Eastern Shura
Encyclopedia
During the American aerial bombardment of Afghanistan, when the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 struck at Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

's Taliban regime, regional and tribal leaders rose up to oust the Taliban in Khowst Province and Nangarhar Province
Nangarhar Province
Nangarhar is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan in the east of the country. Its capital is the city of Jalalabad. The population of the province is 1,334,000, which consists mainly of ethnic Pashtuns with a sizable community of Arabs and Pashais....

 formed an alliance known as the Eastern Shura. Mary Anne Weaver, writing in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

on the fourth anniversary of al Qaeda's attacks on September 11, 2001, described the formation of the Eastern Shura as the result of surrender negotiations on November 13, 2001, between Younus Khalis and Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...

.
Eastern Shura leaders
name notes
Hazrat Ali
Hazrat Ali
Hajji Hazrat Ali bin Bahawal Sheir is a military commander in eastern Afghanistan.-Biography:He was born in 1964 and is an ethnic Pashai....

 
  • Based in Towr Kham, a small town, in Nangarhar Province
    Nangarhar Province
    Nangarhar is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan in the east of the country. Its capital is the city of Jalalabad. The population of the province is 1,334,000, which consists mainly of ethnic Pashtuns with a sizable community of Arabs and Pashais....

    , on the border with Pakistan.
  • Speculation links him to the drug trade, and to bribes that enabled al Qaeda and the Taliban's leadership to escape Tora Bora
    Tora Bora
    Tora Bora , known locally as Spīn Ghar , is a cave complex situated in the White Mountains of eastern Afghanistan, in the Pachir Wa Agam District of Nangarhar province, approximately west of the Khyber Pass and north of the border of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan...

    .
  • Reported to have allowed Osama bin Laden
    Osama bin Laden
    Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...

     to escape from Tora Bora.
Abdul Qadir
Abdul Qadir (Afghan leader)
Hajji Abdul Qadir Arsala was a former anti-Taliban leader in the United Islamic Front in Afghanistan...

 
  • Former governor of Nangarhar Province, prior to the Taliban regime.
  • Close ties to the family of Mohammed Zahir, the last king of Afghanistan.
  • Went to the Bonn Conference
    Bonn Conference
    After Operation Enduring Freedom in which the Taliban government was toppled in Afghanistan, in December 2001, the German city of Bonn hosted a conference of Afghan leaders at Hotel Petersberg, to choose the leader of an Afghan Interim Authority – widely known as the Bonn Conference.The...

     to endorse the choice of Hamid Karzai
    Hamid Karzai
    Hamid Karzai, GCMG is the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, taking office on 7 December 2004. He became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001...

     as leader of the Afghan Transitional Administration
    Afghan Transitional Administration
    The Afghan Transitional Administration was the name of a temporary administration of Afghanistan put in place by the 2002 Loya Jirga and followed the Afghan Interim Administration which was installed after the Bonn Conference.-Background:Following the US Invasion in Afghanistan, a UN sponsored...

    .
  • Assassinated in July 2002.
  • Ezatullah 
    Hajji
    Hajji
    Hajji or El-Hajj, is an honorific title given to a Muslim person who has successfully completed the Hajj to Mecca, and is often used to refer to an elder, since it can take time to accumulate the wealth to fund the travel. The title is placed before a person's name...

     Mohammed Zaman
    Mohammed Zaman
    Hajji Mohammed Zaman was a Pashtun Afghan military leader and politician.Zaman led a force of 4,000 men during the campaign to oust Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers....

     
  • The Shura's "Defense Chief".
  • Karzai appointed Zaman deputy chief of Police for Nangarhar Province
    Nangarhar Province
    Nangarhar is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan in the east of the country. Its capital is the city of Jalalabad. The population of the province is 1,334,000, which consists mainly of ethnic Pashtuns with a sizable community of Arabs and Pashais....

    .
  • Rostom Sherzad 
  • Brought 120 fighters to the alliance.
  • Haji Zaman Ghamsharik 
  • Reported to have allowed Osama bin Laden
    Osama bin Laden
    Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...

     to escape from Tora Bora.
  • Reported to have been "lured from exile" in France, by the USA.
  • Pir Baksh Bardiwal 
  • The Eastern Shura's "Intelligence Chief".
  • Haji Hayat Ullah 
    Sher Gulan 
  • Lead one of the pincer movements intended to capture Osama bin Laden
    Osama bin Laden
    Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...

     as he escaped from Tora Bora
    Tora Bora
    Tora Bora , known locally as Spīn Ghar , is a cave complex situated in the White Mountains of eastern Afghanistan, in the Pachir Wa Agam District of Nangarhar province, approximately west of the Khyber Pass and north of the border of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan...

     in December 2001.
  • Had authority in Noorgal, Kunar
    Kunar
    Kunar may refer to:*Kunar Valley, Afghanistan and Pakistan*Kunar Province, Afghanistan*Kunar River, Afghanistan and Pakistan...

    .
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