HISTORY OF TALIBAN

Last Updated on March 12, 2025 by srikanta

Ashraf Ghani, the president of Afghanistan has already resigned from his post. He has left the city along with other officials. The Afghanistan army has already surrendered before the Taliban army. Unmarried women and girls child above 12 years age are being captured forcefully to make them slave wife. Mass murder and bloodshed is now a common scene in the street of Afghanistan. Moreover the biggest news in the world is that Kabul has fallen and Taliban has now the power over the whole Afghanistan. Many things has changed in previous few weeks in Afghanistan due to the rise of Taliban. But do you know the history of Taliban? How they originated? Why afghan people hates them? Why they became so violent suddenly? What forced Afghan army to surrender so easily? What problems will arise due to this Taliban government?

To get the answer for all these questions and to know the history of Taliban in brief read this blog below. We will try to explain it to you as simply as possible.

READ HERE: BRIEF HISTORY ABOUT ISRAEL AND PALESTINE CONFLICTS

HISTORY OF TALIBAN ORIGIN

The Taliban are a terrorist organization that is associated mainly with the country of Afghanistan. The name Taliban is itself an arabic word which means “students.” To know the Taliban history it requires us to look back at more than 40 years of afghan history.

• They were founded in 1979 after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan which set up a communist system inside the country. Many Afghans were unhappy with this and fought back against the Soviets.
• They were known as the Mujahideen; another arabic word which means “Along the lines of the defenders of the faith.”
• As they were fighting the Russians, they naturally became allies with The americans who were in the grip of the cold war. Americans helped financially and armed the Mujahideen to fight against The Soviets.
• As the years went on, the violence only worsened. While the men fought against the Soviets, many of the women and children fled to neighbouring Pakistan as refugee.
• ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) saw a way of using this situation to their advantage. In 1994 they started to train some of these boys in religious schools in combat tactics and radical forms of islam. This is where the taliban we know today originated.

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HOW TALIBAN TOOK OVER AFGHANISTAN?

• With the help of USA Mujahideen won the war against Russia. So Russians pulled out their soviet-backed president Muhammad Najibullah in 1992 and he was soon replaced by a Mujahideen Government.
• There was no cooperation between the leaders of this Government. Thus a civil war started which resulted in death of 50,000 Afghan.
• In 1994 the Taliban arised in southern Kandahar. This group was founded by Muhammad Omar and his students. Their mission was to establish islamic law in Afghanistan.
• These Talibans were Afghan people but they were like foreigners to Afghanistan. They were speaking a different variety of the Pashto language which they had picked up in Pakistan.
• The Taliban also claimed that they want to clear the country of territorial warlords and corruption. The best thing they brought was Order and Efficiency in the system. So within a month up to fifteen thousand students joined the taliban. These students were from religious schools in Pakistan and most of them were once Afghan refugees.
• The Mujahideen Government became weak due to the civil war and The Taliban gained power. So in September 1996 the Taliban took control over much of Afghanistan and captured the capital Kabul with very little resistance.

RULES BY TALIBAN

The most notorious thing in the history of Taliban was their rules. After coming to power the Talibans follwed their version of islamic law which included some harsh rules. They were

• Imposing the death penalty for certain crimes.
• Amputation was a common practice.
• They also banned higher education for women and imposed stricter laws on them such as wearing the full face veil.
• Women were not allowed to go to job and a male companion was compulsory for them while going out of the house.

WHO SUPPORTED TALIBANS?

Only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates recognized the new Taliban regime. Many other countries like US, UK neither supported them nor opposed them.

WHY AMERICA ENTERED AFGHANISTAN?

• The radical islamism of Taliban’s brought them in contact with Al-qaeda and they allowed this group to use Afghanistan for training bases.
• Then 9/11 happened. US found out that the mastermind behind this operation was Al-Qaeda’s leader, Osama bin Laden, who was under Taliban’s protection. When US asked Taliban to handover Osama, they refused it. That’s why America entered Afghanistan.
• Within a couple of months the Taliban were forced out of power. Mula Omar left Kandahar which signaled the official end of the Taliban regime. Thus Afghanistan got a new government. Three years later it got a new constitution and Hamid Karzai was elected president.

HOW TALIBAN RECRUITED AGAIN?

