Osama's conversion of the Taliban

Assuming that the war with the Soviets would be a long drawn out one, the CIA funded many of the religious schools, madrassas through the Inter Services Intelligence in the '80s as a future source of recruits.

The Soviets packed up from Afghanistan far earlier than anticipated, Talib detachments with the various mujhahideen factions went home or back to the madrassas to continue their education. Pakistan did not really try convincing the Americans about their post-war responsibilities.

Having seemingly defeated a superpower by themselves, the then ISI bosses did not want the U.S. to disturb their vision of a crescent of Pan-Islamic countries. This naked individual ambition has contributed to the problems of this region today, the perpetrators still hiding behind "Islamic" garb and unbridled rhetoric as a convenient smokescreen.

Only too happy to oblige, the Americans abdicated as paymasters in further financing the war or the peace to follow. Our then military rulers were not unduly worried, after all the Muslim world would move in with massive funding. Or so they thought! The net result - no post war plan for Afghanistan, arrangements for economic aid and/or political rehabilitation, even in the pre-planning stage.

During the Junejo civilian interregnum, the Foreign Office took Afghanistan back from the ISI and signed the Geneva Accords, but General Zia ul Haq frustrated his own "civilian experiment" by unceremoniously showing PM Junejo the door in 1988.

The ISI were then trapped into attacking Jalalabad, a vain attempt at obtaining military glory on the cheap, sending others to their death for "the cause". Major Talat, an ISI cover officer in Kabul, had gone to Jalalabad to arrange for the burial of Bacha Khan (Wali Khan's father) who wanted to be buried there.

The large movement of troops and heavy equipment he saw on the road to (and in) Jalalabad alarmed him enough to flash a message to HQ ISI. The large garrison at Samarkhel having surrendered earlier, HQ ISI was on a high and not listening. A majority of the hardcore mujhahideen veterans of the Afghan War were decimated. Has anyone ever enquired about this bloody debacle and the man responsible?

Meanwhile Ahmed Shah Masood, veteran of many "private" cease-fires with the Soviets, kept his Tajiks out of harm's way and struck a deal with mercenary Uzbek Rashid Dostum, whose "Jumbish Milli militia from Mazar-i-Sharif was already in Kabul propping up Najibullah, to take control in Kabul, de-facto seat of government.

The mujhahideen had literally fallen apart, fighting each other as fiercely as they had fought the Soviets, the commanders becoming warlords in the territories they ruled over like Ismail Khan who became Governor of Herat, Mullah Naqib of Kandahar, Haji Qadeer of Jalalabad. Lesser commanders simply became brigands, blocking roads and imposing "taxes" at will. Absolute lawlessness ruled the land, rape, loot and pillage became the order of the day.

The new Afghan Armed Forces became an amalgam of elements of the Soviet trained Afghan Army and lateral entries from the Afghan Mujhahideen. Most of those inducted were Tajik and Uzbek loyalists of Defence Minister Ahmed Shah Masood (the actual man in power), this alienated the majority Pushtuns.

Holding the major cities and the military bases around the country, Masood abandoned the countryside to the Mujhahideen-turned-bandits. The withdrawing Soviets left a vast surplus of defence material, particularly tanks, fighter aircraft, helicopters and ammunition of all kinds, greased and ready packed in crates.

With Masood increasingly hostile, his troops stood by as a mob set the Pakistan Embassy on fire. The Benazir Government in 1994 mandated the ISI to help the traders secure a route for Central Asia through Kandahar and Herat to Turghundi. Unwittingly, Benazir acted as a midwife to the birth of the Taliban.

A convoy of Pakistan trucks was intercepted by the local mujhahideen commander in Helmand along with the accompanying ISI operatives. When the Governor of Kandahar Mullah Naqib expressed his helplessness, the ISI requested Mullah Zakiri, who was in Quetta, for help.

A small group of Talibs led by a relative obscure religious preacher Mullah Omar, who had lost an eye during the Afghan War, freed the convoy. Welcomed as saviours, the Talibs replaced Mullah Naqib. Hundreds of Talibs from all over rushed to join the Talibs in Kandahar.

With Kandahar under their control, mujhahideen from the other factions and even entire units of the Armed Forces defected to the Talibs. The world could not believe that these country yokels, now known as the Taliban, could handle sophisticated weapons. They concluded these were Pakistani skilled personnel despite the fact that Soviet origin equipment (except for MI-8 helicopters) were not in use in Pakistan.

For their own individual selfish purposes, some ISI officers started the myth that Pakistan created the Taliban. This damaged Pakistan no end. True, Pakistan has been giving money and material support, far cheaper than to have refugees costing many times more for their upkeep.

The Taliban restored law and order by clearing the roadblocks of all bandits and disarming everyone not in the new militia. Fed up of years of lawlessness and atrocities, the population welcomed the new broom of Taliban governance. Provinces fell without firing a single shot when the local commanders came over to the Taliban side.

Fully 90 per cent of those called Taliban were not Talibs and have never been Talibs, many have never been to any school or madrassa. The Taliban ultimately took over control of Kabul in 1996 from Masood, his forces withdrawing to the safety of his native Panjsher Valley. Masood was brave but parochial in looking only after the Tajik interest.

This myopic vision created anarchy in all of Afghanistan except Kabul, a set-piece environment for takeover by the Pushtun-dominated Taliban. Mazar-i-Sharif changed hands a couple of times before Rashid Dostum fled.

By consensus, the Taliban chose Mullah Omar as their Supreme Leader, Amir-ul-Momineen. While the seat of government remains in the capital, Kabul, Mullah Omar rules by edicts from Kandahar, a very centralised system alien to Islamic governance, where once policy is annunciated, a fair amount of autonomy is given to the governors. Modern communications has made this over-centralisation work, disrupted hopelessly now by the targetted U.S. attacks on communications and logistics centres.

Enter Osama bin Laden in 1996. A rich kid, educated and sophisticated in his ways. Osama is in sharp contrast to Mullah Omar, who is a rustic, brought up by a stepfather, ignorant of the world outside Afghanistan - in fact outside of Kandahar.

In awe of Osama, Mullah Omar was ripe to be "cultivated". It seems Osama did exactly just that, pandering to Mullah Omar's ego by raving about his "holy" qualities, proclaiming him as the "Chosen One". To strengthen the bonds, he married Mullah Omar's sister, while marrying his own son to Mullah Omar's daughter. He took control of Mullah Omar's personal protection, using Arabs almost exclusively as a form of Praetorian Guard. He stroked Mullah Omar's ego as well as his fears.

Every time the world accused Osama bin Laden of terrorism, this "