taliban

                         Taliban

The “Taliban” a word which almost everyone in this world is familiar with today. They were  a group of students who launched a movement to get rid of the chaos and anarchy that prevailed in Afghanistan after the Soviet Union withdrew from the land locked country.

The literal meaning of the world “Talib” means student in Urdu and Pashto the two languages spoken by the people who live in that area. The word “Taliban” it’s self means a group of students. These students were taught a radical version of the religion of Islam and brainwashed their minds in to fighting for a cause that would fetch them great rewards in the world here after. Before I start to explain and talk about the Taliban I would like to share with you the attributes and  nature of the type of people who live in Afghanistan. A little information about the background of the country this group belonged to and the culture and the way these people think. Afghanistan is a country which has never been able to be taken over by any other nation or empire ever in the past 200 years . The people of this country have managed to rebel an invasion by the mighty British Empire when they were  at their peak and the people of the country are also responsible for dismantling the Soviet Empire and bleed it to death financially. The country has seen five civil wars in its history and is in fact at this moment yet again in a another civil war. The country it self consists of  landlocked rugged terrain surrounded by the mighty Himalyas mountain ranges. The country also has a very rigid weather system which consists of extremely warm weather in the summer seasons and extremely cold weather in the winter season. The country consists of three major ethnic groups which are spread around the country which are the Pashtun which are in majority and also are the ones controlling the group called the Taliban. The second ethnic group are the Uzbeks which are spread out towards the North West of the country while Tajik are spread towards the North East of the country. There are two major languages that are spoken in Afghanistan the first one is the “Pashtu” which Is the local language of the Pashtun or also known as Phatan people. The other major language spoken in Afghanistan is Persian or Farsi. The total estimated population of Afghanistan is approximately 208,150,000 and more than 60% percent of the population of the country is under the age of 18. The literacy rate in Afghanistan is close to being negligible with no infrastructure in primary schooling and very little education for women.

