Pak-Afghan relations

and the Taliban

Exploring new connections



CONTENTS:
1. Introduction
2. Brief over-view of Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations
3. The Cold War
4. The Taliban and their era
5. Pakistan and its history that relates to the Taliban
6. Deoband, Dars-e-Nizami and the Taliban
7. Pashtunwali and Taliban
8. Putting the Jigsaw puzzle together
9. Relations post 9/11
10. Conclusion


























Introduction:
This research paper explores some aspects of Pakistan-Afghanistan relations in detail. The main
focus is on the era of the Taliban and their interesting relations with Pakistan, which are
historical, political and social. The Taliban interest me because of the current divide in our
society between the religious and the secular minded people. The study of the Taliban provides
an insight into how all this drift started. One comes to know that this disparity is not new, rather
it existed in the sub-continent in the 19th century too. The Taliban phenomenon could be traced
back to the historical roots of Pakistan. This connection I venture to explore in this paper.
In the first chapter, a brief overview of Pakistan-Afghan relations is given to provide the reader
with a context. It covers the relation up to the advent of Afghan Jihad. The USSR war with
Afghanistan is dealt with in the second chapter. The third chapter explains with the Taliban in
detail. This is the most important chapter in the paper. Thereafter, in the fourth chapter, I discuss
the history of Pakistan that relates to the Taliban, spanning multiple factors that relate to the
Taliban but have not been emphasized before. In the fifth chapter, which buds from the fourth
chapter, the history of the Deoband seminary, its curriculum and its impact on the Taliban is
discussed. In the sixth chapter, the influence of Pashtunwali on the Taliban is discussed. In the
seventh chapter, I try to assemble the seemingly disparate elements of the previous chapters by
drawing connections between the chapters. The eighth chapter covers the post 9/11 era.
I am deeply grateful to Allah almighty who made me able to work on this project. Moreover, I
am indebted to my father who offered me valuable advice, to my younger brothers who bore with
my lengthy sittings on the computer, and to my mother who shifted her schedule and household
chores in order to facilitate my work. I am grateful to my teacher Mr. Aamir Sohail who inspired
me to think differently and, of course, to my subject teacher Mr.Farooq who gave me ample
amount of time to complete my project. This was my first ever research project and therefore
might appear amateur. But I hope to learn from the mistakes(which are undoubtedly many) that
you will point out and will continue reading and thinking and improving. Happy reading!












Chapter 1:Brief overview of Pak-Afghan Relations
Before 1947:
The main link between the two countries is the common pashtun areas. Historically, the lands of
both countries have often come under the same empires, from Mauryans(322 BC185 BC),
White Huns(420-567),Ghoris,Taimuris, Lodhis, Mughals
1
, and finally the Durrani Empire. All
these empires had,at least, the area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and a major portion of Afghanistan
under their rule. Until the British captured the now Khyber pakhtunkhwa(KPK) in Pakistan in
1880
2
, the Durrani Empire (1747-1826) had enjoyed dominion over Indian cities as far as
Lahore.
3


Afghanistan remained a matter of conflict between the British India and the Russians during the
19th Century due to its Geo-political importance and acted as a buffer for the tension between the
two super powers.
4
Afghanistan fought two Anglo-Afghan wars,one from 1838-42 and the second
from 1878-80. The former was a humiliating loss to the Britons, with just one soldier living to
tell the tale.
5
The second proved futile for the Afghans, who had to sign the treaty of
Gandamark(1879), which provided Afghans the right to control their internal policies but
restricted them from contacting the outside world except the British India. It was at this point that
the Afghan-India(before partition) relations took an important turn in history. Since then, the two
states seem inseparable. The British demarcated the Afghan-India border by a treaty signed in
1893 and the areas westward of present Pakistans KPK and Balochistan were to remain with the
Afghan King Amir Abdur Rehman Khan.
6
The treaty was to expire in 1993 and the areas were to
be returned to Afghans. In 1947, after the partition of India and the demise of the British, the
Afghan parliament refused to accept the treaty
7
and demanded reversion of the Pashtun areas in
Pakistan,even though the people of those areas had chosen to live in Pakistan. This dispute of
borders has been the stigma in the Pak-Afghan relations since, with the Afghans supporting
Pashtun nationalism in Pakistan. According to Lord Curzon,
8
frontiers are indeed the razors
edge on which hang suspended the modern issues of war and peace, of life or death to nations.
Therefore, Afghanistan was the only country in the world which opposed Pakistans entry into
the UN in September 1947
9
.

1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Afghanistan
2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Afghanistan
3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durrani_Empire
4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Anglo-Afghan_War
5
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Anglo-Afghan_War
6
http://www.afghanistans.com/information/history/durandline.htm
7
http://www.afghanistans.com/Information/History/Default.htm
8
http://www.qurtuba.edu.pk/thedialogue/The%20Dialogue/4_1/02_ashraf.pdf
9
http://www.qurtuba.edu.pk/thedialogue/The%20Dialogue/4_1/02_ashraf.pdf



1947-1978:
Afghanistan, a landlocked country, shares a 2290
10
km border on its east with Pakistan, a country
which is geo-strategically as important as Afghanistan with its sea ports and transit route
connecting central and south east Asia. Its surrounded by the resource-rich Tajikistan,
Turkemanistan and Uzbekistan. Its a fairly symmetrically land-locked country.Pakistan, on the
other hand, is also a strategically important country bordering India, Iran and China and has the
nearest water port for the Central Asian States i.e. Gwadar.

The Nascent Pakistan in 1947 faced a lot of problems, those included the ones from Afghanistan.
Although Pakistans foreign policy was based on the principle of Pan-Islamism
11
, Afghanistan
proved to be a difficult neighbour. The afghans aimed to capitalize on the problems of the newly-
born Pakistan and demand the Pashtun areas of Pakistan before the Durand Line treaty expired.
In 1950, King Zahir Shah made an anti Pakistan speech at a celebration in Kabul.
12
Cross-border
infiltration of Afghan forces into the Pakistani tribal areas and their repulsion by the Pakistani
security forces, followed by the assassination of Pakistani Prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan in
1951 by an afghan national further worsened the conditions. At the time, Afghanistan joined
ranks with India to counter possible arms support for Pakistan from the US. US also denied
Afghan requests for arms in order to avoid reaction from USSR.
13
When Pakistan implemented
one unit system in 1955, Afghans protested and sacked the Pakistan ambassador and consulates
in Kandahar and Jalalabad were attacked, with similar reciprocation form the Pakistanis in
Peshawar. In reaction to Pakistans membership of SAETO and CENTO, Russia openly joined
ranks with India and Afghanistan. This deepened the gulf between the two countries. Relations
became better when the rulers of both sides paid visits to each other and US also supported the
two countries, while Russia also aided Afghanistan. The soviets infiltrated Afghanistan by
building strategically important roads and infrastructure. Increased US infiltration in Pakistan
further enhanced the tensions and pak-afghan relations came to another halt until Iran mediated
the Tehran accords in 1963
14
.Afghanistan supported Pakistan in 1965 war and the rulers of both
sides paid visits and trade was enhanced. The relations were becoming better until 1973.

