist activities inside Afghanistan.
The world community, with the exception of a few countries (Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates), did not recognize the legitimacy of the government and the cruel social policy of the Taliban. After the Taliban regime refused to extradite Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Ladan in 2001 after the well-known tragic events, the US and NATO armed forces were brought into the country, with the support of the Northern Alliance, the Taliban regime was overthrown. Former leaders returned to their homes, warlords continued to exercise regional control, the movement's founder and spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, led the militants from an unknown hideout in Pakistan.
In December 2001, Hamid Karzai was sworn in as interim prime minister. In January 2002, the Taliban recognized the interim government because Karzai initially supported the Taliban and is still respected by many former Taliban leaders.
According to Afghan intelligence, Mullah Omar died in a hospital in 2013, and Mullah Omar's deputy, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, took over the leadership of the movement.
Activities for 2015-2016
Who are the Taliban
The ultra-conservative Islamic movement "Taliban" (from Arabic. talib - seeker of knowledge, student, apprentice) appeared on the Afghan political scene in 1994. The Taliban began as a military movement of Islamist students. The main backbone of the movement was made up of people from the Afghan refugee camps in the North-Western province of Pakistan, for the most part "orphans of the Afghan war", who went through the Muslim school system. The "disciples of Allah" proclaimed their goal the purification of Islam and the establishment of a charitable government - so far on Afghan soil.
The founders of the Taliban are Mullah Mohammad Omar (the current political leader of the movement) and Mullah Mohammad Rabbani (later he became Omar's deputy). Rabbani died in April 2001. Omar's inner circle, like most of the Taliban leaders, are graduates of the famous Haqqania madrasah, located near Peshawar. This madrasah is considered the ideological home of the movement, and many Taliban proudly add the prefix "Haqqani" to their name.
Mullah Mohammad Omar
Mullah Omar practically does not meet with the press, refuses to be photographed. He lives as a recluse in the city of Kandahar and only once appeared in public in Kabul - when in 1996 the Taliban who captured the city declared him Amir-ul-Muminin (ruler of all the faithful), and he renamed the country the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. In the 80s, Omar fought against the "godless communist regime" and lost an eye. But little is known about this period of his life either: according to some sources, he was in the detachment of field commander Nabi Mohammadi, and according to others, he fought with the influential Mujahideen Yunus Khales.
Taliban and USA
The first military successes (the Taliban quickly captured Kandahar, by February 1995 they occupied half of the southern provinces of the country and surrounded Kabul, and in 1996 entered the capital) and even the very idea of \u200b\u200bcreating the Taliban are attributed by many experts to the United States. During the war of the Soviet-Afghan war, America supported the Mujahideen leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, supplying him through Pakistan with weapons, including Stingers, and money. However, in the early 90s, Hekmatyar abandoned his pro-American orientation due to the persecution of Muslims in Bosnia and Somalia. In 1993, there was an explosion in the New York World Trade Center, and after this terrorist attack, the United States came to the conclusion that they needed a united and stable Afghanistan. The force that would unite the country was to be the Taliban.
According to some reports, the United States also pursued economic goals - the American consortium Unocal intended to build a gas pipeline and an oil pipeline from Turkmenistan to the Indian Ocean through the territory of Afghanistan. An alternative project - a gas and oil pipeline through the territory of Iran - was impossible, since according to the American law D "Amato, investments in the Iranian economy are prohibited.
The US State Department and the oil lobby supported the creation of the Taliban and facilitated this process along with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. According to some reports, direct financing, military training of the Taliban and supplying them with modern weapons was carried out by the Border Guard Corps and elite units of Pakistani paratroopers under the leadership of Pakistani Interior Minister Nasrullah Babar. Later, the movement began to enjoy the direct support of the Pakistani intelligence service ISI.
opium poppy
By taking possession of the opium poppy plantations, the Taliban received financial resources that allowed them to get out of the control of the Americans. In December 1998, the Unocal consortium abandoned their project. In early 2000, after the Taliban were offered international assistance, they promised to destroy the poppy fields - and the poppy harvest was halved. The fight against poppy plantations became a pretext for tougher repression. The UN inspectors who were supposed to take care of this process were not allowed into Afghanistan. Many experts believe that the destruction of the fields was economically beneficial for the Taliban: in this way they removed excess poppy straw from the market.
