They have been fighting for 20 years to gain power and overthrow the Afghan Government. Today they seem stronger than ever before. We bring you 5 important facts to know about the Taliban.
Who are the Taliban?
The Taliban, a Deobandi Islamist movement and military organization in Afghanistan, currently waging war within the country. Taliban held power over roughly three-quarters of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. The leadership of Mohammed Omar led the Taliban from the mid-1990s until his death in 2013, who was a local imam in the city.
How did they become Taliban?
This ultra-conventional political and religious faction that emerged in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s following the withdrawal of Soviet troop. They become more influential after the collapse of Afghanistan’s communist regime, and the following breakdown in civil order.
The faction took its name from its membership, which involved largely students trained in madrasahs. This kind of Islamic religious school had been established for Afghan refugees in the 1980s in northern Pakistan. By 1996, they had captured the capital, Kabul.
What are the Beliefs of the Taliban?
The Taliban ruled according to a strict explanation of Islamic Shariah law. Public implementations were common but women were mostly banned from working or studying and forced to wear an all-covering burka in public. The Taliban banned Western books and films and destroyed cultural artifacts from other traditions. They become more highlighted when they destroyed 1,500-year-old giant statues of the Buddha in the central Bamiyan valley.
Al-Qaida vs Taliban and how did they lose their power?
On September 11, 2001, the United States Taliban, provided reservations for the al-Qaida militant group, led then by Osama bin Laden even Al-Qaida set up training camps in Afghanistan. After the September 11 attacks, the United States and its allies attacked Afghanistan. Later the United States started working with Afghans for a democratic government and how the Taliban government had fallen. After that, both Osama bin Laden and Mohammed Omar fled to their strongholds in the south and east of Afghanistan or across the border into Pakistan. The militant group then led a revolution against the new U.S.-backed Afghan government, using improvised bombings and suicide attacks.
What to know about the conflict between the Taliban and the US?
The Taliban originally drew their members from former Afghan resistance fighters, called mujahedeen, who were supported by the United States in their fight against Soviet forces in the 1980s. after more than two decades of military involvement in Afghanistan last year, the U.S. government negotiated a deal with the Taliban. The accord set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country in return for the Taliban ending attacks on Americans and entering into talks with the Afghan government. However, months of talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government failed to produce any peace agreement. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last month that Afghanistan would become a pariah state if the Taliban took power by force and committed atrocities.
What are the current issues with the Taliban?
After former President Ashraf Ghani fled the country Taliban have taken control of the presidential palace in Kabul and the Taliban declares ‘war is over in Afghanistan’. President Biden sought to project an image of resolve on Saturday, speeding the deployment of an additional 1,000 troops to Afghanistan as he announced a series of steps that he said would protect American interests. The announcement came hours after the Taliban seized the last major city in northern Afghanistan, Mazar-i-Sharif, marking the complete loss of the country’s north as they appeared on the verge of a full military takeover. A day earlier, two key cities in southern and western Afghanistan fell to the Taliban.