In 1973, Sardar Daud deposed King Zahir shah while he was on a visit to Europe. Daud was a
pro-soviet and a pro-Pakhtoonistan and proclaimed himself president. The establishment was
proliferated by pro-soviet elements form the civil and army which alarmed Pakistan. Retaliating

10
Pakistan Studies book,, Federal Board Printing press, 2002, pg 88
11
ashraf.pdf
12
ashraf.pdf
13
asraf.pdf
14
ashraf.pdf


to the backing of separatist forces in Pakistan by Daud, the Pakistani Intelligence services started
supporting anti-Daud elements in the US. Consequently, Pakistan welcomed Afghan Islamists
with anti communist and anti Daud feelings. These dissidents were provided training and other
supports for their incursions and uprisings inside Afghanistan. Figures like Gulbaddin Hekmat
Yar, Ahmad Shah Masood, and Burhan-ud-din Rabbani escaped to Pakistan and continued
controlling their armed resistance against Communists backed Daud regime from Peshawar,
gaining momentum with in few years and attained a status of armed opposition to be reckoned
with. Reportedly, around 5,000 Afghan dissidents were trained by Pakistan in its secret military
camps.
15
Daud succumbed to the resistance and started developing good relations with Pakistan.
But these were short-lived, as Bhutto was overthrown by General Zia and Daud was eliminated
by the communist forces in 1978. What followed was a communist government, headed by Noor
Muhammad Taraki of the Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan, which was protested
against widely in the country due to its communist reforms.



























15
ashraf.pdf


Chapter 2:The Cold and The Civil War(1979-1992)
The positioning of communist regime in Kabul presented a serious threat to Pakistans security
and integrity as it was perceived as a Soviet threat in all its totality. Pakistan had no other option
but either to surrender or to go for all out support to the forces resisting against the communist
regime of President Noor Mohammed Taraki. Besides, supporting and organizing resistance
forces against the Communist regime of Kabul, Pakistan had to host over 150,000 Afghan
refugees into Pakistan immediately after the Saur Revolution of April 1978.In December 1978
PDPA signed a friendship treaty with the Soviet Union. On September 16th 1979, Hafizullah
Amin(the prime minister) staged another coup against own government, killing Taraki, and took
over as President of Afghanistan. Moscow having found Amin less subservient invaded Kabul
during the last days of 1979,executed Amin and installed Karmal (the former deputy prime
minister. as a new president.
16

The US initially did not support the Zia dictatorship, but when the soviets invaded Afghanistan,
all economic and military aid sanctions were lifted in a bid to support the Afghan freedom
fighters.
From this point on, things have to be analysed in certain perspectives of the current research
topic:
1. Pak-Afghan relations have never been exclusive of foreign influence. In the case of cold
war, Pakistans relation to Afghanistan was influenced by American interests.
2. The Sunni-Deobandi ideology connecting the two countries pashtun masses is also a
factor to be reckoned with.
3. The common pashtun culture,or Pashtunwali, is also a big factor determining the relations
between the two countries.
Post-1979, Afghanistan had become a battlefield for a war between the Capitalists and the
Communists. Pakistan. support to the resistance forces. According to Mr. Abdul Sattar, ex-
Foreign Secretary and Foreign Minister of Pakistan, The Soviet military intervention provoked a
deep sense of alarm in Pakistan. Suddenly the buffer disappeared and if the Soviet rulers
consolidated their control in Afghanistan they could use it as springboard to reach the warm
waters of the Arabian Sea. Pakistan could not afford to acquiesce in the Soviet intervention. But
neither could it afford a confrontation with a super power. Islamabad therefore decided on the
middle course, avoiding confrontation but raising a low pitched voice of concern and protest.
17


The Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) of US supported the Afghan Mujahideen, or freedom
fighters, by funneling their aid through the Inter Services Intelligence(ISI) of Pakistan. to the
Mujahideen, was funneled through Pakistans ISI. The covert aid for raising, training, equipping
and managing Mujahideen in to the battle field went as high as $400 million by 1984 from $60

16
ashraf.pdf
17
ashrafs reference


million annually in 1981.52 The leading recipient of this aid was Hezb-i-Islami of Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar that proved to be the trust worthy and deserving resistance force. It was Pakistans
skill-full use of intel and resources against Soviet forces that made Afghanistan a bleeding
wound.
18
Moscow succumbed in the end, with stinger missiles
19
and fresh recruits from the US
and Pakistan augmenting the Mujahideen. What followed were the Geneva accords, in which the
USSR accepted defeat and took to withdraw its forces till January 1989. But no framework was
laid for an interim government. Also, the soviets left their tanks and ammunition, thereby
creating a black hole of civil war that ensued till 1996. On the other hand, the US, with its
primary objective fulfilled, also abandoned the Mujahideen and Afghanistan. The fighters whom
they had called soldiers of God
20
were now left helpless.
Besides the clash of the titans, Pakistan was undergoing a fundamental ideological and social
change. General Zia was a deeply religious and pan-Islamist Sunni. Besides his social and
economic Islamization of the country, he patronized the afghan jihad. He also funded the
madrassahs in Pakistan, which sent fresh recruits to Afghanistan war. Apart from the madrassahs,
the afghan mujahideen and their struggle was adulated in public, media and the literature of those
times.
21
The mujahideen were adulated by the ulema who portrayed them as soldiers of God and
their accounts of Miraculous help were,and still are, narrated.
22

Zia gave the shape to the current Pakistan policy of intervention in Afghanistan. During the
period from 1983 to 1996, the ISI trained almost 83,000 afghan mujahideen and provided
funding to the madrassahs set up in the afghan refugee areas. During his 10 year reign, the
number of madrassahs grew from 1745
23
to above 20000. Maulana Yousaf Ludhianvi writes
in his obituary to General Zia-ul-Haq that Zia was a leader of a stature incomparable with
contemporary global politicians. He praised him for passing of Shariah Implementation
Ordinance, for fighting USSR in Afghanistan, for his piety, and for his love of Islam. Zia was
very frank with (Deobandi) ulema.
24

Here we see the deep influence of Deobandi ulema on the policy making of General Zia.
Consequently, the motto of Faith, Piety and Jihad in the way of Allah was inculcated into the
Pakistan Army and the GHQ press published a large number of Islamic books which are taught to
the army officers in the Education Core.
25
For example,a book explaining the works of Allama

18
ashraf
19
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=4042676&page=1
20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh2sVcuPk1Q
21
pg.193paharon ka beta written by malik ahmed sarwar,published1990,shirkat printing press and history of islam
22
qari jameel sahabs waqia
23
http://www.ipcs.org/article_details.php?articleNo=314
24
shakhsiat-o-taasurat, maulan yousaf ludhianvi,june 1995, maktaba ludhianvi,page325
25
Iqbals ideology,published GHQ press, 1995


Iqbal in a specific religious context that was moulded to inspire the army officers. The army
recruits sermon-deliverers which normally belong to the Deobandi school of thought.
26
Such
measures made it easy for the army and ISI to support the Afghan Mujahideen and consequently,
the Taliban. Besides the vested strategic interest in Afghanistan, the army personnel were
working for a higher,nobler, and religious cause. Therefore, the army had no problem inviting
Arabs and other muslim fighters and training them to fight the soviets in Afghanistan. A lot of
pakistani civilians also took part in this training and took part in the Afghan Jihad.
27
The Arab
fighters were mainly supported and funded by the Saudi government, which also looked to
expand its interpretation of Wahabbism. The deobandi scholars and the Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam
maintain a separate identity from Wahabbism and have several religious disputes with the
wahabbis. The Deobandi Ulemas agendas were more of a regional context than the pan-islamic
agendas of the Arab fighters. But these subtle differences were not recognized by the PMA
trained army people who were not well versed in the Islamic sciences, Quran or Hadith, who saw
Islam through the rigid-only interpretation of Iqbal, and, coincidentally, who were the masters of
a country which is an amalgam of sects, which had not recovered from the historical
repercussions of the British Colonial rule, which was economically impoverished and which was
under a security threat. Its obvious that in such conditions, a mere dispute of Deobandis and the
Wahabbis seemed trivial. So both schools of thought were funded. Zia was championed by the
ulema of both sides, and these ulema also revered Zia and publicly supported him.
Trickling top-down, the religiosity pervaded throughout the armys hierarchy. And this
religiosity is being targeted today by the US as being responsible for the double-game, for the
support of Taliban and of Al-Qaeda . US capitalized on this very passion and now its blaming
the very sentiment. The ISI has always been surrounded by mystique. No one knows how much
of the ISI belongs to which ideological faction, liberal, conservative or extremist. In fact the
arrest of Brigadier Ali Khan in June 2011 over allegation of his association with Hizb-ut-Tahrir
(HT) has further clouded the issue.
28