Who controls Afghanistan today
According to official data, today the Taliban control 95% of the territory of Afghanistan. However, some experts believe that the Taliban army does not exceed 100 thousand people and they control no more than the Soviet troops "in their best years" - that is, about 40% of the country's territory. With the rest of the tribes, only temporary agreements have been reached on some form of recognition of the Taliban regime. In addition, many experts consider the assertion that the Taliban is a movement of Pashtuns fighting for the unification of the country untenable. The Pashtuns, who make up a little more than half of the population, are divided into numerous tribes, some of which do not recognize the Taliban regime.
Mullah Mohammad Omar and Osama bin Laden
Mullah Mohammad Omar has been friends with Osama bin Laden since the Soviet-Afghan war (1979-1989), when they fought together against the Shuravi. Bin Laden is said to have partially financed the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. In addition, Mullah Omar is married to bin Laden's eldest daughter.
What the Taliban bans
Since 1996, in the Taliban-controlled territory of Afghanistan, women have been banned from working, and girls over eight years old from going to school. In addition, women were forced to wear a veil. The teaching of any religion except Islam, homosexuality and adultery are punishable by death, often the perpetrators are stoned to death. Homosexuals are buried alive in the ground, and women who paint their nails have their fingers cut off.
In January 2001, the Taliban passed a law barring Afghans from wearing "foreign haircuts" like the Beatles-like and Titanic-like haircuts (like the one Leonardo DiCaprio wore in the 1997 film). The law also reminded that in Afghanistan it is forbidden to shave the beard.
In Afghanistan, a complete ban on instrumental music has been introduced, only religious chants are allowed.
In March 2001, the Taliban destroyed the giant Buddha statues, which were considered one of the main attractions of the country. The statues, built in the II-V centuries AD, 53 and 38 meters high, were blown up because of their "non-Islamic character". Neither the leaders of the UN, nor the representatives of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, nor the leadership of the closest ally, Pakistan, could convince the Taliban to abandon this decision.
The other day, twenty Taliban militants were surrounded by coalition troops and military from the National Afghan Army in the city of Herat in the north of the country. The Taliban, who are currently being held in a mosque owned by the Afghan National Security Department, were introduced to reporters. That's when these photos were taken.
(Total 12 photos)
Text: wiki
1. - Islamic movement (Sunni persuasion), which originated in Afghanistan among the Pashtuns in 1994, ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. (“Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”) and the Waziristan region of northern Pakistan (“Islamic State of Waziristan”) since 2004.
2. Former German Defense Minister Andreas von Bülow, in an interview with the German newspaper Tagesspiegel on January 13, 2002, attributes the creation of the Taliban movement to the CIA: “With the decisive support of the US intelligence services, at least 30,000 Muslim militants were trained in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including a group of fanatics who were and still are ready for anything. And one of them is Osama bin Laden. I wrote a few years ago: "The Taliban in Afghanistan grew out of this CIA geek, who was trained on the Koran in schools funded by Americans and Saudis"
3. 1995 - the Taliban captured Helmand, defeated the militants of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, but were stopped near Kabul by the divisions of Ahmad Shah Massoud. They controlled a third of the territory of Afghanistan in the southeast of the country.
4. In September 1996, the Taliban took Kabul without a fight and founded the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. In the territory under their control, they introduced strict Sharia law. The opposition to the Taliban regime was the Northern Alliance, consisting mainly of Tajiks (led by Ahmad Shah Massoud and Burhanuddin Rabbani) and Uzbeks (led by General Abdul-Rashid Dostum), who enjoyed the support of Russia. Providing asylum to the terrorist Osama bin Laden and the destruction of monuments of Buddhist architecture (the Bamiyan Buddha statues) led to the formation of a negative image of the Taliban in the eyes of the world community.
5. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United States launched a counter-terrorist operation against the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and, with the support of the Northern Alliance, overthrew the Taliban regime. The Taliban went underground and partially retreated to neighboring Pakistan (provinces of the Waziristan region), where they united under the leadership of Haji Omar. Since the early 2000s, Waziristan has been a stronghold of the Taliban. The Taliban pushed back traditional tribal leaders and in 2004 seized de facto power in the region.
