New Italia

It is said that an image worth a thousand words, let's see how it works!

In New Italia

I don’t write any thing in this regard!
I just let my small scissors cut the pieces of reality to paste in this blog.

Because I heard that; an image works as a thousand words or an image worth a thousand words.

Perhaps, this time, instead of a pen, scissors has had something to say, by cutting and pasting the pieces of reality already available on the papers and then to put in this blog.

So, therefore, when I found some interesting images, I asked the help of scissors to cut them for me to put them in this blog, but I myself keep quite and say nothing, to see if it is true that; an images worth a thousand words!?

Now, by seeing these images, you must know the rest, I assume.

The Dragon enters!

(Episode 2 of The Enemies at the Gates!)

There is not a single day when the frontal battle, suicide attacks or school burnings by Taliban are not reported by the media; meanwhile still strong efforts are made to bring the Taliban back onto power.

Karzai and his dominant team; Farooq Wardak, Sebghatullah Mujadadi and etc are anxiously waiting for the day when they would sit at the same table with Mullah Omar, Hekmatyar and other warlord extremists, but what happens to the situation of the people, they don’t care.

The latest surprise of Karzai’s administration for the people was release of Ghairat Baheer by his decree; Hekmatyar’s son- in-law and his spokes person from the prison without any trial or investigation and or any explanation in this regard, which is a sign of Gulbudin Hekmatyar’s return on the political stage of the country.

Who is Hekmatyar?

Although Gulbudin Hekmatyar was the nominated Prime Minister of Mujahedeen Government but because of problems he had with Ahmad Shah Masoud, he ignited the fire of civil war in Kabul in 1992.
Gulbudin Hekmatyar, the leader of Hezb e Islami e Afghanistan (The Islamic Party of Afghanistan) is one of the main initiators of the civil war of 1990s in Kabul, who was not satisfied with the government power sharing among the Jihadi groups after the collapse of communist government in 1991 and then began to launch rockets on Kabul and fight with the other Jihadi parties especially with Shoraye Nezar the party lead by Ahmad Shah Masoud hence thereafter they are called as the warlords or the war criminals.

Photo from COMPASS.com

After the collapse of Mujahedin Government by the Taliban, Hekmatyar strengthened and kept his relations with them and with their Al-Qaeeda Godfathers. By taking the side of Taliban as a supportive element Hekmatyar got popularity among them, although even before appearance of the Taliban, because of being financially supported and spiritually inspired by the Pakistani- Pashtoon extremist religious leaders when most of parts of his life time is spent in Pakistan, he had a pro- Talibanism position and in theory he defended the extremist definitions and interpretations of religion in the society.

Quitting Afghanistan, for a period of time Hekmatyar was living in Iran, under protection of the Islamic Republic of Iran in between 1997 to 2002 and then began living in hidden although most of the time it is said that he is hiding in Pakistan.

After the attack of the USA on the Taliban in 2001, he opposed the new Afghan government and called it a puppet government by the foreigners and announced Jihad against the coalition forces of foreign troops and called them as the foreign invaders, and the same as Al-Qaeeda Leaders, he sent his voice massages through radio stations or his written messages by internet. Thereafter in February 2003 his name was in the watch list of the CIA.

Nowadays, while the offices his party Hezb e Islami are open in different provinces of Afghanistan including the capital, Hekmatyar as the main leader of the party is still disappearing.
Since a few months ago there were rumours regarding the direct contact of Karzai with Hekmatyar for series of negotiations to bring him back into the government, and finally the release of his son- in- law and spokesperson from prison has confirmed the reality of these rumours.

At the same time, while the Taliban and their extremist adherents are free from the pressures of Pakistan government, the Afghan government also follows the same strategy, as if every thing in Kabul is totally dependant on Islamabad; the goals of both administrations seem to be the same, that is providing a space for extremists and fundamentalists in the political arenas of both counties but only the tactics are different. Pakistan signs peace agreement, releases their commanders by dramatic kidnappings shows and Kabul releases them through Peace Strengthening Commission, by ethnic reasons and relationships or by direct presidential decrees.
This way the Taliban have enough time and energy to strengthen themselves day by day in both countries and expand their terrorist operations such as frontal battles, school burnings, suicide attacks and spreading fear in the country. On the other hand, while more than forty countries are involved in peace keeping mission in Afghanistan, recently the NATO commander in Afghanistan has announced that the resources are not enough to fight against the Taliban which is a bit enigmatic for the Afghans and strengthens the moral of the Taliban instead.