One thing is for sure, the Porous pak-afghan border has been utilized by the Pak-Army and ISI to
send its trainees,which include Afghan refugees,Pakistanis, and other muslims who came to help
their Afghan brothers. Russia was persistently critical of this Pakistani influence on the Afghan
soil. The ISI defeated the USSR, and thats why it has been termed as one of the most dangerous
intelligence agency of the world.
29

It is to be noted,however, that our central point of discussion i.e. the relation between the
Deobandi School and the Pak-Afghan relations is not very visible at this point of time. We note

26
personal experience
27
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/asia/afghan-bck1023.htm
28
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/pakistani-army-brigadier-arrested-over-suspected-links-with-
islamist-radicals-2300780.html
29
http://www.dirjournal.com/info/the-worlds-best-intelligence-agencies/


that Zia was influenced by certain Deobandi Ulema but that influence was more of an internal
one, although it did morph into the foreign policy later after the Generals death as the Generals
generous aid of the madrassahs served the Taliban government.

The Civil War(1989-1996)
The Peshawar accords did not provide any framework for an interim government that would
provide for a smooth transition from a devastated, institution-less country to a
peaceful,progressive one.The Soviet invaders departed on schedule and their withdrawal was
followed by eight years of civil war that devastated the remains of Kabul and surrounding. The
withdrawing Soviets left behind necessary war ammunition and equipment that enhanced staying
power of Dr. Najeeb Ullah Government in Kabul. On the other side Americans stopped flow of
arms, ammunition and equipment to the Mujaheddin thereby virtually depriving them of any
capacity to fight. The disintegration of Soviet Union in 1991 triggered the collapse of Najeeb
Ullah in April 1992 and setting up of Sibghatullah Mojadedis broad-based Interim Government.
The power sharing arrangements under Peshawar accord brokered by Pakistan failed when
Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani, President and Ahmad Shah Masood, the defense minister,
conspired to keep Gul Badin HikmatYar designated Prime Minister out of power. Pakistan did
not appreciate Masoods neutral attitude towards Pakistan, and therefore backed Hikmatyar to
gain the objective of strategic depth.
30
This new power game gave birth to another civil war on
ethnic lines. Instead of honoring the terms of Peshawar Accord Rabbani perpetuated his power
illegally by getting himself reelected as President in June 1994. Rabbanis extension of his
presidential power of the transition government that was expiring on 15th December 1994 was
betrayal to Peshawar Accord. The in-fighting amongst the different Mujaheddin between 1992
and 1994 brought about colossal loss of men and material that included over 45000 dead and
nearly same numbers were injured..
The social anarchy, chaotic conditions and rampant mismanagement all around Afghanistan was
depicting the country as a failed state like Somalia, Rwanda and Burundi. Pakistan accused
Rabbani on his betrayal of Peshawar Accord and nurturing links with India to damage Pakistans
interests. The unprecedented love for Pakistan demonstrated during and after the Soviet
occupation vanished and Pakistani citizens in Kabul were being termed as enemy agents. The
situation went so worst that Pakistan Embassy in Kabul was closed down in July 1994 and Pak-
Afghan border was soon closed. Suddenly a new force called Taliban emerged over the ashes left
behind by the war lords in southern Afghanistan. Rabani betrayal created friction between
Islamabad and Rabani regime and emergence of Taliban in Afghanistan provided Islamabad an
alternative choice to replace Rabani.
31




30
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/asia/afghan-bck1023.htm
31
ashraf.pdf









Chapter 3:The Taliban
The Origins:
Afghanistan was in a state of virtual disintergration just before the Taliban emerged at the end of
1994. The country was divided into warlord factions and all the warlords had fought, switched
sides and fought against themselves. Rabbanis government controlled Kabul and the North East
of the country, while Ismael khan controlled the west. The East was controlled by a Mujahideen
council based in Jalalabad and a small southern region by Hikmetyar.
32

The Mujahideen who had had fought for the Najibullah regime and now had gone back to Quetta
to study in the Madrassahs or had gone back to their home. Whenever these people met, they
would discuss the problems of their people and yearn for a solution. After much discussion, these
concerned groups chalked out an agenda which still remains the Talibans declared aims-restore
peace, disarm the population, enforce Sharia law and defend the integrity and Islamic character
of Afghanistan. The Taliban signalled that they were a movement for cleansing society rather
than a party trying to grab power.All of these people were the products of the Afghan Jihad but
deeply dissatisfied with the factionalism and corruption of the Mujahideen leadership. Most of
the Taliban had been born in Pakistani refugee camps and educated in Pakistani Deobandi
madrassahs and had learnt their fighting skills from the mujahideen parties based in Pakistan.
The younger Taliban were not well aware of the history and socio-political condition of their
country. We shall later examine the effects of the Dars-e-Nizami, the curriculum of the
madrassahs, on the Taliban government. The Taliban chose Mullah Omar as their leader, not
because of his political of military ability, but for his piety and firm belief in Islam.
33

Born around 1959 in a village near Kandahar to a family of poor parents, Omar took
responsibility of his family at an early age due to his fathers death. He became the village
mullah opened a small madrassah. During the soviet invasion, he joined Khalis Hizb-e-Islami
and fought under its flag against the Najibullah regime between 1989 and 1992.
There is an entire plethora of myths and stories to explain how Omar mobilized a group of
Taliban against the Kandahar warlords. The most credible story, however, is that in the spring of
1994 Singesar neighbours came to tell Omar that a commander had abducted two teenage girls
and they had been raped at a military camp. Omar organized 30 talibs and freed the two girls.
Similarly he rescued a boy from a warlord. And then he became a Robin Hood like figure who

32
Ahmed Rashid.pg22
33
ibt,pg.23


asked for no credit but just asked for assistance to set up an Islamic system.
34

The Taliban vowed for support from Kabul and Rabbani promised to help the Taliban if they
opposed Hikmetyar. but the talibans closest links with Pakistan were by virtue of Maulana Fazl-
ur-Rehmans JUI, the Deobandi Political party which was popular among the Pashtuns of KPK
and Balochistan. More importantly, JUI was a political ally of Benazirs government, thereby
having access to the army and the ISI, to whom he described this newly emerging force.
Pakistan was tired of the failure of Hikmetyar and was looking for potential pashtun proxies.
Bhutto wanted to open the trade route to central Asia and opted for an alternative route through
the south of Afghanistan which had no war going on and which required only certain war lords to
be bribed before they agreed to open the chains. But the warlords dissented, and in October 1994
they hijacked a convoy of the National logistics cell outside Kandahar. Pakistan could not use a a
raid by its army or a parachute drop, and therefore asked the Taliban to free the convoy, which
they did very easily. The same evening they entered Kandahar and the commander there did not
resist. The Taliban expelled him to his village.They captured dozens of tanks and six Mig-21
fighters and six transport helicopters.
Although Pakistan celebrated the fall of Kandahar by their boys
35
, the Taliban demonstrated
their independence from Pakistan. They demanded that Pakistan should not cut deal with the
warlords. However, the Transport mafia was ecstatic, their business had been provided security
for, and the first Pakistani convoy of cotton from Turkemanistan arrived in Quetta, paying
5000USD to the Taliban in toll. Meanwhile, thousands of Afghan refugees studying in
Madrassahs in Balochistan and KPK rushed to Afghanistan to join the Taliban, followed by
Pakistani volunteers from JUI Deobandi madrassas, who were inspired by the new Islamic
movement in Afghanistan. By December 1992, some 12000 Afghan and Pakistani students had
joined the Taliban in Kandahar. Meanwhile, Bhutto denied any links with the Taliban.
36