6. On February 14, 2006, the declaration of independence and the creation of the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan was announced on the territory of North Waziristan.
7. On December 17, 2007, the Pakistani Taliban merged into the Tehrik Taliban-e-Pakistan organization. Beitullah Mehsud, a commander from the Waziristan Pashtun tribe of Masudi, headed the Tehrik Taliban-e-Pakistan.
8. In February 2009, the Taliban captured 30 Pakistani police and military personnel in the Swat Valley. They made demands to the Pakistani government for the official introduction of sharia law in the Swat valley, to which the government was forced to agree. Shortly thereafter, the Taliban took control of the province of Buner.
9. In August 2009, Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud was assassinated. His successor Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a shootout with the Pakistani military on July 5, 2010.
10. In the territories under their control, the Taliban introduces Sharia norms, the implementation of which is strictly controlled. Banned are television, music and musical instruments, fine arts, alcohol, computers and the Internet, chess, white shoes (white is the color of the Taliban flag), open discussion of sex, and much more. Men were required to wear beards of a certain length. Women were not allowed to work, to be treated by male doctors, to appear in public places with an open face and without a husband or male relative; women's access to education was significantly limited (in 2001, girls accounted for only 1% of those attending school). Medieval punishments were widely practiced: for theft one or two hands were cut off, for adultery they were stoned to death; public corporal punishment was popular. The Taliban were characterized by extreme religious intolerance. Being adherents of the Sunni form of Islam, they persecuted the Shiites, because of which their relations with neighboring Iran deteriorated sharply.
11. On February 26, 2001, Mullah Omar issued a decree on the destruction of all non-Islamic monuments in the country. Putting the decree into practice, in March of the same year, the Taliban blew up two giant statues of Buddha carved in the rocks of Bamiyan in the 3rd and 6th centuries, which caused condemnation of the world community. The actions of the Taliban were condemned by the world community, including a number of Muslim countries.
12. The Taliban are in favor of a ban on women's education. Schools are often the targets of their attacks; in 2008 alone, they destroyed more than 150 schools in Pakistan's northwestern Swat region.
Every year there are more and more conflicts and centers of instability in the world, and all the efforts of the international community cannot yet reverse this trend. There are also long-standing problems - territories where bloodshed continues for many years (or even decades). A typical example of such a hot spot is Afghanistan - the world left this mountainous Central Asian country more than thirty years ago, and there is still no hope for an early resolution of this conflict. Moreover, today Afghanistan is a real time bomb that can blow up the entire region.
In 1979, the leadership of the Soviet Union decided to build socialism in Afghanistan and sent troops to its territory. Such reckless actions upset the fragile inter-ethnic and inter-religious balance in the ancient Afghan land, which cannot be restored to this day.
The Afghan war (1979-1989) became an era of formation for many radical Islamist organizations, because serious funds were allocated to fight the Soviet troops. Jihad was declared against the Soviet army, and tens of thousands of volunteers from various Muslim countries joined the Afghan Mujahideen.
This conflict gave a powerful impetus to the development of radical Islam in the world, and after the withdrawal of Soviet troops, Afghanistan plunged into the abyss of civil conflict for many years.
In 1994, the history of one of the most unusual Islamic radical organizations began on the territory of Afghanistan, which for many years became the main enemy of the United States and other Western countries - the Taliban. This movement managed to seize a significant part of the country's territory, proclaim the creation of a new type of state and has been in power for more than five years. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has even been recognized by several states: Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.
It wasn't until 2001 that an international coalition led by the United States, allied with local opposition, succeeded in removing the Taliban from power. However, the Taliban today still represent a serious force in Afghanistan, which both the current leaders of the country and their Western allies have to reckon with.
In 2003, the UN designated the Taliban as a terrorist organization. Despite the loss of power in Afghanistan, the Taliban remain a very impressive force. It is believed that today the number of the movement is 50-60 thousand militants (as of 2014).
