Summery and Review of My Life with the Taliban by Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef

Summary: My Life with the Taliban - Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef

“My life with the Taliban” is an autobiography of Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef who was one of the founding fathers of the Tehrik-e-Taliban movement in Afghanistan and later from being the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan he became an American prisoner in Guantanamo Bay detention camp for four years. Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef was a young Afghan boy who possessed an audacious personality, thus he was eager to take up arms against the Soviet troops as an ordinary foot soldier being part of the Mujahideen during his childhood.

This book is translated from the Pashto manuscripts written by Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef and in addition dozens of his statements and interviews compiled together. Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn are the editors who with the help of experts, scholars, journalists, historians and Afghans compiled this extraordinary book about his interesting life. It is a very important piece of information for those people who are looking forward to explore and research about the history, culture, politics, society and conflicts of Afghanistan and the dynamic changes that occurred in Afghanistan during the decades that are discussed in this book. And with the help of this book the readers can get a glimpse of what drives men like Mullah Zaeef take up arms against foreign invasions to protect their people and their homeland Afghanistan

An important and useful thing in this book is that in the first few pages after the editor’s note there are three pages titled as “Characters List” in which all the character’s names are given respectively who are mentioned in the book with regards of geography for example under the sub-title of “Pakistan” all the names of the personalities from Pakistan are written so that the reader would find is easy to review and look back at the characters list page to remember who is who in case of any confusion while reading the book. For non-Muslims readers who are not familiar with the Islamic and foreign language terminologies and words, there are footnotes and glossary at the back of the book that explains them.

There are total of twenty-one chapters; each explains different aspects and thrilling experiences of Mullah Zaeef’s life. The first chapter of the book is named as “Death at Home”, in which he gives a detailed history and introduction of his family, who were very conservative and belonged to the Pashtun tribe of Ghilzai. This chapter depicts the Pashtuns of the Kandahar province where he spent most of his life, it also talks about the different classes of the Afghan society, cultural differences and the racial differences within the state of Afghanistan and it tries to explain the “Pashtun code of life” to foreign readers who are not familiar with the culture, society and the lifestyle of Afghans. Here in the start a very sad event occurs as named in the chapter “Death at Home”, Mullah Zaeef first lost his father and later his beloved mother at a very young age.

The second chapter is named as “The Camps”, which talks about the Afghans taking refuge in Pakistan when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in the year 1979, his family was one of the thousands of Afghan families that crossed the border and took refuge. Here a very interesting fact is given that the route Afghan refugees were taking to come into Pakistan was the same ‘smuggling route’ taken by smugglers and later the Afghan Mujahideen fleeing into Pakistan while fighting Soviet troops. Because his family migrated from Kandahar province, the closest refugee camp from them was in Balochistan province, here Mullah Zaeef was a witness of the devastating situation in the refugee camp, he explains the issues the Afghans faced, such as water shortage, food shortage and accessibility of other basic requirements for a healthy and hygienic refugee camp which lacked despite of Pakistani government’s efforts to facilitate them.

While talking about the invasion of Soviet Union on Afghanistan, it says that the Soviet Union wanted to make the environment on ground friendly so that they would not face any kind of resistance from the locals before the invasion and for doing that the Soviet Union with the help of the Afghan government either abducted, imprisoned or killed all the important and influential tribal and religious leaders in the rural areas of Afghanistan, such as Maliks, Sayyeds and Mullahs. This is the first stage and prerequisite to any foreign invasion to make the tribal system of the respective society obsolete for the imposition of a new system. In the third chapter “The Jihad” the book talks about Mullah Zaeef a brave young teenager joining the Afghan Jihad as a Mujahid. Here it is stated that the battle between the Soviet troops and Mujahideen used to take place on regular basis, the Mujahideen had an advantage of knowing the area and local terrain while the Soviet troops heavily relied on their fire power and air superiority. Because the battles between both the sides were in the manner of guerilla warfare therefore the Soviet Union deployed their Special Forces commandos called the “Spetssnaz”. The fighting between both the sides was so intense that in one instance it states that because of Soviet artillery bombing on Mujahideen, the earth shook for ten days straight.

In this chapter a brief introduction is given about who Afghan Taliban are and what their ideology is. It is stated that Afghan Taliban are a complete different group from the Afghan Mujahideen. It is a group of religious scholars and students from diverse backgrounds, it is a common false perception that the Afghan Taliban are only Pashto speaking Afghans but the fact is that Talibs have background from almost every Afghan ethnicity there is. They fight out of their deep religious belief in Jihad and their faith in God. The book says that Allah is their only reason for being there, unlike many other Mujahideen who fought for money, land and power. The Afghan Taliban followed strict routine in which everyone who fought alongside them has to participate without exception. One of my favorite quote from this book that is written in this chapter is; “Just as normal people were eager to get married, we were desperate for martyrdom”. In another instance is it also mentioned that the fighters faced such hardships that they had nothing to eat, Mullah Zaeef says they had to eat three dates per meal to survive while fighting Soviets.