In the next three months the Taliban were to take control of 12 of Afghansitans 31
provinces,opening the roads to traffic and disarming the population. As Mullah Omar marched
north, warlords either fled of surrendered to them.
The Advance to Kabul:
In February 1995, the Taliban captured Hikmetyaars headquarters at Charasyab and faced Kabul
ahead. The UN mediated a dialogue between the Rabbani government and the Taliban but teh
Talibans insistence that their forces dominate any new government in Kabul forced Rabbani and
UN to reject their demands.
The Taliban launched an offensive against Kabul and suffered a major blow in their first major
battle. It damaged their prestige, but not their determination. They then turned their attention to
the western city of Herat, but were bombed by Massouds air crafts there too.
The Taliban spent the summer gaining fresh recruits from Pakistan and rebuilding their forces.

34
ibt.pg25
35
ahmed rshid pg29
36
ibt,pg 29


The ISI also helped to bring about an agreement between the Taliban and General Dostum to
create the Talibans first air power by repairing the Migs in Kandahar and starting Dostums own
bombing campaign in Herat. On September 1995,the Taliban finally captured Herat, with Ismael
Khan fleeing with his men to Iran. The Rabbani government openly accused Pakistan of
supporting the Taliban in order to oust him.
37

Bolstered by their victories, the Taliban restarted their campaign against Kabul. Meanwhile,
India started backing the Rabbani government simply because of the Pakistani support of
theTaliban.Simultaneously, Russia backed the Rabbani government because of it being more
moderate and fkexible towards the Central Asian Republics.Iran, wreaking vengeance for the
alleged slaughter of Shia Hazaras, set up training camps and an air bridge from Mashad in Iran to
Bagram in Afghanistan. Consequently, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia stepped up arm supplies to the
Taliban. Thus we witness a complex proxy war going on in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, a group of 1200 Pashtun religious leaders from throughout Afghanistan had
proclaimed Mullah Omar as Ameer-ul-momineen(Commander of the Faithful). Mullah Omar
declared Jihad against the Rabbani government and was revered spiritually in the eyes of
Pashtuns and Pakistanis alike. This gave him unprecedented political and military power.
Camped outside the capital, the Taliban kept rocketing Kabul throughout 1996,whilst
simultaneously capturing more of Afghanistan,including Jalalabad. Heavy fighting followed in
Kabul, resulting in losses on both sides. On 26 September,1996, the Taliban entered Kabul, with
Massoud fleeing north with this army. The Taliban chased him down to Panjshir valley but could
not finish him. On 10th October 1996,Rabbani, Massoud, Dostum and the Hazara leaderKhalili
found theSupreme Council for the Defence of the Mother land to counter the Taliban. This
alliance evaded and perturbed the Taliban till their demise in late 2001.
With 75% of Afghanistan under Taliban rule, Iran, Russia and Central Asians openly announced
support for the Anti-Taliban alliance while Saudi Arabia and Pakistan sent diplomatic missions
to Kabul.
In May 1997, the Taliban attacked Mazar, the last stronghold of the Northern Alliance, but they
lost the battle,besides suffering heavy casualties due to poor tactics and an unfamiliar
terrain
38
.This was their worst ever defeat.
The popular, mainstream media states that in early August 1998, after attacking the city of Mazar
for the second time, Taliban forces killed several thousand civilians and 10 Iranian diplomats and
intelligence officers in the Iranian consulate. Alleged radio intercepts indicate Mullah Omar
personally approved the killings. According to National Geographic
39
, the Taliban also cut off all
road connections to the Hazara areas in the winter of 1998, resulting in mass food shortages and

37
ibt,pg40.
38
http://middleeast.about.com/od/thisdayinmideasthistory/ig/May-22-28-in-Mideast-History/Hazara-Massacre-of-
Taliban.htm
39
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpQI6HKV-ZY


drought. The Taliban accused the international community of isolating the Afghans community
while the UN blamed the Taliban of arrogance and inflexibility. This aversion to Shias could be
related to the Deobandi background of Taliban. In the following crisis between Iran and the
Taliban, the Iranian government amassed up to 200,000 regular troops on the Afghan-Iranian
border.
40
War was eventually averted.
The Taliban and Islam:
Few muslim peoples in the world follow Islam with as much regularity as the afghans. Also, the
Pashtun tribal culture has features that are very similar to Islamic customs.
Eighty percent of the Afghans belong to the Sunni sect whereas the minorities are scattered
throughout the country which include Shias and the Ismaelis. The Hindus, Sikhs and the
Bukharan Jews have left the country due to the socio-political turmoil.
The mosque is the center of the social life in the cast rural population, headed by the local cleric,
or mullah. He advises the local neighbourhood regarding personal and financial matters. The
clerics were educated at madrassahs, which have an evolutionary history of their own.
Interestingly, the evolution of Islamic thought in Afghanistan has certain similarities with the
corresponding evolution of Islamic thought in India. Here we observe the Islamic interpretation
of the Taliban, and relate that with the conditions of their age.
The concept of Jihad in Islam is an agent of change,and of reform, at a personal and a societal
level. The Taliban also appeared as a reform movement. But this movement was different than
the reform movements that appeared in Afghanistan during1979 to 1994. The Talibans
ideological base was derived from Deoband, and it was morphed by the particular conditions of
their age.
The Taliban implemented the Shariah law as they had studied it in the books. The most important
of these were their laws concerning women. The Taliban had a Department for the Promotion of
Virtue and Prevention of Vice. They were not allowed to step outside their residence, not allowed
to wear high heels, or show their faces in public, or wear ornamental clothes. Non-compliance of
these laws resulted in punishment of the women and of their family elders. Similarly in hospitals,
the male patients were not allowed treatment by female doctors and vice versa. Thus there was
enforced a strict segregation of the sexes every where. In one instance, the heads of three UN
agencies in Kandahar were asked to leave the country when they protested that a female lawyer
for the UN Higher Commission for Refugees was forced to talk to Taliban Officers from behind
a curtain so her face would not be visible.
41
The involvement of women in the staff was a basic
cause of Taliban aversion to UN. The Taxi drivers were not allowed to pick up women who wore
the fashionable Iranian Burqa.Music was banned and if a music cassette was found in a shop,
the shopkeeper was imprisoned and the shop locked till the guarantee of five people. If
anybodys beard was found shaved or cut, they would be imprisoned until their beard got

