THE TALIBAN TAPESTRY: A SECRET HISTORY OF POWER, PATRONAGE, AND BLOOD

PART I: THE BIRTH OF A SHADOW EMIRATE

^{INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES}

^{This five‑part investigative series examines the Taliban, a violent extremist movement responsible for decades of conflict, repression, and human rights violations, through a forensic lens of geopolitics, intelligence operations, and internal power struggles. From its engineered rise under Pakistan’s ISI, to the proxy dynamics that shaped its first regime, the hidden years of fragmentation after 2001, the opaque negotiations that paved the way for its return in 2021, and finally the absolutist rule of Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, each part unpacks a different layer of a shadow empire built on secrecy, ideology, and foreign manipulation.}

Afore to clarify the relationship of the third leader of the current Taliban regime, Sheikh Al-Hadith Maulavi Haibatullah Akhundzada, with Pakistan, it is worthwhile to elaborate the establishment of the Taliban regime, the purpose of its establishment and the role of Pakistan. The current regime of the Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan for the second time based on secret agreements between the Afghan Taliban and American officials in Doha after August 15, 2021, was a movement that emerged after the 1990s with the support of Pakistan’s ISI network.

When the Afghan Soviet war in Afghanistan (Dec 24, 1979 - Feb 15, 1989) ended and the former Soviet Union was defeated by the Afghan Mujahideen under the leadership of the ISI with the special support of the CIA. So, under the influence of Pakistan’s ISI, the second civil war started in Afghanistan between the Afghan Mujahideen parties led by (Mullah Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi, Gul Budin Hikmatyar and Burhanuddin Rabani known by Ustad Rabani) and the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan led by Dr. Najibullah, the second president of Afghanistan. The second phase of Afghanistan’s civil war continued with the training and intelligence support of ISI and the financial support of Saudi Arabia from 1989 to 1992 until the collapse of the government headed by Dr. Najibullah (PDPA).

After the collapse of the government led by Dr. Najibullah in Afghanistan, the Peshawar accord (24-26-28 April 1992) was conducted, and ISI representatives Amir Sultan and General Nasrullah Khan Babar were responsible for the special monitoring and access of this agreement. The main purpose of the Peshawar Accord was to establish a government in Afghanistan through the hands of ISI backed-jihadist organizations that would lead Afghanistan as a new province of Pakistan, not as a free country. Before the accord of Peshawar, on April 10, 1992, six days prior to fall of Dr. Najibullah’s rule, a meeting was held between the leaders of ISI and Army in Islamabad, and in this meeting, a long research report of ISI was decided to be published about the Afghan Mujahideen.

This report, which was also confirmed by the head of the ISI at that time, Lieutenant-General Javed Nasir, said about the Afghan Mujahideen that intelligence representatives from other countries are increasing day by day among the Afghan Mujahideen. Anyway, the whole conclusion of the report was that the ISI has lost trust on some commanders of the Afghan Mujahideen and the Afghan Mujahideen opposes the ISI in some decisions.

After this meeting, Dr. Najibullah’s government fell in Afghanistan and the Peshawar Accord was conducted, so in Afghanistan, the war between the major factions of the Afghan Mujahideen broke out over the power struggle in the country. Namely, Hizb-e-Islami led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, National Salvation Front of Afghanistan led by Sibghatullah Majidi, Hizb Jamiat-e-Islami Afghanistan led by Burhanuddin Rabbani, Islamic Revolution Movement of Afghanistan led by Maulvi Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi. At this time, there was a series of disagreements between the ISI and the CIA regarding the government of Pakistan with the neighboring countries, especially regarding China and India. China was looking for a new strategic alliance by establishing relations with Pakistan, China’s military assistance to Pakistan began in 1966, a strategic alliance was established in the region in 1972, and economic cooperation between the two countries began in earnest in 1979.

When the ISI started planning to form a government in Afghanistan through the ISI backed-Afghan Mujahideen, the CIA began to find and train its own people in the Afghan Mujahideen to prevent the ISI process-backed by China. Until 1994, there was fierce fighting between the Afghan Mujahideen factions, and beside it, a new CIA project was launched, especially in Afghanistan and South Asia, to prevent China’s growing influence. At this time, with the support of ISI, Mullah Muhammad Umar Mujahid and Mullah Bor Jan from the southwest zone of Afghanistan started a new project called the Taliban. The recruitment of fighters for the mobilization began under the leadership of Mullah Abdul Samad from the Spin Mosque of Huzi Madd, Maiwand district of Kandahar Province, Mullah Umar Mujahid from Haji Ghosuddin Jama’i, and Mullah Ubaidullah from Panjwai District.

In June 1995, Pakistan’s ISI received a report that CIA-backed Afghan Mujahideen commanders were planning to recruit Baloch insurgents in Helmand and Nimroz provinces. After this report, Pakistan’s ISI accelerated the formation of the Taliban government in Afghanistan so robust that 31 high-ranking army officers, including 13 ISI colonels, arrived in the southwest zone of Afghanistan.

The ISI was trying to bring the Taliban regime to power from the southwest zone of Afghanistan, to prevent the plan of CIA and possibly the Indian intelligence agencies and the influence and formation of Baloch rebels. Meanwhile, CIA and MI6 have started supporting opposition commanders such as Sayaf, Ahmad Shah Masoud and Hikmatyar among the Afghan Mujahideen and, they supported some commanders of Jalaludin Haqqani (Ismaiel Haqqani, Zerdad Shah Haqqani, Maulavi Fathullah Haqqani, Maulavi Fir Hakim Khan Haqqani, Malavi Kalam Nafiz Haqqani, Hafiz Ahmad Gul Haqqani and Maulvi Ghani Haqqani). Among the Afghan Mujahideen, the most powerful group targeted by the CIA and MI6 at the time was the Haqqani network, whose leader, Jalaluddin Haqqani, was loyal to the ISI.

Nevertheless, most of the network’s top commanders and members of Jalaluddin’s family were loyal to MI6 and the CIA. After all the conflicts, with the warm support of the ISI, the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan in 1996 and their government was officially recognized by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The founder of this group was Mullah Muhammad Omar Mujahid, and from 1992-94 until 1996, when he came to power and then from 1996 to 2013, he remained as the Commander or Amirul Mu’min in of this group.

Mullah Muhammad Umar Mujahid was the son of Mullah Ghulam Nabi, the grandson of Mullah Muhammad Rasool, the great-grandson of Mullah Baz Muhammad, and was a native of the Hotak tribe and a resident of Sayuri district of Zabul province. But Mullah Muhammad Umar Mujahid was born in 1339 in a religious and scholarly family in Chaha Hamat village of Khakreez district of Kandahar province. Mullah Muhammad Umar Mujahid was a five-year-old child when his father died, and after that, his two uncles, Maulavi Muhammad Anwar and Maulavi Muhammad Juma, took care of him. His uncles were teachers in Maulvi Muhammad Anwar Madrasa in Shahrukhna area of ​​Dehrawad district of Uruzgan province; therefore, Mullah Umar spent his middle life in Uruzgan province until his youth.

When the recruitment of Afghan Mujahideen began in Pakistan under the support of ISI, Mullah Muhammad Umar went to the Pakistani camps of Mujahideen with the encouragement of the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Movement Party, Maulvi Muhammad Nabi Muhammadi.

From the invasion of the former Soviet Union to Afghanistan until 1992, when the government of Dr. Najibullah supported by the Soviet Union was overthrown and the Mujahideen came to power, He fought a fierce war. The commanders of his jihadist training and war struggle include Mullah Muhammad Nabi Mohammadi, Colonel Amir Sultan, Faizullah Akhundzada, the leading jihadist commander of Kandahar’s Maiwand, Zarai, Panjwai and Dand districts. Mullah Umar Mujahid came to power in Afghanistan in 1996 with the help of his commanders and Pakistan’s ISI and ruled until 2001 when the United States and the joint coalition attacked Afghanistan. After the US-backed attack on Afghanistan, Mullah Muhammad Umar appointed his successor, Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, the Minister of Defense of this group, and he went to the Sayuri district of Zabul Province with his wife’s brother-in-law Mullah Azizullah and Mullah Abdul Jabbar Omari.

Mullah Omar was in Sayuri district until 2007, and he had a special love for Pakistani religious scholars, and in May 2007, he once entered Pakistan through the smuggling route of Shamlazi district of Zabul province and after attending an important meeting of the Quetta Council, he went to Kachlag. After 13 days in Kuchlag, he returned with Mullah Abdul Jabbar Omari to Sayuri district of Zabul province. When Mullah Umar came to know about the internal differences of the Quetta Shura, his health became weak and in 2010, after knowing about the death of Mullah Obaidullah, Mullah Umar suffered from a heart attack.

Mullah Umar suffered a severe heart attack at the end of December 2010, was transferred to Quetta on January 3, 2011, and was admitted to ISI Special Hospital in Karachi on January 7, 2011. Mullah Omar was hospitalized in a military hospital of ISI in Pakistan until 2012 and his information disappeared after 2012, but his death was revealed on April 23, 2013.

The first layer is now peeled back. The next part exposes what lies beneath.