Movement history
The Taliban is an Islamic radical movement that originated among the Pashtuns in 1994. The name of its participants (Taliban) is translated from Pashto as "students of madrasah" - Islamic religious schools.
According to the official version, the first leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Omar (a former Mujahideen who lost his eye in the war with the USSR), gathered a small group of radical madrasah students and began a struggle to spread the ideas of Islam in Afghanistan.
There is another version, according to which the first time the Taliban went into battle to recapture women kidnapped from their village.
The origin of the Taliban took place in the south of Afghanistan, in the province of Kandahar. After the withdrawal of Soviet troops, a civil war raged in the country with might and main - the former Mujahideen fiercely divided power among themselves.
There are many publications in which the rapid rise of the Taliban is associated with the activities of the Pakistani secret services, which provided assistance to the Afghan rebels during the Soviet occupation. It can be considered proven that the government of Saudi Arabia supplied the Taliban with money, and weapons and ammunition came from the territory of neighboring Pakistan.
The Taliban promoted among the masses the idea that the Mujahideen had betrayed the ideals of Islam, and such propaganda found a warm response among the common people. Initially, a small movement rapidly gained strength and replenished with new supporters. In 1995, the Taliban militants already controlled half of the territory of Afghanistan, and the entire south of the country was under their rule. The Taliban even made an attempt to capture Kabul, but at that time the government forces managed to fight back.
During this period, the Taliban defeated the detachments of the most famous field commanders who fought against the Soviet troops. In 1996, a meeting of Muslim clergy was held in Kandahar, where they called for a holy war against the incumbent President Burhanuddin Rabbani. In September 1996, Kabul fell, the Taliban occupied the city almost without a fight. By the end of 1996, the opposition controlled approximately 10-15% of the territory of Afghanistan.
In opposition to the new regime, only the Northern Alliance, headed by Ahmad Shah Massoud (Panjshir Lion), the legitimate president of the country, Burhanuddin Rabbani, and General Abdul-Rashid Dostum, remained. The detachments of the Afghan opposition mainly consisted of Tajiks and Uzbeks, who make up a significant part of the population of Afghanistan and inhabit its northern regions.
In the territories controlled by the Taliban, laws based on Sharia norms were introduced. Moreover, their observance was very strictly monitored. The Taliban banned music and musical instruments, cinema and television, computers, art, alcohol and the Internet. Afghans were not allowed to play chess and wear white shoes (the Taliban had a white flag). A strict taboo was imposed on all topics related to sex: such issues could not even be openly discussed.
Significantly curtailed the rights of women. They were not allowed to appear with their faces open or unaccompanied by their husbands or relatives in crowded places. They were also forbidden to work. The Taliban have significantly limited girls' access to education.
The Taliban did not change their attitude towards women's education after their overthrow. Members of this movement have repeatedly attacked schools where girls are taught. In Pakistan, the Taliban destroyed about 150 schools.
Men were required to wear a beard, and it had to have a certain length.
The Taliban brutally punished criminals: public executions were often practiced.
In 2000, the Taliban banned farmers from growing opium poppy, as a result of which the production of heroin (Afghanistan is one of the main centers for its manufacture) fell to a record low. After the overthrow of the Taliban, the level of drug production very quickly returned to its previous levels.
In 1996, the Taliban gave sanctuary to one of the most notorious Islamic terrorists of the time, Osama bin Laden. He has worked closely with the Taliban and has supported the movement since 1996.
In early 2001, Taliban leader Mohammed Omar signed a decree on the destruction of non-Muslim cultural monuments. A few months later, the Taliban began to destroy two Buddha statues located in the Bamiyan Valley. These monuments belonged to the pre-Mongolian period in the history of Afghanistan; they were carved into the rocks in the 6th century AD. Footage of the barbaric destruction of these facilities horrified the whole world and caused a whole wave of protests from governments and international organizations. This action further undermined the reputation of the Taliban in the eyes of the world community.
The turning point in the history of the Taliban was September 11, 2001. The United States announced that Osama bin Laden, who at that moment was on Afghan territory, was the organizer of the attacks. The Taliban refused to extradite him. The coalition led by the Americans launched a counter-terrorist operation, the main task of which was to destroy al-Qaeda and its leader.
The Northern Alliance became an ally of the Western coalition. Two months later, the Taliban were completely defeated.
In 2001, as a result of an assassination attempt, President Rabbani, one of the leaders of the Northern Alliance, was assassinated, due to the authority and will of which this ethnically and religiously diverse group was kept together. However, the Taliban regime was still overthrown. After that, the Taliban went underground and partially retreated to the territory of Pakistan, where they actually organized a new state in the tribal zone.
By 2003, the Taliban had fully recovered from the defeat and began to actively resist the forces of the international coalition and government troops. At that time, the Taliban practically controlled part of the regions in the south of the country. Militants often used the tactic of sorties from Pakistani territory. NATO forces tried to counter this by conducting joint operations with the Pakistani army.
In 2006, the Taliban announced the creation of a new independent state: the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan, which was located on the territory of Pakistan in the tribal zone.
This territory was previously poorly controlled by Islamabad, after its occupation by the Taliban, it became a reliable stronghold of the Taliban and a constant headache for the authorities of Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2007, the Pakistani Taliban united in the Tehrik Taliban-e-Pakistan movement and tried to start an Islamic uprising in Islamabad, but it was crushed. There are serious suspicions that it was the Taliban who were behind the successful assassination attempt on former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, one of the country's most popular politicians.
Several attempts by the Pakistani army to retake Waziristan under their control ended in vain. Moreover, the Taliban even managed to expand the territory under their control.
It is not surprising that no country in the world has recognized Waziristan.
The history of relations between the Taliban and the authorities of Pakistan and Afghanistan is very complex and confusing. Despite hostilities and terrorist attacks, negotiations are being held with the Taliban. In 2009, the Pakistani authorities agreed to peace with the local Taliban, promising to introduce Sharia law in part of the country. True, the Taliban had previously captured thirty soldiers and policemen and promised to release them only after their demands were met.
What's next?
In 2011, the gradual withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan began. In 2013, Afghan security forces began to provide security in the country, while Western military personnel only perform auxiliary functions. The Americans never succeeded in defeating the Taliban, nor in bringing peace and democracy to the land of Afghanistan.
Today, like ten years ago, in one part of the country, then in another part of the country, fierce battles flare up between government troops and Taliban detachments. And they go with varying degrees of success. Explosions continue to rumble in Afghan cities, the victims of which are most often civilians. The Taliban have announced a real hunt for officials of the ruling regime and law enforcement officers. The Afghan army and police are unable to cope with the Taliban. Moreover, according to experts, there has recently been a resurgence of the Taliban.
In recent years, another force has begun to emerge in Afghanistan that causes more concern among experts than the Taliban. This is ISIS.
The Taliban is predominantly a Pashtun movement, and its leaders have never set themselves serious expansionist goals. ISIS is a completely different matter. The Islamic State seeks to create a worldwide caliphate, or at least to spread its influence over the entire Islamic world.
In this regard, Afghanistan is of particular value to ISIS - it is a very convenient springboard for attacking the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. ISIS regards Pakistan, Afghanistan, part of Central Asia and Eastern Iran as the "province of Khorasan".
Currently, IS forces in Afghanistan are small, only a few thousand people, but the ideology of the Islamic State has proven to be attractive to Afghan youth.
The appearance of ISIS in Afghanistan cannot but disturb neighboring states and countries that are members of the international coalition.
The Taliban is at enmity with the ISIS, the first clashes between these groups have already been recorded, which were particularly fierce. Faced with the threat of IS infiltration, the parties involved are trying to negotiate with the Taliban. At the end of 2019, the Russian representative for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said that the interests of the Taliban coincide with those of Russia. In the same interview, the official stressed that Moscow is in favor of a political settlement of the Afghan crisis.
This interest is understandable: Central Asia is Russia's "underbelly", the appearance of ISIS in this region would be a real disaster for our country. And the Taliban, compared to the absolutely frostbitten IS militants, seem just a little radical patriots, who, moreover, have never voiced plans to create caliphates “from sea to sea”.
Although, there is another expert opinion. It lies in the fact that the Taliban is unlikely to be a reliable ally of any Western country (including Russia) in the fight against the Islamic State.
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