40

41
ahmad rashid,pg65


bushy. Keeping pigeons, flying kites, gambling, practicing sorcery were banned with severe
penalties. British and American hairstyles were banned and photography of any kind was
prohibited to prevent the spread of idolatry.Music and dancing were prohibited, in parties and
in general. During prayer timings, the shops were ordered to be closed and violators would be
immediately imprisoned . The staff in all government and non-government organisations was to
pray in the mosques in the allotted time.Similarly, female education of all sorts was banned.
Within three months of the capture of Kabul, the Taliban closed 63 girl schools and shut down
Kabul university.90%of the Afghan girls and 66% of the afghan boys were not enrolled in any
sort of school by Deccember 1998.
The Taliban leaders were all from the poorest, most conservative and least literate southern
pahstun provinces of Afghanistan. Mullah Omars village women had always gone around fully
veiled. Similarly the Taliban recruits-the orphans,the rootless from the war and the refugee
camps- had been bought up in a totally male society. In the madrassah environment,control over
women and their virtual exclusion was a symbol of manhood and a reaffirmation of committment
to jihad. This was mainly due to the Pashtun culture and the economical and social conditions of
Pakistan. The Taliban were a generation of muslim males who had spent much of their adult lives
in complete segregation from their own communities and were a product of war culture.
The line between the Shariah law and Pashtunwali has always been blurred for the pashtuns. This
includes disputes over ownership of land and women and murder. The Taliban decrees-which
were influenced by pashtunwali- were not completely acceptable to other ethnic groups of
Afghanistan.
As far as the government and political structure of the Taliban is concerned, the Taliban faced no
political challenges from the Pashtuns and therefore were politically quite stable with regards to a
large majority of afghans. They now had the opportunity to build a more tribal-democratic,grass-
roots organization, as they also had the legitimizing factor of Islam. But the Taliban refused to
include representatives of non-pashtun groups. The Talibans apex decision-making body was the
Supreme Shura which continued to be based in Kandahar.It had an amorphous form with as
many as 50 people,including friends and colleagues of Mullah Omar, tribal and military
commanders, and Islamic scholars. In Kabul and Mazar and Herat were installed
governors,mayors,police chiefs and senior administrators. The ministries were open for only 4
hours a day and the locals were given scant representation in the administration which led to
administrative friction.The Taliban did not give any indication as to how and when would they
set up a more representative permanent government, whether there would be a constitution and
how political power would be divided. The Taliban generally reject the notion of political parties
and general elections.
42
Islamic judges are installed across the country which provide swift
resolution of cases and gradually Islamise the laws.The afghan people were satisfied with the
justice afforded by the Taliban government. Rapes, robberies,poppy cultivation(which was a
black hole for the regions economy) and corruption came to an instant halt because of the strict

42
ahmed rashid,pg102.


implementation of Shariah law.
43

Under the auspices of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, Taliban welcomed muslim fighters from
abroad. The trend was in effect since the Afghan jihad These included Wahabbi Arabs whose
agendas were of a global,pan-Islamic nature as compared to Talibans local mission of cleansing
Afghanistan. Pakistan was closely involved in introducing Bin Laden to the Taliban leaders in
Kandahar, because it wanted to retain the Khost training camps for Kashmiri militants, which
were now in Talibans hands. Persuasion by Pakitsan, the Talibans better educated people, who
also had a tinge of Pan-Islamism, and the lure financial benefits from Bin Laden,encouraged the
Taliban leaders to meet with Bin Laden and hand him back the Khost camps. Osama morphed
from a pet of the Taliban to an endeared person in the Taliban leadership. Wahabbi Arabs helped
the Taliban offensives in the North. As his influence grew, the Taliban became more antagonistic
to the US as compared to their initial days. After the bombing on the US embassies in Africa, the
US pressure on the Taliban to expel the Taliban intensified. The Taliban said that he was a guest
and it was against the Afghan tradition to expel guests. The Taliban also tried to carve a deal with
the US by handing over Osama in exchange for diplomatic recognition. Lengthy dialogue
between the US state department and Mullah Omar were held but to no avail. The Taliban had no
choice but to disappear Osama completely, but the issue was not resolved. This very unresolved
issue proved to be one of the most important turning points in the history of mankind.
44





















43
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gWl9u3ZojrsONNK4l9tiX5TViJyA
44
ahmed rashid,pg140







Chapter 4: Pakistan and its History that relates to Taliban

The sub-continent is a multi-racial,lingual, and ethnic area with a history of diversity that dates
back to thousands of year before Christ. The advent of Islam added another dimension to this
diversity and further strengthened the link between the Indus valley and the Mesopotamian
Valley i.e the Hindus and the Arabs. However, I examine the link between the ideology of the
Taliban and the History of Pakistan.

Pakistan was a reaction to British colonialism and to Hindu Oppression, with the former dealing
a heavier blow to the muslims of the sub-continent. After the incident of 1857, muslims were
shattered socially and ideologically, with their legacy threatened by the onslaught of Western
thought and riches. To this oppression came different reactions from the Muslims which were
mainly either pro-British or anti-British. The main aim of these reactions were, in essence, the
same; they weer aimed at betterment of the muslims. Pakistan was a product of these divergent,
although inherently similar reactions. The two schools of thought that I am referring to and which
relate to the Taliban are
1. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan
2. Deobandi School of thought
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan:(1817-1898):
It would be better to say that the main inspiration for Sir Syed Ahmed Khan was the Persian and
Urdu Poet Mirza Ahmed Ghalib(1797-1869) who criticised Syed upon his scholarly work on
Ain-e-Akbari, an abstruse,archaic document regarding Mughal emperor Akbar. Ghalib advised
Sir Syed, in a strict poem, to focus on the present and leave the fantasies of the past. Ghalib
extolled the British for their advance in Science and Technology. Ghalibs advice, therefore,
catalysed the change in Sir Syed from antiquity to reform.
45

Thus we see that the thoughts of Sir Syed were, in the very beginning of their evolution, affected
by a liberal mystic poet like Ghalib. According to Zafar Sippal, Sir Syed is the counted as the
founders of modern Mutazilah.
46
He was the first one to realize the incoming onslaught of
western culture and responded in time. He was from the class of muslims who embraced western
education, something which the orthodox Ulema are still reluctant to do. At Aligarh, he
combined the west with teh east. But such adultery was prohibited by the Ulema of those days,
partly because of the atrocities laid upon the muslims by the British. Syed had no reservations

45
Aamir Sohail sahab
46
Montaj,


with eating with the British, living like the British, or taking sides with the British, as long as one
does not contravene the basics of Islam. It was this benign attitude towards the British that
opened the flux of western thought in the muslims of sub-continent. In the Muhammadan
educational conferences, many modern ideas were introduced . In the second conference,
Aligarhs young Arabic teacher Muhammad Shibli presented a paper on Classical Education of
Muslims in which he referred to books that were unheard of in the realm of traditional
madarassahs, but which nevertheless were important muslim contribution to knowledge.
47
Later
he wrote a book on Abbasid caliph Mamoon-ur-Rashid who was highly receptive to western
knowledge. Thus came a generation of people who were well-versed in Arabic and Persian, who
were highly nostalgic muslims, but who also sent their sons to Cambridge, who pursued them to
study English, and to work in the British government. They smoke cigars and were at ease with
women, unlike the stereotypical shy muslim. These were the sort of people who were flexible.
And they included Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, Jinnah, Iqbal, Chaudhry Rehmat Ali and the whole
generation of leaders of Pakistan.
Iqbals teacher Mir Hasan, who was the major influence on Iqbal, was an ardent follower of Sir
Syed and Ghalib. He was a syed teaching in a missionary school.
48
This is the ambivalence that
Pakistan ensued. Iqbal, the son of an orthodox sufi who was anti-pathetic to English, had to let
Iqbal learn English and Philosophy while teaching him the traditional mysticism.
Allama Iqbal was the muslim ummahs most articulated and composed response to modernity. A
person who was a passionate follower of Rumi and who understand the subtleties of the Quran,
the Hadith and the issues of western thought and modernity. He is the conceptual father of
Pakistan and got the support of the Deobandi Ulema due to his passionate poetry. But his
lectures, which are largely clouded from the Public and the Ulema, give us another view of
Iqbals mind. He advocated creativity and flexibility and review of the religious thought of Islam.
He advocated a new interpretation of the Quran and of the rights of women. Most of all, he
advocated Ijtihad, which the traditional ulema refrained from. Maulana Abu-al hasan Ali Nadvi
states that the reconstruction lectures are in direct conflict with the thought of the Ulema.
49
Iqbal
supported an oriental form of courtship, in which the girl and the boy meet under the presence of
parents and got to know each other.
50
However, Sir syed , no matter how modern, was against the
liberation of women and as such wanted them to remain conservative. Iqbal was differnet in this

47
Iqbal, jild 1, pg 56

48
Iqbal,jild 1, pg 22

49
Foreword to Iqbals thoughts

50
iqbal,jild 1 pg 240



respect. Iqbal gave a scientist trying to unveal the laws of nature the same stature as a scholar
demystifying the critiques of theology. In this respect, he differed from the main stream ulema.
This difference was not recognized by the Ulema when they supported Iqbal vehemently and
quoted him incessantly in their sermons. In his life, Iqbal was the most flexible of the muslims. In
Germany, he wrote poems on his beautiful German tutor and later reverted when Atia Faizi came
to Germany.
51
This aspect of Iqbal is totally neglected in his collective image embedded in the
Pakistani society.
Like wise, Jinnah was no bearded scholar who prayed regularly. He smoke cigar and kept
poodles. The Muslim league was presided over by Sir Agha Khan, who was the head of Ismaelis
, a sect which is declared non-muslim by the mainstream ulema. The Deobandi ulema
vehemently supported Jinnah and the muslim league. The anti-Pakistan Deobandi faction was
also not a bunch of ascetic people. Rather, Maulana Hussain Ahmed Madni, one of the key
figures of Deoband was a member of the Indian national congress.
Jinnah was a person who united Maulana Ashraf Ali thanvi and the Agha Khan under one cause.
Jinnah followed the Islamic ideology of Iqbal and the Ulema followed Jinnah whilst Iqbals and
Ulemas concept of state varied. What followed was Pakistan, an amalgam of sects living
together under the banner of Islam while never actually being able to implement Islam. The
theological friction inherent in the Ulema of all sects in Pakistan makes it difficult to reach a
state-approved Islam in Pakistan. The ruling elite is mostly secular and liberal with little or no
knowledge of the masses demands and the subtleties of religion. Daunted by the call by the
masses for an Islamized state, the rulers gradually tried to Islamize the country, with efforts
ranging from the Objectives Resolution in 1949 to the the controversial Hudood ordinance in
2006.
Thus we see that the Deobandi Ulemas dream of attaining a Pakistan where the Shariah was
strictly implemented did not bear fruit. Though they still struggle to achieve their vision inside
Pakistan, their dream was transferred to Afghanistan, where the Taliban helped it materialize.














51
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQawRbjGXXo&feature=related









Chapter 5:
Deoband, Dars-e-Nizami, and the Taliban:
Deoband is an Islamic reform school opened in 1866(coincidentally, with Aligarh) aimed at
alleviating the pains of Indian muslims and to preserve their religious identity. After 1857,
thousands of religious scholars were killed and the endowments of seminaries were abolished. In
retaliation, some devoted men found a this madrassa in Deoband. The history of the
independence movement of India is so mixed up with the history of the Ulema and religious
personalities that it is now difficult to separate one from the other. Political decline had reduced
Muslims to a state of helplessness and misery, distraction and anxiety; by the establishment of
Deoband, they received equanimity, composure and stability.
52
The main figures of Deoband
appearing in the Indian politics include Maulana Mehmood-ul-Hasan, Maulana Ubaidullah
Sindhi,Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi and Maulan Hussain Ahmed Madni. These leaders fought the
British politically, with pragmatism and intelligence and resoluteness. The former two were the
patrons of the Silk letter conspiracy while the latter two were pro-Muslim league and Pro-
Congress respectively.
Deoband attracted students from all parts of the world.
53
In the early twentieth century, the
Afghan government sought co-operation with Deoband to expand its own attempt to build
modern, state-controlled madrassas. Ulema from the Deoband madrassa visited Kabul in 1933 for
King Zahir Shahs coronation. The Afghan state also developed some deobandi madrassas which
did not become popular.
54

Deobandi madrassas developed much faster in Pakistan, with leaders like Maulana Shabbir
Usmani playing key role in the Independence movement. A religious political party, JUI, was set
up by the Deobandis. JUI was hugely popular within the Pashtuns and has always ruled KPK
until the 2008 take over by the ANP. The JUI, during the Afghan war with USSR, set up
hundreds of madrassas among the Afghan refugee communities in KPK and Balochistan. In
1979, there were less than 200 madrassas
55
. By 1989, the exact number of seminaries was

52
http://www.darululoom-deoband.com/english/aboutdarululoom/freedom_fight.htm
53
http://www.darululoom-deoband.com/english/index.htm
54
ahmed rashid pg 89
55
http://www.google.com.pk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=madrassas%2Bin%2Bpakistan&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CC0QFj
AB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ipcs.org%2Fpdf_file%2Fissue%2F2032153432IB11-SubaChandran-


approximately above 20,000.
56

The main reason for a large number of enrollment is the prevalent poverty among the masses.
But in pashtuns, the main reason is genuine love for Islam. Thus the Pashtuns and the Afghan
refugees constitute the major bulk of Madrassa student population. The Taliban were also mainly
afghan refugees who studied in the Deobandi Madrassas set up in Balochistan and KPK. What
they were taught and how they were taught was later to influence the Taliban government.
The curriculum followed in Deobandi schools is called Dars-e-Nizami, first introduced by
Mullah Nizamuddin Sihalvi (d.1747) who was a scholar of some repute in Islamic jurisprudence
and philosophy in Lucknow seminary in 1867. It consists of about twenty subjects broadly
divided into two categories: al-ulum an-naqliya (the transmitted sciences), and al-ulum al-aqliya
(the rational sciences). The subject areas include grammar, rhetoric, prosody, logic, philosophy,
Arabic literature, dialectical theology, life of the Prophet, medicine, mathematics, polemics,
Islamic law, jurisprudence, Hadith, and Tafsir (exegesis of the Quran). It is important to note that
out of the twenty subjects, only eight can be considered as solely religious. The remaining
subjects are otherwise secular and were included in Nizami curriculum both to equip the students
for civil service jobs and as an aid to understanding religious texts.
57
These subjects can be
compared to classical liberal arts curriculum, where one was taught from all disciplines.
Although the curriculum can be compared to the liberal arts, most of the books taught in this
curriculum are very old. Books used in philosophy and logic, for example, were written in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Medicine is taught through an eleventh-century text that is
still considered an authentic study of human anatomy and pathology. In what we have described
as purely religious subjects, the books used date back to the seventeenth century at the latest and
the eleventh century at the earliest. Books prescribed for astronomy, mathematics, and grammar
are more than five- to seven-hundred-year-old texts. The mathematics includes Euclidean
geometry and the astronomy includes the ventures of Muslim astronomers conducted almost a
millennium ago.
58

The curriculum has remained more or less the same over the course of two and a half centuries.
This reflects the stagnation of muslim thought in general. The curriculum has no subject on
political science and economics, which is why the Taliban could not form an effective
government and decision making body. The philosophy of the west is nor studied at all and
countering arguments through methods of 11th century muslim texts is practiced, whereas the
philosphical thought has progressed by quantum leaps. In Dars-e-Nizami, there is no appreciation
of change. Adherence to the salf i.e. the early muslims is emphasized and Ijtehad is considered to
be an issue of ultra geniuses and ultra pious, rendering it virtually prohibited. Obedience is