Negotiating with Taliban is not only an attempt by Karzai and his team but also the National Front as the biggest opposition of Karzai’s administration also did not deny approaching the Taliban for negotiations.

It confuses the people when for both sides it is very important to rely on Taliban as a power balancing potential in the country; Karzai administration and his oppositions both rely on the Taliban and try to negotiate with them for the next governments elections and no body knows why are the Taliban once again becoming object of attraction for both sides; “Are the people going to face and tolerate a Taliban government for the second time?!” is a fearful question for the people which makes them reluctant and hopeless of a bright future in Afghanistan.

What will happen if the Taliban is going to come on power again?

Considering the extreme definitions and interpretations of the religion by the Taliban, and the contradiction between the life –style of them with the ordinary Afghans, will they match with the standard of a society that the contemporary Afghans expect of?
Will the Afghan people accept impose of the nomadic tribal customs on them by the name of religion?
Will the Afghan people bear beheading or hand cutting of the people by the Taliban?
When the world is going ahead towards progress and development are the Taliban something necessary or needed for the Afghan society?
They are all the questions that Karzai administration has to answer and explain for the nation.

Religious or a totally ethnic war?

Since, Pakistan Intelligence Services had already influenced into Karzai’s administration and into the parliament through Peshawar based Pashtoon Jihadi Leaders, ethnic - tribal leaders of southern and eastern borders of Afghanistan; the results of their influence is more visible day after day when we see, Karzai’s government moves on a parallel path with Pakistan in policies regarding the Taliban, these changes take place when the Pashtoons leaders and Pashtoon Parties in North West Frontier Province of Pakistan got more power than before in the last elections, as well as the Jamiat e Ulama which is actually a Pashtoon lead ethnic, political and religious party and its adherent groups also got remarkable number of seats in the parliament, at once the release of Taliban leaders began in both countries, a cease fire is set up within Pakistan so that the inhabitants of Free Tribal Areas who are mostly Pashtoons would be in peace and the war should be continued only in Afghanistan.

What are the results of Regional Peace Jirga?

Although hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on a puppet - play game called Regional Peace Jirga, not only nothing useful happened but even also the Taliban’s attacks and threats increased thereafter.

Although the purpose behind that Jirga was the solidarity of the Pashtoons of both sides of the Durand line (Afghan-Pak Borders) but what about the people of both countries who suffer because of them and because of their extremism? What will president Karzai answer to the whole nation in this regard?

The way things go on contemporarily and how Karzai’s administration seems to dance with the music of Pakistani politicians, soon or later a big chaos and may be another ethnic clash is predictable in Afghanistan, and what so ever happen; in any case the innocent people of both sides who are actually forgotten, will be sacrificed in the middle of these political games.

The Godfathers of the Taliban (Part two)

(Written by Basir Begzad)
Translated by Amin Wahidi

Bloger’s note:

When the negotiations of the Karzai administration with the Taliban get hotter day by day, the United Nation’s Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the delegation of some countries in Afghanistan show interest with this proposition of the Afghan government, while they are not very serious in their mandate regarding eradication of the terrorism in Afghanistan, then it is the responsibility of the committed Afghan intellectuals, writers artists and journalists to introduce the real feature of the Taliban to the world for a better recognition of this extremist group. Especially it is important for the democrat individuals and democratic organizations that help and support the democratization process of Afghanistan to know who they are supporting and or funding through the current government of Afghanistan.

Therefore, feeling responsibility, we are providing the readers with any reliable information regarding the essence, operations, crimes and terrorist activities of Taliban that we find from different sources.

Hence, here we present the second part of the “Godfathers of the Taliban” a serial research article written in Dari (Farsi) by Basir Bigzad the Afghan journalist- writer and researcher in Afghanistan.

Part two:

In the first part of this article, we discussed the historical backgrounds and how, when, by which schools and by who the Talibanism mentality was founded as a political and social movement.

In this part we go through to introduce, the religious, sectarian and political supporters of this movement in Pakistan as the core and the main base of The Taliban.

In this writing, efforts are made to discuss the internal and external roots for the formation and development of fundamentalism in the form of religious extremists with Talibanism mentality.

1) The external root

After the elections of 1993 in Pakistan when the fundamentalist party of Jamiat e Ulama e Pakistan got the power together with People’s Party of Pakistan (Lead by Benazir Bhutto ), the practical path was clear for the rapid growth of the religious extremists in this country.

