As a military and political force,
the Taliban surfaced in Qandahar in
1994 when Afghanistan was
plagued by a vicious civil war. The
main military struggle at that time
was taking place in Kabul between the forces of Burhanuddin Rabbani
and his military commander
Ahmad Shah Masood and their
allies on one side and the forces of
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and his allies
on the other side. As a result, about two thirds of Kabul was
razed to the ground resembling
"an archeological site" with a UN
estimated deaths of 50,000
civilians. The rest of the country
was taken by warlords and petty chieftains who ruled their areas
with a free-for-all attitude. The
Amnesty International 1995
annual report about Afghanistan
begins with these terrifying
accounts: Thousands of civilians were killed
and thousands more were
wounded in artillery attacks
deliberately aimed at residential
areas by all factions in the civil
war. Hundreds of men, women and children were deliberately and
arbitrarily killed by members of
the main armed groups during the
raids on civilian homes. Torture,
including rape of women and
children, was reportedly widespread. People were
unlawfully imprisoned in private
detention centers because of their
political opinions, religion, ethnic
origin, or as hostages. Journalists
covering the war were detained or imprisoned by the warring
factions. Hundreds of people
"disappeared." Warlords appointed
themselves as so called Islamic
judges and ordered punishments
including executions. Not receiving regular pay from
their leaders in Kabul, Mujahideen
fighters in the rest of the country
turned on the people by
establishing check points on
highways forcing truck drivers and passengers to pay their way.
According to one report, there
were 71 such checkpoints between
Herat, a western city in
Afghanistan, and Chaman, a border
city between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Even in the capital, Kabul,
the city was divided among seven
armed factions, with several
checkpoints between Shahr-e Naw
and Karte-Char, covering a distance
of just five miles. The worst effected areas were around
Qandahar where lawlessness had
spread to such an extent that
shopkeepers reportedly could not
keep their goods in shops during
the night. (See also Excerpts from Mr. Barnett Rubins's article.)
Afghan women lived in especially
bleak conditions during the
lawlessness of Mujahideen era.
Local commanders also abducted,
forcefully married and raped women. (See Women in
Afghanistan: A human rights
catastrophe, 1994 Amnesty
International Report). In
Afghanistan: International
Responsibility for Human Rights, the Amnesty International
described the women's conditions
in 1995 as follows:
" Women and girls all over
Afghanistan live in constant fear of
being raped by armed guards. For years, armed guards have been
allowed to torture them in this
way without fear of reprimand
from their leaders. In fact, rape is
apparently condoned by most
leaders as a means of terrorizing conquered populations and or
rewarding soldiers."
Perhaps the lasting legacy of the
fighting among factions of the
Mujahideen is the deepening
ethnic division of Afghanistan. During their struggle to defeat
their rivals, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
tried to win over Pashtuns, while
Burhanuddin Rabbani and Ahmad
Shah Masood appealed to Tajiks.
Similarly, Hazara and Uzbek strengthened their militias and
fully participated in the fighting,
which was deliberately projected
as an ethnic crusade. Unfortunately
because of the blatant ethnic
killings of the Mujahideen era and its continued practice during the
Taliban era, the "ethnicization" of
Afghan politics has cut deep rifts
among Afghans in Afghanistan
and abroad. The cycle of violence, destruction,
and chaos of the Mujahideen era
created the condition for the rise of
the puritanical Taliban. There are
several versions of how a small
group of taliban, led by Mullah Muhammad Omar took control of
areas around Qandahar in 1994. According to the most widely
circulated account amongst the
residents of Qandahar, a group of
"madrasee" (belonging or
originating from a Madrasa)
taliban, headed by Mullah Mohammad Omar arrived in
Afghanistan with the intent to re-
establish law and order and to re-
organize themselves. They took
residence in a school near Dand in
Qandahar. On September 20, 1994, an Afghan family on its way to
Herat from Qandahar, was looted,
its male members molested, and
its female members were raped by
gangs manning one of the so-
called "check points" along the route. One of the victims escapes
and reaches the newly established
Taliban compound. The story goes
that Mullah Omar and his followers
rushed to the scene, capturing the
perpetrators, executing them on the spot and then collecting and
burying the bodies of the victims.
It is this faithful incident, the
Taliban claim, that marked the
beginning of their campaign in
Afghanistan. The Taliban then moved in and disarmed other
groups in the area.