The Taliban originated around 1993-1994. The group was started by Pakistani Interior Minister Naseerullah Babar, who struck a deal with exiled Afghan communist general Shahnawaz Tanai to break the deadly chaos that had engulfed Afghanistan with the complete fall of its communist government (ironically as a result of Pakistan's sponsorhip of Tanai's failed coup to gain control of the floundering communist regime.) The first recorded appearance of Taliban was as an escort to a "trade delegation" launched by Babar out of Quetta to Kabul, which was able to soundly defeat all warlord opposition it encountered in its path. The Taliban quickly swept across Afghanistan, absorbing or eliminating most rivals. The lone holdouts who refused to accept the Pakistan-sponsored Taliban were Northern resistance leader Ahmad Shah Masoud, and General Abdul Rashid Dostum from the communist regime that had collapsed due to the coup attempt. A protracted battle then ensued between Taliban and the Northern Alliance, primarily around the northern outskirts of Kabul, but also raging far and wide across the North, including Herat and Kunduz.
With its ambitious venture to break the chaotic impasse in Afghanistan and the promise of reaching the resource wealth of Central Asia beyond, Pakistan was soon able to get endorsement from the Clinton administration, Saudi Arabia and United Kingdom to aid, mobilize and expand the Taliban.{fact} A steady outflux of graduates from Pakistani madrassas (primitive religious fundamentalist schools), gave Taliban an essentially inexhaustible supply of new recruits. As the ranks of the fundamentalist cadres swelled, the original core component of Pakistan and Afghan soldiers were able to assume more specialized tactical leadership and operational roles. Pakistan however decided to build up the persona of a fundamentalist leader named Mullah Omar, in order to put a more public face on what, up until then, had been a largely faceless movement taking direction from the shadows. The inexorable mullah-ization of the Taliban became Pakistan's means of ensuring total control of the militia, with independent-thinking non-fundamentalists quickly being subordinated or marginalized. Ironically, as more and more fundamentalists swelled Taliban's ranks, the more the group with Mullah Omar at its apex began to go out of even Pakistan's ability to control.
Mullah Omar, who was proclaimed the "Amir-ul-Momineen", was proud of the fact that he had only spoken with two western journalists in his whole life period. Many people claim that Pakistan chose Mullah Omar because they knew he could easily be influenced and controlled and that his own Islamic education was very limited making him easily swayed by the state-funded mufti's of Pakistan. In the early stages around 1996-1997, General Malik (DostomÂ’s second general in command), overthrow Dostum and took over Mazar-e-sharif and temporarily sided with Taliban. Soon afterwards, he switched sides again only to betray the Talibs and participate in the killings of 6 to 8 thousand Talibs. The Talibs were in the territory of Abdul Malik and were easily captured by Hezbe-Wahdat. A near genocide had taken place against the Taliban in the betrayal; according to some, many Talibs were butchered alive on the grave of the Hezbe-Wahdat ex-leader Mr. Mazari. Later the Taliban captured Mazari-shariff and killed scores of people in attempting to avenge themselves. In 1997, Ahmad Shah Masood devised a guerrilla tactic in the Shamali plains to defeat the Taliban advances. Masood was very successful in propagating an ethnic war and making the ethnic TajikÂ’s of the north believe that the Taliban (who were Pashtoon dominated) would slaughter them if the Taliban gained control of the north. In collaboration with the locals, Masood had deployed his forces to be stationed at peopleÂ’s houses and other hidden places. Upon the arrival of the Taliban, some locals, who had vowed pacts of peace with the Taliban, as well as MasoodÂ’s forces came out of hiding and in a surprise attack killed thousands of Talibs. Soon after, the Taliban put a major effort into taking control of the Shamali plains and attacking and revenging themselves on all the people of Shamali. They destroyed the farms and produce, indiscriminately killed many young men, uprooted everyone from their homes, and forced them to become refugees. Kamal Hossein, a special reporter for the UN, had written a full report on these and other war crimes that further insinuated and inflamed the issue of ethnicity.