• After the entry of US army there was severe downfall of the Taliban group. Some Taliban were captured but many of them were able to escape into neighboring Pakistan with the help of ISI.
• From 2002 onwards the Taliban created an insurgency inside the country and slowly regained control over large parts of the countryside.

Factors which contributed to the resurgence of the Taliban

• NATO troops thought that their enemy had been defeated and they ended the combat mission in Afghanistan.
• In 2006 when US was stuck in the middle of Iraq conflict, the Taliban seized the opportunity to strengthen themselves particularly in the south.
• The drug trade allowed Talibans to pump money through the opium seeds in Afghanistan.
• They also got continuous support from tribal and other religious leaders throughout the country.
• The Taliban also upgraded their tactics by using improvised explosive devices and suicide bombings which a shift made it very hard for the nato troops to fight against them.

READ HERE: BRIEF HISTORY ABOUT ISRAEL AND PALESTINE CONFLICTS

HOW DID TALIBAN GENERATED REVENUE?

• The leader of Taliban is Haibatullah Akhundzada. He heads a council which controls many commissions in charge of things like finance, health and education.
• They had controlled over some major part of highway. They even run their own courts which can be pretty popular among Afghans. All these control made them rich.
• They’ve always made a lot of money from growing opium poppies and the drug trade.
• Last year they made millions from mining and trading minerals and even producing methamphetamine.
• They also had their own tax-collection system and receive funding from countries like Pakistan and Iran.
• According to Taliban members and a UN committee they make close to $1.5 billion a year.

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WHY THEY SUDDENLY BECAME SO VIOLENT?

• It was estimated in 2016 that around 20 percent of Afghanistan was under the control of the Taliban particularly in the south. They posed serious threat to US army in Afghanistan.
• That’s why US had a direct negotiations with the group in Qatar. In 2020 it led to the signing of a peace deal between the two which did not involve the government of Afghanistan.
• Because of this deal; in April 2021 US president Joe Biden announced to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by september 11.
• This was the golden opportunity for Talibans to capture Kabul and to make their own Government.
• On 6th July the US withdrew from the Bagram bagram air base which was a prison for 5,000 Taliban. Thus violence escalated suddenly.
• They have been on their most deadly and successful offense since 2001 and they now they have successfully captured Kabul.

WHY THE AFGHAN FORCE COULDN’T DEFEND TALIBAN?

The Afghan government had over 307,000 personnel in army, air force and police. But Taliban captured the whole Afghanistan with only 85,000 fighters. You must be thinking why didn’t the Afghan military who is better trained, better equipped and higher in numbers opposed them?

• This number is only in papers. In reality Afghanistan struggled to meet the recruitment targets.
• There was severe corruption in Afghan army which resulted in their strength reduction.
• Soldiers were posted without much idea and training.
• They were less competent as compared to the Taliban fighters who are fuelled by religious devotion and promises of monetary gain.
• Afghan forces had no effective leaders and they lacked proper planning.
• Taliban took advantage of this and promised Afghan soldiers to spare their lives if they desert their posts. They also captured all the weapons left behind by Afghan troops. Thats why Taliban took over Afghanistan with little or no resistance.

WHY TALIBAN DIDN’T ENTERED KABUL FORCEFULLY?

There are 2 reasons why Taliban didn’t entered Kabul forcefully.

1. They want legitimacy and want to gain trust of afghan people.
2. Biden warned them that strong actions will be taken if they try to harm US personnel.

WHAT PROBLEMS  WILL ARISE DUE TO THE TALIBAN GOVERNMENT

• Womens can no longer move out of their house without a male escorting them. One man from each family must join this group.
• Violence, bombings, killings, human rights violation will be a common practice here.
• There may be no more freedom, it will be hard for women to get education and job. They are not going to took part in elections anymore.
• The chief of Taliban has declared that women will be given equal rights as the men but “under their Islamic norm”. This is matter of relief but no one can say what these norm includes.
• Under the Taliban protection, the terrorist activities will increase and they can create severe damge to world peace.

The reality of Afghanistan is frightening today. Banks are runnig out of cash, people are falling from plane and citizens are desperately leaving the country. It has entered a new deadlier and more destructive phase. One can only hope that everything will become normal again.

This was a brief details on history of Taliban. Thank you for reading.If you want more such content then like our FACEBOOK PAGE to stay updated.