The Militant Mullah and Pakistan

The Militant Mullah and Pakistan

The Militant Mullah of Afghanistan, such a devious individual, who uses the common man for his own political gains, Afghanistan since the 70’s has been through very radical changes due to the role of the Militant Mullah, from the Anti Soviet Jihad to the civil war, and at present, the war on Nato forces, however what makes the Militant Mullah stand out, is his two face role in regards to the betterment of the Pashtun people, take the example of Mullah Turabi who was a two faced ISI operative, who worked with Col Imam and was with the ISI head when the Taliban convoy entered Kandahar. He stated he could support “King Zahir Shah’s return” or continue fighting, however later stated that he just received seven truckloads of weapons from the ISI which made it quite obvious which option he took. 

The Militant Mullah has become the worst problem Afghanistan has faced, but a blessing for the ISI. Take the example of the Taliban, the Taliban did not originate in Afghanistan, the real origin was in late 1988 in Col Sultan Imam’s ISI office in Quetta. Col Sultan Imam and Col Faizan, who was the head of the Quetta branch armed, supervised and trained the “Argestan Shura”. 

The two ISI heads chose extremely conservative Mullahs from Pakistan and Afghanistan to lead the Shura against any signs of any restoration of a secular Durrani Tribal Aristocracy. The Militant Mullah, once again, became the proxy of the ISI to meddle their way into the lives of the Pashtun people. Col Imam, who was a Punjabi, lived a secular lifestyle while he was preaching “Al Jihad” in Afghanistan and at the same time was working hand in hand with establishing a Militant Mullah order in Afghanistan that would work against any signs or anyone working to bring secularism in Afghanistan. 

What astonishes me is that not only did the “Jamiet types” such as Fazul Rehman and his dreadful JUI party take part in the creation of the Taliban but a feminist secularist politician by the name of Benazir Bhutto took part too. After the 6th October 1993 elections, Benazir Bhutto took office, and appointed Nasrullah Babar, a retired Pakistani general to be her interior minister. Both, feminist and retired Pakistani general backed the launching of the Taliban. With the added support from Fazul Rehman and his connections with the Saudi Royal Family, he lobbied for literature and financial support for the Taliban. 

Members of a secular party (PPP) that preached rights for all, regardless of their gender and religion were spear heading the campaign for the Taliban’s take over of Afghanistan. The ISI and General Babar, after receiving a few victories in Afghanistan, started to bring together, Afghan and Pakistani “Jihadi’s” into the Taliban Army, with the Arabs added as extras to fuel the radicalism that would later plague Afghanistan and deprive the people of a national identity that isn’t controlled by the Pakistanis in Rawalpindi Punjab. 

The Militant Mullahs and their unholy alliance with the ISI started to work together and drew up military plans for a future Afghanistan under total control of the Taliban and ISI. The Militant Mullah such as Fazul Rehman and Azhar Masood, enrolled thousands of Madrassah students, to join the Taliban and also encouraged Arab fanatics too, for guidance and further radicalisation of the masses. Pick up trucks loaded with Machine guns, Anti Aircraft guns and rocket launchers were given to the Taliban by the Saudis who shipped them to Karachi. 

Pakistan and her Militant Mullahs, flooded Afghanistan with foreign Jihadi’s, and used Afghanistan as a training ground for some very unsavoury figures such as Osama Bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam, both fanatical Arabs, who used the soil of the Pashtun people to declare a “Global Jihad for Arab glory” while sparing their native Arab countries, from a future American invasion, that has cost the lives of 1000’s of innocent Afghan men, women and children. Regardless of the deluded views of Osama and Abdullah Azzam, the Pakistanis were assured, they would be of no threat to Pakistan, as they will be stationed in Afghanistan, and would cause no problems to Punjab, just as like how according to Khalid Khawaja, a former ISI operative, stated that Nawaz Sharif was paid by Osama Bin Laden to keep his government away from saying anything or opposing Bin Laden’s Al-Qaida in Pakistan. 

Pakistan found more opportunities, under a Taliban take over of Afghanistan such as establishing their own Kashmiri Jihadi camps led by the likes of Lashkar e Taiba, who was founded in Kunar by a Pakistani Punjabi called Hafiz Muhammad Saeed who is currently based with its headquarters in Muridke, which is near Lahore in the Punjab Province of Pakistan. The first attack in Jammu and Kashmir by this Punjabi Militant group was recorded in 1993 when 12 Pakistanis assisted by Afghan fighters entered across the line of control. Pakistan and her Militant Mullahs didn’t even spare the opportunity to use Pashtun blood to fight India. 

