A former Mujahideen

Mujahideen

Mujahideen are Muslims who struggle in the path of God. The word is from the same Arabic triliteral as jihad .Mujahideen is also transliterated from Arabic as mujahedin, mujahedeen, mudžahedin, mudžahidin, mujahidīn, mujaheddīn and more.-Origin of the concept:The beginnings of Jihad are traced...

 "freedom fighter" and former Taliban military commander, Mullah

Mullah

Mullah is generally used to refer to a Muslim man, educated in Islamic theology and sacred law. The title, given to some Islamic clergy, is derived from the Arabic word مَوْلَى mawlā , meaning "vicar", "master" and "guardian"...

 Abdul Salam Rocketi renounced his former allegiance to run for the Parliament of Afghanistan in 2005, and for the Presidency

President of Afghanistan

Afghanistan has only been a republic between 1973 and 1992 and from 2001 onwards. Before 1973, it was a monarchy that was governed by a variety of kings, emirs or shahs...

 in 2009.
The Asia Times

Asia Times

Asia Times was a newspaper launched in Thailand by Thai tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul in 1995. The newspaper hired talent from around the world to produce a regional English-language newspaper....

 described him as one of the former Taliban who: "...act as the Taliban's political wing in Kabul." Rocketi is an ethnic Pashtun

Pashtun people

Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...

 from Zabul Province

Zabul Province

Zabul is a historic province of Afghanistan. Zabul became an independent province from neighbouring Kandahar in 1963, with Qalat being named the provincial capital. It should not be confused with the city Zabol, on the Iranian side of the border with Afghanistan.- Political and security situation...

 in Afghanistan.

Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the eighties, Rocketi earned his surname fighting with rocket-propelled grenades against Soviet helicopters and tanks.

Afghan Civil War

In 1995, his residence was raided by Pakistani forces who uncovered a cache of Stinger missiles, and arrested his brother. Rocketi retaliated, kidnapping the deputy commissioner of Ziarat

Ziarat

Ziarat is the capital of Ziarat District, Balochistan, Pakistan. It is located at 30°22'47N 67°43'38E with an altitude of 2543 metres and is a famous holiday resort of Balochistan and nearly every trip from Karachi to Quetta stops at Ziarat...

, Atta Mohammad, and several Pakistani militiamen.

American invasion of Afghanistan

By the time of the 2001 American invasion of Afghanistan, Rocketi was serving as the top commander in Kunar

Kunar Province

Kunar is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northeastern part of the country. Its capital is Asadabad. It is one of the four "N2KL" provinces...

, Nangarhar and Laghman provinces. In the opening days of the bombardment, it was suggested that his residence may have been a target of three bombs dropped in mid-October. However, by December 2001, he was reported to have surrendered Zabul to the American forces. The following month, it was reported that he may have been killed in the attack that also killed Taliban Interior Minister Qari Ahmadullah

Qari Ahmadullah

Qari Ahmadullah was an Afghan politician and the Taliban's first interior minister in 1996.He was also responsible for bribing anti-Taliban commanders to desert the ranks of the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan opposition...

.

In May 2002, after renouncing the insurgency, Rocketi was arrested by American officials during a meeting in Kandahar.

Relationship with militant leaders

According to the Sydney Morning Herald Rocketti, commenting on a recent Taliban offensive in 2006, said:

In the summer of 2007 Rocketti and Abdul Salam Zaeef

Abdul Salam Zaeef

Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef was the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan before the US invasion of Afghanistan.He was detained in Pakistan in the fall of 2001 as an and held until 2005 in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp...

, the Taliban's former Ambassador to Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 were reported to have entered into negotiation with the more moderate factions within the Taliban. According to the Asia Times

Asia Times

Asia Times was a newspaper launched in Thailand by Thai tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul in 1995. The newspaper hired talent from around the world to produce a regional English-language newspaper....

:

Although he has publicly described Mullah Omar

Mohammed Omar

Mullah Mohammed Omar , often simply called Mullah Omar, is the leader of the Taliban movement that operates in Afghanistan. He was Afghanistan's de facto head of state from 1996 to late 2001, under the official title "Head of the Supreme Council"...

 as "a dumb person, illiterate [and] ignorant", he also claims that the former Taliban leader would negotiate with him if he were elected President.

2009 Presidential bid

Rocketti was a candidate in the 2009 Afghan Presidential election.
Preliminary results placed him 7th in a field of 38.