This happened in Pakistan while in Afghanistan, the growth of non- Pashtoon parties such as, Jamiat e Islami, Hezb e Wahdat e Islami and Jonbishe Melli Islami, affected and endangered the historical sovereignty of the Pashtoons in Afghanistan.

The ministry of interior, the ISI, and Army of Pakistan has felt this danger, thus if they did not do anything to weaken those non Pashtoon Parties, the Pashtoons would lose sovereignty and power for ever in Afghanistan.

This is how three main generals of Pakistan; General Nasrullah Babur, the minister of interior, General Ali Qoli Khan Chief of the ISI and General Abdul Wahid Khan Chief of Staff of the Army of Pakistan have had a secrete agreement to make a new force so that to get the lost sovereignty of the Pashtoons back in Afghanistan as well as a support to the strategy of Pakistan through them in Afghanistan as the fifth province of Pakistan.

Mullah Dadullah a top Taliban commander who was killed in 2007

Although a part of their purpose to make the new born group of Taliban with the spiritual support of Jamiat e Ulama was the reimbursement of power and sovereignty of the Pashtoons in Afghanistan, on the other hand the there were to other main purposes too; to open a market for the low standard products of Pakistan and then to cover the issue of reclamation of Pashtoonistan by Afghanistan; which is critical for both, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The leaders of Jamiat e Ulama, especially Maulana Fazlu Rahman who is a racist, conservative and religious Pashtoon leader, has made most of the efforts for the formation of this gruesome movement for war torn Afghanistan and he took the main responsibility to lead this movement; because on that time, when Maulana Fazlu Rahman was the chairperson of Permanent Committee of International Affairs of the National Assembly of Pakistan during Benazir Bhutto’s government, he could find very strong foreign supporters for Taliban such as, United States of America, Saudi Arabia and other Arabic countries so that to provide military, economic and political support to this group.

Allocating millions of dollars, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, began to fund thousands of religious schools in Pashtoon living areas and among the Afghan refugees to accelerate the promotion of Wahabism mentality among them.

With this harmonic movement, the main moving motors got started to provide logistical supports for the political and military achievement of a fundamentalist group and the base of a tribal government with aggressive mentality and fundamentalist thoughts was put up practically on the ground by these madrasas (religious schools).

Maulana Samey ul Haq

Maulana Samey ul Haq a member of National Assembly of Pakistan and the leader of “Darul Olume Haqania” or “The Haqania Religious School” as a political and religious influential person in Jamiat e Ulama has played a key role to attract the tribes of Free Tribal Areas under the frame of this extremist group; because most of the Taliban leaders had studied religious lessons in his Religious School.

Ahmad Rashid, Pakistani journalist and analyst who has done an interview with Maulana Samey ul Haq in one of his notes quotes what Maulana Samey ul Haq has said; “Before 1991, I did not know Mula Omar, because he has not studied in Pakistan, but the adherents of Mula Omar are all the Taliban or students of Haqania Religious School and they have come to me many times asking what to do.
I have all the time advised them, not to form a party and counseled them to make a Taliban movement (religious students’ movement), because the ISI was trying to arouse the Mujahedin Parties against each other so that to break them into different parts therefore I proposed them to form a Taliban movement, as well as suggested to the ISI to let them conquer Afghanistan.”

This way, the main root of the Taliban movement was sown and grown unexpectedly day after day in the middle of “Students of Dewbandia Religious Schools” who are mainly Pashtoon extremist fundamentalists and have mixed Islam with their tribal customs.

Ahmad Rashid, Pakistani Journalist and author

Again Ahmad Rashid writes in this regard; “these inexperienced youth were like foams on water, riding on the waves of war and launched on the beach of the history. Having no remembrances of the past and knowing nothing about the future; present is the only and every thing for them. These young Taliban (religious students) are rootless, without a pivot and without occupations or in better words; they are the orphans of war and in economic discretion they are deprived of knowledge and without assets”.

All these plans and programs were being made up for Afghanistan beyond borders, while there was a deep socio- political crisis within Kabul in the form of disagreement among the political parties who had marched their military forces against each other, on the other hand lack of a specific program to establish a stable government peacefully was leading the country towards a harder challenge.

The civil war in between, Gulbudeen Hekmatyar and Ahmad Shah Masoud was also an incentive for the new born movement of Taliban and their Pakistani advisors hence the paths were clear for the essence of the Taliban in 1993.

2) The internal basis

Since 1748 or from the kingdom of Ahmad Shah Abdali up to 1992 the power and sovereignty has always been in the hand of the Pashtoons.

That means thereafter the Pashtoonization mentality had progressed in its extremist manner and the idea of excellence of the Pashtoons than the other citizens has become one of the main political essentiality or in better words, as long as Afghanistan exists, the leadership of this country is the right of the Pashtoons.

After the collapse of pro- USSR puppet government of Najeebullah by Mujahedeen, the sovereignty of the Pashtoons faced with a serious challenge, because a non Pashtoon government was formed for the second time in the history of Afghanistan (Rabani- Tajik) and this forced the tribal parties to look for a new leadership to rehabilitate and maintain the sovereignty of the Pashtoon tribes back in this country.

On the other hand, the allies of the Non Pashtoon parties lead by Jamiat e Islami that came newly on power was very fragile. Because these parties were not politically matured therefore the ethnic sovereignty was on again (The Pashtoon sovereignty was replaced by Tajik sovereignty) and that took the country towards destruction.
The non- Pashtoon ethnics could not plot an acceptable formation for Kabul administration.
This way again the suffering history was repeated and the Afghan people who were just released from Pashtoonization sovereignty this time faced with Tajikism sovereignty and ethnic monopoly and a bloody civil war began and the paradox of existence and non existence was repeated.

In June of 1994 some leaders of Jamiat e Islami issued the Fatwa of war against the south while thinking to establish another ethnic monopoly in Afghanistan by conquering the south.

This was revealed when the delegations of Jamiat e Islami Sayed Mohammad Khair Khah in Tehran- Iran and Ibrahim Oresji in Dushanbeh- Tajikistan talked in this regard.

In a meeting with the adherents of Jamiat e Islami in Dushanbeh, Ibrahim Oresji has said that; “south and south west of the country will be conquered soon by the government forces (Shoraye Nezar), from north and from west Ismayel khan, from the east our allies of Nangarhar council will filter the other groups, then will talk with the Hazaras and the Uzbeks too”.

These sayings showed the repeat of another ethnic monopoly and injustice and inequality and discrimination in the country. This time instead of the Pashtoons, the Tajiks would take the power and would repeat the same mistakes of the Pashtoons; that is ignoring all other ethnics of the country and keeping them deprived of their rights and any kind social services.

Kabul, Hazarajaat, north and west of the country become grounds for bloody battles in between the Uzbeks and Ismayel Khan, Ahmad Shah Masoud and the Hazaras and in between the Pashtoons and Ahmad Shah Masoud.

This civil war lasted for three years. Although some of Tajik intellectuals send open letters to Rabani and Masoud asking them to stop the war and not to repeat a historical war crimes again, but these open letters never were taken serious by them.

Some Tajik analysts think the reason of ethnic war in between the Hazaras, Uzbeks and the Tajiks were all because of Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayaf’s advisory who is a Pasthoon extremist leader, they claim that Sayaf always tried to prevent negotiations in between the leaders of these three ethnics.

Giving a hand with Sayaf the Rabani Administration first targeted the Hazaras and did genocide in west of Kabul which will be explained later. And then they continued to fight with the Uzbeks. These wars changed Afghanistan into a panic house and slowly on the party battles changed into an ethnic and racial war.

From one side the ethnic problems and tensions existed while on the other side after the fall of the pro - communist government Jihad and holy war has lost its meaning, value and importance among the fighter parties and this opened the gates of Afghanistan for the Mullahs, Taliban and free tribes of north west of Pakistan as the safeguarding ambassadors of the Afghan people.

The tribes of the south Afghanistan together with the tribes of north Pakistan composed of conservative and moderate Pashtoons with white or black turbans on the heads instead of ties in the neck appeared on the ground by the names of Mullahs and Maulavis under the title of Taliban movement.
Soon they were welcomed in the south and conquered vast areas.

Ahmad Rashid again writes in this regard; “after handling the power in their hand, the Mujahedeen commanders forced the people out of their houses and farms, grabbed their houses and farms and distributed them among their soldiers and gun men, even they have kidnapped and raped the teenage boys and girls. This situation changed the idea of the conservative Afghan people about the Mujahedeen thus they welcomed the Taliban warmly as the liberating angels not knowing their real essence and goals”.


To be continued…..