The Taliban was formed in southern Afghanistan during the early 1990s by a small group of men appalled that the defeat of the Soviets had been squandered and defiled by civil war. One of its earliest leaders, Mohammad Omar, gained an almost Robin Hood-like reputation by rescuing young girls held captive and raped by local commanders, leaving the commander to hang from the barrel of a tank. Born near Kandahar in about 1959, Omar had lost an eye during the Soviet war. His following grew as like-minded men joined his call, many defecting from the Mujahideen or government forces. Omar claimed to have had a dream in which he was ordered to lead a group of young students to purify the country by ridding it of its corruption and warring factions.
Many of Omar’s recruits were former Afghan refugee boys, orphaned during the Soviet war and brought up in Islamic schools (madrasas) across the border in Pakistan where they learnt to fight and recite the Quran to the exclusion of anything else. They were brought up in an exclusively religious and male world, where they were taught to revere women yet had no interaction with them. The word Taliban is the plural of talib meaning student of Islam. Their aim was to restore order within Afghanistan, cleanse society and enforce greater respect for Islam and Islamic (or Sharia) law.
In 1996 Omar appeared in public wearing a cloak believed to have been worn by the Prophet Muhammad himself. Having retrieved it from a Kandahar mosque, it was believed that whoever wore this symbolic and sacred cloak was deemed Commander of the Faithful, the leader of all Muslims. Omar, the first to don the cloak since Dost Mohammad over 150 years before, took the title ‘Mullah’.
As their number and local influence increased they attracted the attention and support of Pakistan. In October 1994 a group of Taliban provided protection to a Pakistani convoy against the numerous warlords lined along the major Afghan roads who had bribed or murdered many a traveller along their routes. The Taliban proved themselves worthy fighters, ridding the roads of the extortionists and providing safe passage. The reputation of the Taliban as a potent military force was sealed in late 1994 following their capture of Kandahar with minimal loss of men. Local warlords and militias immediately surrendered and joined them.
Massoud, who had finally defeated Hekmatyar for control of Kabul, proposed a political settlement that would bring stability and democracy to Afghanistan, and invited the Taliban to be part of that process, even going so far as to visit the Taliban in person. The Taliban declined and the Taliban leader who had received Massoud was later killed for failing to assassinate him.
The Taliban’s early attempts to bomb Kabul did not succeed and Massoud held them at bay. Pakistan, which had ceased to provide funds and support for Hekmatyar, swapped their allegiance to the Taliban. Further funds came from Osama bin Laden who, in 1996, took up residence in Kandahar at the request of Omar.
Within two years the Taliban had become a force to be feared by their opponents, but they were welcomed by civilians as a source of law and order. In September 1996 they took the city of Jalalabad followed swiftly by a number of towns, leading, by the end of the month, to the gates of Kabul.
Having been dislodged from his position outside the capital by the Taliban, Hekmatyar considered Rabbani’s second offer of the role of prime minister. This time, he accepted. During the swearing-in ceremony, the city was bombed – again by the Taliban. The citizens of Kabul, who for four years had managed to keep Hekmatyar out, now found him within their midst as their prime minister, issuing decrees on how women should present themselves. It was this, more than Hekmatyar’s bombing, that undermined Rabbani’s position and led to Pakistan severing all support for Hekmatyar. Without support, Hekmatyar fled abroad while his followers defected to the Taliban.
With Pakistan’s backing, the Taliban made progress. Their final battle took place on 25 September at the town of Sarobi, the last town before Kabul. Despite intense fire from Massoud’s troops and huge losses, the Taliban attacked from the north and south. Massoud believed the approach from the south was impregnable having been turned into a huge minefield. He was wrong – the Taliban forced prisoners at gunpoint to walk ahead of them, clearing the path. Sarobi was doomed and its defenders fled or, in the Afghan way, defected to the winning side.
In 26 September 1996, Massoud, realizing that resistance was futile, ordered the withdrawal of his forces out of the capital. Before leaving, he offered to take Najibullah with him. Najibullah, the last Soviet-backed president of Afghanistan, had been living within the sanctuary of the UN compound since his fall from power in April 1992. The former president, distrusting of Massoud, refused the offer, declaring that the Taliban, poised outside the city, would do him no harm.
It was to prove a fatal mistake. The following day, 27 September, the Taliban strolled into the city and their first task was to remove Najibullah from the compound. The former president, together with his brother, was publicly beaten, tortured, castrated and killed. Their bodies were strung up on a traffic barricade and left for days while everywhere the Taliban rejoiced.
The Taliban had every right to celebrate. Within two years they had come to control 90 per cent of the country and now, to crown it all, they controlled the capital. Mullah Omar’s victorious message was read out on radio: ‘We represent Afghanistan. After fourteen years of jihad against the communists, the victors betrayed the nation and took up arms. Now there is order.’ Afghanistan was about to enter a new phase, and alongside it, the whole world.