Pakistan’s devious influence in Afghanistan was poisonous, and its truly sad that its taken the Nato forces, and the international community as a whole to notice it after so long, not only has Pakistan dismantle Afghanistan, broken it into pieces, turn Pashtun against Pashtun, Afghan against Afghan, Pakistan has systematically brought Afghanistan backwards, even the progressive and secular elite of Pakistan played a major role in backing unsavoury figures in Afghanistan just to please Punjab’s rule over Afghanistan, during Benazir’s Bhutto’s second term of office in 1993 to 1996, General babar as was mentioned before was the interior minister, established the Afghan trade development cell that would provide Pakistan a key link to Central Asia. General Babar, eventually decided to hire a transportation company that previously was hired to take arms shipments from Karachi to Afghanistan, to arm the Militant Mullahs who were fighting Afghan/Russian soldiers, most of the truck drivers in the company were ex-Pakistani Army officers.

In August 1994, a convoy accompanied by ISI officers with Col Imam being one of them, crossed the border with Afghanistan to reach Turkmenistan. The convoy was held back by local armed group leaders by the name of Mansur Achakzai, Ustad Halim and Amir Lalai, who at the time were controlling the road between Kandahar and Pakistan. Curious to the presence of the ISI convoy in Afghanistan, Mansur Achakzai, prevented their access, and told to move aside to a nearby village, where they were ordered to stop supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan. Pakistan responded to the convoy hijack by suggesting to send in a rescue team led by the Pakistani Special forces, however, those calls were put down, and on 3rd November 1994, Pakistan’s Militant Mullahs the Taliban were called in to attack the convoy, and free the ISI officers, Mansur, and his men fled and was chased by the Taliban, to a desert, captured and then shot dead with ten of his bodyguards. He was then hung from a tank barrel for all to see. The Militant Mullahs’ worked hand in hand with the Pakistani ISI to prevent any opposition to Pakistan’s plans of turning Afghanistan into one of its provinces led by terrorists who work in favour of Pakistani Imperialism. 

As time progressed, city after city demolished due to Pakistani meddling, 9/11 happened, and the Americans went looking for Osama, who was hiding on Afghan soil, protected by both the Taliban and its master the ISI. Before the Americans came into Afghanistan, a incident occurred, by the alias of “Airlift of Evil” whereby Pakistan requested the Americans to allow the evacuation of thousands of ISI officers, Taliban, Islamic movement of Uzbekistan and Al-Qaida figures to be airlifted from Kunduz before the Northern alliance/American forces took over. 

Pakistan being a country of two faces, wanted to save its proxies from an American attack, located and placed them into the tribal regions of Pakhtunkhwa, to secure Pakistan’s future dominance over Afghanistan, once Nato/American forces withdrew from the country. Due to this policy of Pakistan on the Pashtun people, the individuals airlifted became the TTP and its Arab/Uzbek allies brought havoc in the Tribal region of Pakhtunkhwa with the executions of well known and respected tribal elders. Over 200 were killed in a space of a few years with the region being destroyed by constant Taliban attacks, Pakistani army bombardments and American drones on local Pashtun people of Waziristan, Orakzai, Kurram and Khyber region. 

Pakistanis involvement with the Militant Mullah never ended with financial support, but also direct action in support of Taliban’s control over Afghanistan, according to a telegram cable sent from the American embassy in Islamabad to Washington cited that Taliban’s attack on Spin Boldak was aided by artillery shelling from a frontier corps base inside Pakistan. This shows once again, the evil role of the Militant Mullah, who would open his own country, for the interests of outsiders and in this case Pakistan being the major player.

In this article, the author believes the root cause of Afghanistan’s main problems in regards to instability, fighting and outside meddling, is due to Pakistan, its ISI agency and the Militant Mullahs. Afghanistan will never be spared by Pakistan to progress and become a strong progressive nation, as Pakistan seeks to bring Afghanistan to its knees, the NATO forces especially the Americans are being played for fools if they think Pakistan is truly against Al-Qaida and the Taliban. 

Only a truly nationalistic driven Afghanistan with a strong army and a unified public will be the best option to deter any attempts by Pakistan to send its Militant Mullahs to dismantle, divide and destroy Afghanistan both culturally and economically. 

By

Amir Khan Maseed

Afghan Patriot

References 

Clements, Frank (Dec 2003):Conflict in Afghanistan:A Historical encyclopedia

Qassam, Ahmad Shayeq ( Dec 2009):Afghanistan's Political Stability: A Dream unrealised

Sareen, Sushant (Aug 2005): The Jihad Factory: Pakistan's Islamic revolution in the making

Tomsen, Peter (July 2011):The Wars of Afghanistan:Messianic Terrorism,Tribal Conflicts, and the failures of great powers.