The next chapter is named as “lessons from the ISI” in which Mullah Zaeef gives a detailed account of how Pakistan’s intelligence agency the Inter-Service-Intelligence provided Special Forces guerilla warfare and weapons training to the Afghan Mujahideen either inside the territory of Pakistan or in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet troops. Here some weapons are named in which Mujahideen were given specialized training, the weapons included were BM12 multiple rocket launcher, BM14, RPGs, Kalashnikovs and the famous Singer missiles that had a great impact favoring the Mujahideen in the war. Here the important thing to keep in mind is that the ISI officers that took part in training the Mujahideen were mostly SSG (Special Service Group) commandos, which is an open secret today. The fourth chapter is called the “Bitter Picture” in which a very interesting terminology is used; “Ashrar”, this was the word which the Afghan communist government soldiers referred to the Mujahideen, it is literally translated as “people who stir up chaos”. In this chapter Mullah Mohammad Omer is also mentioned; the first Ameer-ul-momineen of Afghan Taliban. Here the famous incident is mentioned about him, of how he lost his eye during a deadly battle against the Soviet troops.

The next chapter is called “Withdrawal” in which the book states about the miserable and shameful withdrawal of the world’s most power military and economic power from a third world country like Afghanistan. Soviet Union was a super power of the time and that is why it was surprising for the whole world to see it desperately loosing against Mujahideen who were far more backwards in military might and technology then Soviet Union. In the year 1988 Soviet Union showed their intention to fully withdraw from Afghanistan and in August 1989 the last Soviet soldier left the territory of Afghanistan as part of the United Nation-Geneva accord. As Soviet Union was leaving Afghanistan, she installed her last communist regime of Dr Mohammad Najibullah in Kabul. It is important to keep in mind that during the Soviet invasion all the Mujahideen groups stood united with each other against one common enemy but after its defeat the same groups started fighting each other for the sake of power, money and land. And many sided with the communist regime in Kabul, such as many ex-Mujahideen groups were registered by Dr Najibullah with KHAD the Afghan intelligence agency to make them their virtual extension. Mullah Zaeef states that these groups started deep collaboration with the communist regime and work against the other Mujahideen groups who were still fighting Jihad against communism in the country such as his own group. One of the big reasons why ex-Mujahideen groups did this was because they ran out of money to provide their fighters. It was astonishing to see Dr Najibullah surviving in Kabul as the president without any logistical, military or financial support from Soviet Union but soon after three years he resigned and took refuge in a UN office in Kabul.

In the next chapter “Taking Action” the creation of Afghan Taliban is discussed in detail. Mullah Zaeef gives a very brief account of how the Afghan Taliban came into existence without the intervention or support of any foreign power. He says that the founding meeting of what’s became known as the Taliban was held in the late autumn of 1994, some forty to fifty people gathered at the famous white mosque in Sangisar, Kandahar. It was decided that Mullah Mohammad Omar was to be made the Ameer-ul-momineen of Taliban. He took oath from everyone present there, each men swore on the Quran to stand by him, and to fight against corruption and the criminals. No written articles of association, no logo and no name for the movement was agreed on or established during the meeting. While talking about Mullah Mohammad Omar, the book says that he belonged to the Pashtun Hokaki Ghilzai tribe born in Uruzgan province approximately in the year 1962. During the Soviet invasion he fought for the Harkat Mujahideen group of Bhuranuden Rabbani as an ordinary foot soldier. Further discussing about his nature it says that one of his common habits was that he would listen to everyone with focus and respect for as long as they needed to talk, and never seek to cut them off. After he had listened, he then would answer with ordered, coherent thoughts. After Najibullah’s resignation the era of Afghan civil war started, the government power shares were divided among different ex-Mujahideen, warlords and criminals. The overall situation of the country was very devastating. The local government commanders in each province were not less than devils. It was a common practice to kidnap young girls and even boys for commander’s pleasure and sexual desires. Raping young girls in a conservative Afghan tribal society was unforgivable, that is why many people also protested against them but nothing happened. In this miserable condition, the people of Kandahar wanted some savior and the Taliban were the people they were looking up to. Mullah Zaeef and other Taliban leaders planned an attack on the local government commander to take revenge of his brutalities. The Taliban attacked his headquarters and arrested him, he was bought to the tribal justice Jirga and was found guilty. He was hanged to a tank’s barrel publicly so that no one else would even think of committing such a horrible crime again. This was the start of the Afghan Taliban movement.