 This report will now further discuss the origin of this radicalized bandit group and facts and figures on how this group operates, its chain of command and it’s ultimate goal and mission.
The Taliban were founded by a man called Mullah Omar after seeing the chaos that prevailed in  Afghanistan after the withdrawal of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Communist government of the time left Afghanistan under a state of a brutal civil war in which different so called ‘Mujahideen’ groups were fighting against each other in order to take control of the country. In 1994 in the province of Kandahar which is now the major stronghold and supporting province of the Taliban a brutal massacre had taken place in which women and children were raped and murdered. After witnessing this brutality Mullah Omar along with fifty other students from a madrassah gathered to rebel and fight back the local commanders who were in charge of the massacre and they managed to succeed in their rebellion. Soon Mullah Omar’s Taliban movement began to generate steam and pick up pace as hundreds of students from different Madrassahs from all over Afghanistan and Pakistan started to join his movement in fighting for what they believed in as ‘Jihad’ against the tyranny and oppression of civil war against their own people. Another conspiracy also prevails which states that the Taliban and Mullah Omar were started by a transport mafia in Pakistan called the ‘Afghan Transit Trade’ who formed this group Taliban to clear the southern part of the country so that they could link themselves to the Central Asian Republics. Mullah Omar was a former Mujahideen who had fought against the communist in the Soviet Invasion and was well known among other Mujahideen. After he began his movement it was relatively easy for him to gather people for his cause as he had made a well connected network with the right people during the fight with the Soviet Army. It is at this time that he had also met Osama Bin Laden and had fought shoulder to shoulder with him against the Soviets. At first when this movement began It was favored by the people of Afghanistan and they saw it as a welcome sign and a sigh of relief a hope to a peaceful Afghanistan but little did know that it was going to be a beginning to a whole new mess that the Afghan people were yet again being dragged into.  By the end of 1994 the Mujahideen rebel groups did not know what hit them and within no time the Taliban had spread from a small movement started by a handful of madrassah students to a full grown organization spreading out to thirty-one out of the thirty-four provinces of the country. In September of 1996 the Taliban had finally managed to take over the capital of the country Kabul and were now officially in control of the country. As soon as the Taliban had managed to take over the country the first thing they did was to impose Shariah Law. “Shariah Law” is the legal framework or the Islamic system on running the country or the way of life of a society. It consists on a complete list of laws for the society to be run thru but the one that was being imposed by the Taliban was a much more radical version of the Shriah Law. The Taliban were responsible for widespread human rights violations and set out on imposing very strict Islamic government with no tolerance or acceptance for the modern way of life. Men were not allowed to shave their beards and were told to keep beards. If barbers violated these laws they were brutally beaten and tortured. Education for women was banned and they were not allowed to leave their homes and were not allowed to be seen in Public places. If a man and a women were caught doing adultery they were stoned to death. Executions were common and were carried out in the football stadium of the city of Kabul. Hands were amputated if you were found guilty stealing and you were stoned to death if you were found doing any type of adultery.  People were no allowed to watch television or listen to music. All types of photography was banned . In order to implement all of these policies the Taliban had formed a religious police they were men with black turbines and were entrusted with the responsibility of carrying out their duties by using aggressive tactics to frighten civilians on obeying their rules and policies. The Taliban belief and ideology is a very strict and stringent one they follow a very radical version of Islam which very few muslims around the world seem to follow. They extremely anti-modern and anti-western . They consider the western way of life and western culture as the gateway and pathway to a corrupt life. Taliban are at some point are also anti-nationalist and pro Pasthonist and can be seen by the current situation in both the countries Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Taliban are using religion as a way to fuel Pashtun Nationalism and want to dismantle the current democratic set up of both the countries. The process of Talibinisation which is the other name given to the spread of their radical beliefs or the spread of the Taliban across the region is called Talibanisation. On the September of 11^th 2001 an event took place which changed the whole world. The attack on the World Trade Center by Osama Bin Laden increased the global coverage of the Taliban . From a bandit group from the rocky mountain ranges of Afghanistan they went on to be one of the most dangerous and highly ranked terrorist organizations of the world. From a small time Mullah leading a bunch of Madrassah students of Afghanistan the Mullah got to be known as the leader of the Taliban who were now in direct confrontation of with the United States for providing safe haven to the Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. After repeated tries by the United States and Pakistani government for the hand over the fugitive Osama Bin Laden failed to bear fruit the United States declared war on Afghanistan and invaded it. Although the invasion hardly met any resistance and the march to Kabul was a easy one but the long road of war had just began with the Taliban disappearing and resurfacing just like the way they appeared when they stormed to take over the country ten years ago. These events also gave birth to the global war on terrorism which the world is still trying to fight. Due to Pakistan’s involvement in events in Pakistan since the Soviet invasion as the Pakistani army was the one responsible for creating the Taliban and training its members to fight against the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan Pakistan also had to spread widespread problems because of the response to the Taliban threat. Pakistan has faced the worst situation in decades with relation to terrorist attacks which have been going on all over the country . There is still a war being fought on the North Western Frontier of the Pakistani borders. Taliban are also responsible for the assassination of the former prime minister of the country Mrs. Bennazir Bhutto a very well known politician in the world. The spread of the Talibanisation has spread to it’s neighbours and the worst affected one out of all of them has been Pakistan. Even after hosting 30 million Afghan Refugees Pakistan now has to face thousands of terrorists in every form . From radical islamist, to drug dealers and drug barons and also smugglers. Although the Taliban have done horrible things ever since they have been in power and are a menace to this society and their people who starve for a peaceful and safe life where they can see themselves prosperous and happy but sadly one of the major reasons why people in that region opt to join for the Taliban is because the pay of a  Taliban fighter is much more than a normal soldier working in the Afghan army. Apart from that the Taliban also provide security and assurity about their families while the army does not. The people also join the Taliban because they do not have any choice . They have families to feed and when there is no job available you get desperate to find a solution and the Taliban who are funded by large groups of donors who do not know where there charity money is being allocated towards. The Taliban have unique selling point and that is that they claim to be the saviors of Islam. So the way these people use religious ideology to gather people for their cause is amazing because they exactly know how to motivate the illiterate villagers. They realise the importance of religion for them and they exploit that point the most. They claim to be the warriors of God to fight against the infidels. If you honestly think about it . It is a wonderful way of gathering a bunch of villagers who still live the same way as their ancestors did hundreds of years ago. In fact a gun would be the most complicated and complex thing these people might have come across. There are areas in between mountains which are called valleys in English but in Persian or Pushto they are called ‘ Darra ‘ meaning “ the land in between the valley”. That area consists of hundreds of these Darras which are in small pockets distributed in different areas of that mountainous terrain. These Darras are often well populated and one such Darra in the tribal region of Afghanistan near the border to Pakistan is called Darra Adamkhel. Which consists of the worlds biggest illegal gun market . The reason why I have included this Darra in my report is because that place is the biggest illegal guns market in the world. The people of that Darra are professional gun smiths and they make guns with their bare hands. They have been doing so since the past many decades . The legends goes that all the scrap metal from the Soviet Invasion was brought to this area and was scrapped in to making weapons. There are actual live videos on Youtube.com available to watch which I will be sharing in my presenstation.