MadrassasInPak.pdf&ei=-ECuTpKbOsyqrAfxjPW2DA&usg=AFQjCNEPfwg_7s-enHvyuMBnit6ooipQTw, page 1
56
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~tzajonc/madrassas_beyondcrisis_final.pdf
57
http://www.globalwebpost.com/farooqm/study_res/bangladesh/mumtaz_madrassah.pdf
58
http://www.globalwebpost.com/farooqm/study_res/bangladesh/mumtaz_madrassah.pdf


preferred over expertise. Thus it is no surprise that the Taliban banned pictures or restrained
women from wearing high heels and skirts. It is even no surprise that they were against the shia
Hazaras. The Deobandi school of thought consider Shia as a non-muslim sect, though they do not
claim it openly in Pakistan. The overwhelming support rendered by the Deobandi Pakistani
madrassas can be viewed by a famous scholars article in Jang newspaper in response to a query
regarding the Taliban government.
Jihad in the path of Allah is farz(obligatory) and the Islamic movement started in Afghanistan
under the leadership of commander of the faithful Mullah Omar is a pure Islamic movement.
Their government is pure Shariah government and the people opposing it have the status of
rebels against an Islamic government. Therefore, jihad,under Mullah Omar, against kafirs and
rebels is perfectly ok, rather necessary.Another proof of their government being Islamic is that all
Islamic force(countries) are their allies and the non-islamic forces(countries) are against it. If one
needs to understand the situation in Afghanistan, a small journey is required to see first-hand the
Islamic values implemented over there.
59

Jamia Haqqania of Akora Khattak Nowshera has been called as Mother of the Taliban by the
US
60
. As of 1999, at least 8 cabinet ministers of the Taliban were graduates of Haqqania.
61
The
madrassa has also granted Mullah Omar an honorary doctorate
62
. The school has sent thousands
of students to fight against the enemies of the Taiban .
63
Another madrassa that has also sent a lot
of its students to fight along the Taliban is Jamia Binnoria in Karachi from where several Taliban
ministers have studied.
64
The school draws students from around the world, as far as from US
and Canada.
65
If one looks at the curriculum of these schools, one finds similarities between the
Taliban government and the madrassa ideologies. The scholars of these seminaries have just
recently permitted the use of videos but still consider taking pictures as prohibited in Islam.
Similarly, these scholars support the blasting of Buddha statues in Bamyan. As the Taliban put it,
they blew those statues in consultation with a lot of scholars.
66
Culture, fine arts and music are
totally unacceptable to the Deobandi scholars and this was manifested in the Taliban government.

59
aap kay masaail aur un ka hal volume 10:july 2002,maktaba ludhianvi page 331

60
a student in the seminary told me this on 29th August 2011.
61
ahmed rashid 92
62
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darul_Uloom_Haqqania
63
http://www.husainhaqqani.com/reforming/journal%20articles/1/1.htm
64
ahmed rashid pg 92
65
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1996932,00.html
66
www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2tiI384SP0


It has to be emphasized that as much as the relation between the Deoband school of thought and
the Taliban is vital, so are the circumstances that relate to each entity. The sub-continent has a
more pervading contact with non-Muslims, British, Hindus and Sikhs which neutralized the
agressive elements, if any, from the Muslims. Afghanistan, on the other hand, is a grave yard of
empires. It had little or no contact with the outside world. Thus the same Deobandi ideas when
applied in an Afghan environment produced different results.
Who knew that the British treaty with the Afghans that restricted the Afghans to only have
relations with sub-continent would have such far-reaching impacts. That treaty strengthened the
bonds between the two countries and their people, intertwining their fates to an extent that was
unfathomable at the time.





Chapter 6:Pashtunwali and Taliban:
The Talibans interpretation of theology and their faith is deeply related to Pashtunwali or the
Pashtun Tribal code. Often, the borders of Islam and Pashtunwali overlap and one has difficulty
separating the blurred lines. The Taliban were Pashtuns and mostly had grown up in the refugee
camps in Pakistan. Their basic education was in madrassas of the refugee camps. The teachers in
these madrassas were also pashtuns who were not experienced and well-known scholars.
Pashtunwalis relationship with Islam has been a complicated one. Afghanistan first became an
independent state in 1747, through a coalition of a number of Pashtun tribes under one leader,
Ahmed Shah Durrani. He did not claim legitimacy through religious means, as many Muslim
rulers of the day did. Rather, his legitimacy was based on his tribal genealogical heritage and the
nomination and guarantee of a Sufi leader, Sabir Shah.Though the Pashtuns were Sunni Muslims
of the Hanafi school of law, it was their Pashtun tribal code, Pashtunwali, which governed them
before all else. Second in order of allegiance was the Sharia, as interpreted through the Hanafi
lens(the deobandi school is also a sub-set Hanafi school). For this reason, Pashtunwali became
the driving force behind the early Afghan state, and though the divine texts were still the ultimate
source of authority, this authority was passed on through the tribe to their leader, the King.
Pashtunwali is so essential to the identity of the Pashtun that there is no distinction between
practicing Pashtunwali and being Pashtun. Furthermore, for the Pashtun there is no contradiction
between being Pashtun and practicing Pashtunwali and being Muslim and adhering to Islamic
law. Religious scholars (ulema) often see conflicts between some Pashtun customs and the
Sharia, but in the minds of the Pashtun majority, Pashtunwali is not seen as an entity separate
from the Sharia.Even though the Sharia and Pashtunwali overlap in the Pashtun consciousness,
they are seen as functioning for a different purpose. The Sharia represents Gods will for
humanity on earth and is practiced because it is a moral code whereas Pashtunwali is seen as a
matter of honor, which to a Pashtun is defined by a persons integrity in upholding and practicing


the concepts that make up Pashtunwali.
67

The concept of killing for honour is not alien for Pashtuns and they consider it a virtue, not a
vice. Therefore, violence as interpreted in the west is non-existent for the Pashtuns. The strict
Taliban decrees, although averse to the west, were in accordance with Pashtunwali. The Pashtun
would never want an outsider to see his women, whether he is in the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan
or in Pakistan. Beating a person on acquiring a western attire is not violent to the Pashtuns,
neither is it abhored.. Aversion to alien cultures has a Pashtun-self respect aspect to it besides the
Islamic justification. Similarly, the Islamic punishment of cutting hands, or the Taliban rule of
beating people for not praying is also not violent to the Pashtuns. Violence, as in western
connotation, is prevalent in every Pashtun house hold. The father has an iron command over his
house hold and beating children is considered necessary. Women are repudiated for matters of
honour, this the Taliban decree for women is not alien for the Pashtuns. Deciding the fate of
women like marriages or careers is no novel concept either.
Similarly, protecting Osama bin Laden was a shade of Pashtunwali that the US failed to interpret.
THe Taliban, being Pashtuns, could never compromise on hospitality. Osama was a guest of the
Taliban and he also helped the Taliban in their fights. The Taliban could never abandon him.
Unfortunately, they were mistaken for assisting him in war against US and this misinterpretation
led to many tragic accidents.
When the Taliban enforced their decrees on non-pashtuns, they retaliated naturally because of the
cultural incompatibility of the decrees. This was something that the Taliban had not anticipated
and which depicts the vacuum in the progress of Islamic thought in the modern world.
The Taliban, therefore, are not to be blamed for their conservativeness. It is instead the Pashtun
tribal code that made them look alien to the world. As the global community becomes
increasingly aware of the complexity of human cultures, it is time we looked into Pashtunwali
more closely for a better solution of the ongoing Afghan Crisis.















67
www.law.harvard.edu/programs/ilsp/research/kakar.pdf













Chapter 7

Putting the Jigsaw Puzzle together:
The Taliban represent the complexity of Afghanistan and the subcontinent region at large. The
point that I wanted to prove from the previous chapters was that the Taliban were a manifestation
of Deobandi Ideology which could not completely manifest itself in Pakistan due to the buffer of
multitude of other sects present there. The Pashtunwali also played a dominant role in shaping
the rule of Taliban.
Most importantly, we realize that we need progress and evolution in Islamic thought. Pakistan
was a change in muslim thought within itself. It was a poet-philosphers revertion from pan-
Islamism to regional realities. Although Iqbal was influenced by Jamal-ud-din Afghanis pan-
Islamism, his brain child nation was supposed to work on a regional platform and then strive for
a global change. The message of Jamal-ud-din Afghani too was not the stereotypical pan-Islamic
one, but with a different tinge of modernism and flexibility. He used to follow all the four Imams
as he pleased.
68
Ijtehad today is more necessary than ever, and that is what Afghani and Iqbal
embodied.
The ghost of Jamal-ud-din Afghani came to Taliban in the form of Al-Qaeda, which was led by a
group of Pan-Islamists from the Arab world. The soul of Deoband came to Afghanistan in the
form of Taliban and seminary students. Mullah Nizami, the founder of Dars-e-Nizami, was not
aware of the future impact his work was going to have. While, the ghost of Iqbal came to
Afghanistan in the form of Pakistan armys religiosity, which was fuelled by Sir Syeds two-
nation theory and Iqbals select thoughts. Afghanistan was as much a battleground for ideologies
as it was for people.
The situation was made more complex by the ongoing proxy wars in Afghanistan. Iran, India,
Pakistan, China, Central Asia, USSR and USA, all had conflicting interests in the region and
continued to support rival factions within Afghanistan instead of negotiating for peace. One thing
is for sure that peace in Afghanistan is fundamentally related to sincere involvement by Pakistan

68
jamaludin afghani book


because the link between the two countries, i.e. the Pashtuns, runs deep.
Below is a flow chart of the Taliban situation:

The chart gives a rough account of the complexity of the Taliban situation. In the chart, all the
individual bubbles are related to the Taliban government. The links connecting them show the
inter-relationship between the bubbles themselves. The more links a bubble has, the more
relevant it is. For example, the bubble of minority sects is linked to bubbles of Iqbal, Northern
Alliance, Deoband and Refugees. Iqbal, Deoband and US have the maximum number of links.
These links are more of a subjective nature but are a step towards quantitative study of Pakistan-
Afghanistan relations.














Chapter 8:
9-11 to Present:
After the 9-11 attacks, the US underestimated the importance and vitality of Pakistan-
Afghanistan relationship. When general Mehmood Ahmed of ISI told US deputy secretary of
state that before demanding a clear stance from Pakistan, he has to consider that the two
countries(Pakistan and Afghanistan) have history. The secretary did not fully appreciate the
comment and replied that no, history begins today.
69

The US bombed Afghanistan and Musharraf reversed the decades old policy of supporting the
Afghans. The Taliban were ousted in December 2001 and the US troops installed Karzai as the
interim president and after the 2004 elections, he became official president.
NATO and Afghan troops in recent years led many offensives against the Taliban, but proved
unable to completely dislodge their presence. By 2009, a Taliban-led shadow government began
to form complete with their own version of mediation court. In 2010, U.S. President Barack
Obama deployed an additional 30,000 soldiers over a period of six months and proposed that he
will begin troop withdrawals by 2012. At the 2010 International Conference on Afghanistan in
London, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he intends to reach out to the Taliban leadership
(including Mullah Omar, Sirajuddin Haqqani and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar). Supported by senior
U.S. officials Karzai called on the group's leadership to take part in a loya jirga meeting to
initiate peace talks. According to the Wall Street Journal, these steps have been reciprocated so
far with an intensification of bombings, assassinations and ambushes. Many Afghan groups
(including the former intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh and opposition leader Dr. Abdullah
Abdullah) believe that Karzai's plan aims to appease the insurgents' senior leadership at the cost
of the democratic constitution, the democratic process and progress in the field of human rights
especially women's rights.
Meanwhile, the situation in Pakistan has worsened. Increasing suicide attacks and uprisings of
militants who claim to be associated with the Taliban have shattered the country's system. The
Pakistan army has lost two brigades(35000 soldiers) in fighting these militants in the FATA
region. The US and Karzai administration is blaming these militants of insurgency in
Afghanistan which has led to increased mistrust between the two countries. The NATO-US
insurgency has shifted from Afghanistan to Pakistan wiht increasing drone strikes in North
Waziristan on the Haqqani network which pledges allegiance to the Taliban. The most important
event in the past decade has been the killing of Osama bin Laden who was killed in Abbottabad
by US marines who carried out the operation without even informing the Pakistan administration.
This has led to relations of increased mistrust and tension between the troika since. Musharrafs
policy of supporting has had severe repercussions and the civilian victims of drone attacks view
Pakistan state as the on responsible for the tragedy and carry out suicide attacks.
Meanwhile, the Taliban still retain control of virtually more than half of Afghanistan by

69
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/taliban/interviews/armitage.html#1


installing a shadow government of their own. The US offensive has failed and the Afghan war,
coupled with the Iraq war has proved to be a black hole for its economy. The Afghan people
yearn for the peace and law and order in the era of Taliban as the US troops and the corrupt
Karzai administration fail to deliver. The allied forces and the Karzai administration are forced to
carry talks with the Taliban, who seemed to have survived the decade long war.
Realizing the gravity of the situation, Karzai has recently showed signs of optimism by saying
that his country will side with the Pakistanis in the event of US invasion on Pakistani soil.
70

Once again the Tribal areas of the two countries are the focus of the war on terrorism. These very
areas form the core of the Pakistan-Afghanistan relations.
































70
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/23/hamid-karzai-us-pakistan-afghanistan


Chapter 9:
Conclusion: The Future of Afghanistan
The Obama administration has announced to withdraw its troops by 2014. Till then, the Taliban
seem unwilling to go away. Meanwhile, Afghanistan and Pakistan seem to dwindle to rubbles in
the war against terrorism. What is needed is immediate peace. Military coercion has failed
repeatedly for the last decade. Therefore, the US, and the west at large, need to listen intently to
what the Taliban have to say. The US will have to see the history of Afghanistan and not
overlook it as it did in 2001. Finally, the fate of Afghanistan rests in the hands of Afghan people,
not in the hands of ISI, CIA or NATO. Therefore elimination of foreign involvement in
Afghanistan is the most important requisite for peace in Afghanistan.
The Muslims also need to catch up with the rapidly modernising world. This is the time to end
debates on the minuscule issues and define issues of identity, faith, extremism, and culture. There
is a growing divide in the Muslim world itself i.e. the liberals and the extremists. The middle men
should play their role in harmonizing the two factions. The scholars and the media have an
important role to play in this regard. We see that the scholars were and remain one of the key role
makers of the Afghan and Pakistani society. Thus reforms in education, both of the school and
the madrassah, will benefit the world for generations to come. One example is the influence of
Dars-e-Nizami on the history of Afghanistan. Innovation, creativity and vision is needed on part
of the intellectuals and policy makers of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
If Afghanistan fails, it will destabilize Pakistan. Iran would remain on the periphery of the world
community and its eastern borders will be insecure. The Central Asian states will not be able to
deliver their energy and exports. Thus the fate of the whole region depends on the success of
Afghanistan.