Soon the Afghan Taliban took control over the whole Kandahar province, district by district and the local people started joining the movement which saw it as a reformer to bring peace in the country. In Kabul however the government was divided among different warlords such as Bhuranduddin Rabbani, Ahmed Shah Masood and Rashid Dostum called the Northern Alliance. Another famous ex-Mujahideen named Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was bombing Kabul city from the south. Meanwhile within two years the Afghan Taliban reached the gates of Kabul and after fighting two deadly battles against Northern Alliance commander Ahmed Shah Masood the Taliban successfully took control of the capital city Kabul in the year 1996. This was when the Afghan Taliban formed its first government. The next three to four chapters primarily focuses on Mullah Zaeef’s appointment and jobs in different government offices under Taliban government which was performed by him fantastically. Mullah Zaeef’s life took an interesting yet tragic path when he was made the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan personally by wish of Mullah Mohamad Omar himself. Zaeef explains the principles of diplomacy as follows; a country should not be labelled an enemy or friend, but dealings should be based on moderate policies that adopt moral principles and laws as their foundation. He further says that the policy he followed while being the ambassador was guided by Islam and the respect for other countries. While preforming his diplomatic duties as ambassador there have been many instances where Pakistani foreign minister guided Mullah Zaeef of how diplomacy works.

Further four chapters discusses the issue of Osama and 9/11. On 11^th September 2001 America was attacked as multiple airplanes hit and crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York and another attacked was also conducted on the Pentagon. Right away the American authorities blamed the Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden for the attacks without any sustainable evidence to prove. Surprisingly Osama Bin Laden was in Afghanistan taking refuge under the Taliban government. This was diplomatically the most complicated and complex task for the Taliban government and Mullah Zaeef to deal with. The Americans and the Taliban started negotiations on Osama Bin Laden’s handover. According to Mullah Zaeef the only demand of Taliban was that, if there is any evidence of his involvement in 9/11 attacks, we are ready to take his trail but according to the Afghan law and not the American law. Taliban were not ready to handover Osama just because the American wanted him. In the end however the negations between both the counterparts failed miserably. One of the reasons of the failure of talks Mullah Zaeef gives in this chapter was that Pakistan was never an honest host that could mediate between the two. Every country looks for its own national interest, which was true because the basis of diplomacy of any country is based on their national interests.

In the sixteenth chapter “A Hard Realization”, a very sad picture is drawn by Mullah Zaeef. Under the Musharraf regime in Pakistan, all the diplomatic and moral values were broken when an official ambassador of a country was arrested, shamed, insulted and handed over to the Americans in a very disrespectful manner. The next chapter explains in detail how the Pakistan army soldiers handed over him to the Americans. Personally while reading this chapter I felt sorrow and depressed, how a Muslim country could do this to another Muslim country’s ambassador. First the army officers arrested Zaeef from his house in Islamabad, taken away from his wife and children. He was taken as he was a criminal which he writes that he was not able to accept the fact that he was treated in this manner. He then was taken to Peshawar where he was to be handed over to the Americans. A black cloth was tied on his eyes and his hands were cuffed, the officers kicked him and slammed to the ground, the Pakistani officers handed over him to the Americans, they further hit him and torn all his clothes off, then the Americans dragged him to the helicopter while the Pakistani officers were standing there watching all this while smiling and doing nothing about it. This was the sorrow memory Mullah Zaeef has which he will never forget all his life, he says; “these moments are written in my memory like a stain on my soul.”

In the last chapters of the book Mullah Zaeef describes his miserable life as an American prisoner, first he was taken to Afghanistan where he stayed in prisons of Kandahar and Bagram, he says that the treatment of American soldiers was very inhumane with the prisoners. Keeping in mind that by this time the Taliban government fell and the Americans had invaded Afghanistan. He then was taken to the famous and notorious American prison called the Guantanamo Bay detention camp near Cuba which was controlled by the US Navy. In the chapter named “Guantanamo Bay”, Mullah Zaeef draws a very miserable picture as a prisoner, all types of human rights violations took place in this detention camp. At one point he describes the camp as; “Now in Guantanamo, we preferred death over life”. He says that all the time he was shackled in chains, there were cages in which the prisoners were locked up as if they were animals. There was constant torture and beatings of the detainees and the Americans called them on daily basis for question answers. Mullah Zaeef says that there were young underage detainees to very old ones, all tortured and mistreated like animals. Mullaf Zaeef survived four long years in this hell before he was granted freedom as a free citizen. This chapter of the book is the hardest part to read, you realize how many human right violations are going on especially by those countries who claim to be the champions of human rights and a free democratic society. It shows how hypocrite and cold blooded the modern world is.

In the end I would like to quote Mullah Zaeef’s poetry that depicts the sad reality of our world and the hardships weak face from the powerful. These lines were written in Pashto by Mullah Zaeef during his imprisonment in Guantanamo camp, he says;

This “freedom” put a proud people in chain

And turned free men into slaves

“Independence” made us weak

And slaughtered us

In the name of kindness

This is democracy by the whip

And the fear of chains

With a whirlwind at its core

    

Author: Muhammad Asim Khan

A Mass Communication student of National University of        Modern    Languages Islamabad who often writes on international relations   and particular interest in Af-Pak affairs.