It is famous saying that short term gain for long term pain is foolhardy; this is exactly what happened to the allies in the Afghan Jihad against Union of soviet socialist republic (USSR) occupation of Afghanistan. The United States, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia created the mujahedeen, fired them with religious sentiment, armed them, paid them and send them against the Soviet Union to fight in Afghanistan. The aliens never think how this militia would divert to a productive life after the Jihad was won. This mistake leads towards the conflict which still going on.
Mullah Muhammad Omar was born in the village Nauda, Kandahar in 1959. He has four wives and four children including 2 sons and 2 daughters. One of his daughters was killed in August 1999. Some facts also reveal that Mullah Omar visited Pakistan for two weeks during the early part of the Afghan Jihad. He was an ordinary mujahedeen foot soldier. It is also stated that during a battle, one of his eyes was badly injured and that he removed it himself with a knife and sewers his eyelid up. But other views that he was treated in a hospital near Peshawar and the eye were surgically removed.
After the end of Afghan Jihad and Soviet withdrawal in 1989 up to the year, Mullah Omar became an imam of a mosque in a small village of the Maiwand in June 1994. At that time afghan society was lawlessness. There were no rules and laws and area was divided between different warlords.
It was sparked by a single incident that two young boys were raped and killed by an Afghan gangster turned checkpoint commander and his associates outside Kandahar. The public was already desperate and a small unknown band of Taliban rushed to the checkpoint, disarmed the violation and killed a few of them. Taliban were look like protectors of the defenceless against warlords. After the massive support from locals, the Taliban started cleaning up various areas. Their fame spread rapidly. People from all over the world, especially from the North-West Frontier Province, participated in the movement.
October 1994 Mullah Omar was appointed Amir- Leader of the Taliban. In 1996 a grand assembly also called shura of around 1500 religious scholars held in Kandahar appointed him amir-ul-momineen. At that time Taliban control 90 per cent of Afghan territory. The arrival of the Taliban also seems the spontaneous reaction to the chaos and lawlessness in Afghanistan. This movement also put fears on former mujahedeen commanders, warlords and gangster officials.
It is also a fact that initially, the United States did not disapprove of the Taliban phenomena for the reason that they hoped the Taliban could bring peace and stability in Afghanistan.
The Taliban were all Pukhtoons from an area bordering Pakistan NWFP and Baluchistan province. On the other side, the opponents were the Northern Alliance composed of Tajiks, Uzbek and Hazaras backed by Russian, India and Iran.
Pakistan invited Mullah Omar to Pakistan a number of times after he gains power but he always refused. Omar did not trust on Pakistan and he did not visit Pakistan after the 9/11.
First official interaction with Mullah Omar by Pakistan took place in the last week of October 1994 at a place called spin boldak near Pak Afghan border. The purpose of this meeting was to seek safe passage for Pakistani conveys which comes from central Asia and used the roots of Afghanistan to enter in Pakistan. Omar firstly refused but toward the end of the meeting he agrees.
One of the worst things the Taliban did was to blow up two historic statues of the Buddha that had stood for centuries in a place called Bamiyan. The whole world was looking toward Pakistan to influence the Taliban not to do that act but the Taliban did not listen and demolished those statues.
The United States started its massive carpet bombing of Afghanistan on October 7, 2001, with a land offensive with the Northern Alliance. Taliban commanders fled to the countryside and the mountains where that are best in guerilla fight.
Mullah Omar escaped on a Honda motorcycle and went into hiding. Once Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi asked President General Musharraf about Mullah Omar. General Musharraf told him that Omar had escaped on a Honda and added jokingly that the best advertisement for Honda would be an advertising campaign showing that Omar fleeing on one of its motorcycle with his robes and beard flowing in the wind. Mullah Omar has not been heard from since.
On 29 July 2015, the Afghan government publicly announced the died news of Mohammed Omar stated that he had died in 2013. A former Afghan Taliban member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Omar died from tuberculosis. He also stated that Omar’s death was kept a secret for two years and Omar was buried somewhere near the border on the Afghan side.
By
Raja Furqan Ahmed
The writer is a student of International Relations and Freelance journalist currently based in Islamabad, Pakistan. He can be reached at furqanraja1122@gmail.com