Some have concluded that Pakistan’s government was successful in obtaining the support of the US by posing the Taliban as a temporary solution to rid the “Jihadi” groups out of the picture. The United States had come to believe that the Taliban would bring back the old monarch Zahir Shah of Afghanistan to power upon their success in gaining control of Afghanistan. Some members of the Taliban, mainly Mullah Rabbani, (not to be confused with B. Rabbani from the Northern Alliance faction) and a few others were actually active supporters of Zahir Shah and wanted to bring back the old monarch into power after they had taken control of Kabul. According to analysts, Washington was sold on the idea that the old monarch would eventually return to Afghanistan due to powerful lobbying by Unicol (American Oil Company) and Pakistan. With the funding of Saudi Arabia, the intelligence of UK and US, and the hand picked Talibs by Pakistan, a successful force emerged and gained control of an estimated 80% of Afghanistan in less than 2 years. However, soon after the conquest of Kabul, it became evident that the Taliban would under no circumstances transfer power and control to Zahir Shah. The question arises as to why foreign governments supported and aided the Taliban, as we have briefly touched upon this topic, it definitely needs further elaboration. As always it boiled down to at least two motives: financial (energy) and power (land).
The first motive to be discussed is the financial one. Billions of dollars laid at stake for foreign nations and companies. Pakistan, America, and other western nations wanted to exploit the natural resources of Central Asia. A proposed gas pipeline from Turkmenistan and Khazakistan via Afghanistan, towards South Asia (Indian Ocean) was envisioned. This project was heavily endorsed by Pakistan, Unicol, Delta (a Saudi oil company), and a number of other small investors. An investment of 3 billion dollars had been accumulated for the development of the pipeline. Thus an extremely strong financial motive existed to support a puppet government in Afghanistan. Furthermore, the Rabbani (Masood) government had made a fundamental flaw while in power. They also dealt with the pipeline option, only to reject the proposal of Unicol, which many suspects was heavily endorsed by Pakistan and opted for the Argentinean oil company Bridas. Bridas was most likely the more lucrative choice for the Rabbani government but far less lucrative politically. Thus their existed a strong financial reason to support and aid a new group.
The second motive was the boundary issue resulting from the Durand Treaty between Afghanistan and the British, imposed by Great Britain in 1893. The treaty had a life span of a 100 years and expired in 1993, and the lost territory would have had to be dealt with once again, which was now part of Pakistan. In 1919, Afghanistan went to its third war with the British, to regain lost territory and gain complete sovereignty over its foreign Affair engagements. Afghanistan have been given credit for winning the war, but lost on making a beneficial treaty with the British to regain back Pashtoonistan (NWFP, current day Pakistan). Zahir ShahÂ’s government in the past had contended for the lost territory and in 1947 had objected to the creation of Pakistan in the United Nations. Furthermore, in 1955, all diplomatic ties with Pakistan and Afghanistan had been severed and the two nations stood strongly against each other. Thus according to many supporters of Zahir Shah, Pakistan coerced Washington into believing that the Taliban were acting on their own when they refused to transfer power back to the old monarch as envisioned by Washington initially.
The Taliban made some progress in three areas: centralizing the government, national security, and a de-weaponized Afghanistan. Another issue the Taliban addressed was drug issues. Some Afghanis supported the Taliban because they brought peace and subdued the ferocious people of Afghanistan. The Taliban were unfortunately extremely callous when it came to successfully running a country. They overlooked the fact that the nation was starving and were more worried about people having beards than the fact that they were starving and dying by the thousands.
In 1996, the Taliban were in discussion with UNOCAL in the USA and with Bridas in Argentina regarding a proposal to build a gas pipeline to run from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan.[1] In 1997, a delegation from the Taliban spent several days at the UNOCAL headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas
