What happened in Afghanistan Since 1979 ?| Who are Mujahideen? | How it started?

Afghanistan's Invasion 1979, and afterward 

“Taliban’s capture over Kabul”

“Afghanistan will now enforce sharia law in the country”

“Taliban to form a new government in Afghanistan”

You all must have already heard all the news about the Taliban by now. Today we'll open this black chapter of history. So, to understand the story well, let's go back to the year 1979. In 1979, Afghanistan’s president and communist leader Nur Muhammad Taraki was killed by another communist leader Hafeez Ullah Amin. Though Taraki himself wasn’t a saint either, as he had first tried to kill Hafeez Ullah.

Nur Muhammad Taraki

Hafeez Ullah Amin

This happened because the communist party divided into two parts in Afghanistan. Here a dispute took place between communism and Islam meanwhile neighboring country Iran was facing a similar issue i.e., the dispute between communism and Islam which eventually lead to a revolution in Iran. In this revolution, the Islamic people killed the communist leader Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Ultimately leading Islam to take over Iran. Seeing this, Hafeez Ullah of Afghanistan got worried about Islamic people taking over Afghanistan as in Iran. He then took some preventive measures against the situation and therefore started building mosques all over the country. He started including the name of Allah in his speeches and selling copies of the Quran. All this was a strategy to get all the Islamic people by his side. Although the Islamic population didn’t like him much.

December 1979, before the Islamic people could take over Afghanistan, Soviet Union by sending their army to Afghanistan intervened, and got Hafeez Ullah killed. The reason for doing so was the defamation and weakening of communism ideology caused by him. Another reason for the Soviet Union’s intervention is said to be the idea that by this it can become one with Afghanistan and stand against the USA with more strength. After Hafeez Ullah’s death, Babrak Karmal was chosen to take his place. Being in power, Babrak released more than 2700 political prisoners from Afghanistan’s jail.

The red flag of the communist party got replaced by a new one and a promise was made to give a constitution to Afghanistan. Apart from this free Election, Freedom of speech, the right to protest, etc. were also said to be given to the people of Afghanistan. All the changes gave a ray of hope that maybe now Afghanistan will bloom in peace. But how could America just sit and watch the show? It clearly saw that USSR has completely taken Afghanistan under its influence and with that USSR also humiliated the USA in countries like Vietnam and Ethiopia. The US was now one step back in the ongoing Cold War and thereafter decided to use Afghanistan as a tool for its revenge against USSR. And this revenge, the US took by supporting the opposition group Mujahideen of Afghanistan, which was already being supported by countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Ultimately, America’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) started its biggest operation, “Operation Cyclone”. The director of CIA Robert Gates, later confessed how the president of that time Jimey Carter, provided a secret aid of $500,000 to Mujahideen. Even when the ruling party changed, mujahideen were still receiving millions of dollars. Along with the USA’s CIA, Pakistan’s ISI, British’s MI6 and Saudi Arabia gave complete support to Mujahideen.

                          
                                                                                    

Who are Mujahideen?

Now the question is who are Mujahideen? In the beginning, Mujahideen were Guerrilla Fighters who used to fight secretly in the hills but after getting a lot of support they now became very powerful. They acquired numerous advanced weapons such as guns, artilleries, and even anti-aircraft missiles which gave a strong blow to the Soviet Union. In 1988 Mohammad Najibullah, the president of Afghanistan signed a Geneva Accord which is a peace agreement with Pakistan. According to this agreement, Pakistan and Afghanistan would not interfere in each other’s internal matters. The USA and USSR were the guarantors of this pact. The USA also promised that, if the Soviet Union removes its army from Afghanistan, then it will stop supplying weapons to Mujahideen.

Finally after nine years, in February 1989 Soviet Union removed its army from Afghanistan. Although there were other reasons too behind it and one of them was that till that time the Soviet Union became weak and was inefficient in managing things in different countries. Najibullah was trying to end the conflict in Afghanistan, hence gave up some of his powers. In 1987 Afghanistan got a new constitution and was now no longer a one-party country. Like in other countries, many parties could hereafter participate in the elections in the nation.

In 1988 parliamentary elections were held and Najibullah’s party PDPA won these elections. Najibullah was successful in retaining his power back. In 1990 Afghanistan was declared the Islamic Republic and communism was completely eliminated. It appeared like Afghanistan is finally moving in the direction of peace and development. Najibullah was trying his best to establish peace in the nation, he also tried to get a lot of foreign aid in the country and did many economic reforms which helped in the county’s development. But the US from behind was still supplying weapons to Mujahideen and Mujahideen had still not taken an inch of step back. Despite the complete demolition of communism, Mujahideen thinks that Islam is in danger. Meanwhile, on the other side, another adversary of Afghanistan was coming into existence; the Taliban.

Now, who were the Taliban? how did they rise? and how did they ultimately become so powerful? To know more read the full story in my next blog Taliban's Role in Afghanistan (spellonwhite.blogspot.com)