Ismatullah Muslim
Encyclopedia
Ismatullah Muslim, also called Ismatullah Achakzai or just Esmat, was an Afghan
militia
leader, who in 1979 joined the mujahideen
opposed to the communist PDPA
and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, before coming over to the side of the government in 1984. Despite his military successes, Ismatullah Muslim was known for the many abuses he committed against civilians, making him a much hated figure throughout Afghanistan, except within his own tribe.
Pashtun
from southern Kandahar
, rose to the rank of major
in the Afghan army, after having undergone training in the Soviet Union
. In 1979 he led his tribe to join the mujahideen resistance against the communist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
, and due to his important tribal following, became one of the principal mujahideen commanders in the Kandahar area. As well as military operations, he also perpetuated the tribal tradition of smuggling
various goods across the border, including heroin.
In 1983, the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence
, which channeled international support for the insurgency, discovered that Ismatullah had compromised almost all of its agents in Quetta
in a drug and weapon smuggling network. This led to a major reorganisation of the distribution of supplies to the mujahideen: in order to receive weapons all commanders were required to become affiliated with one of the resistance parties based in Peshawar
.
Refusing to join any party, Ismatullah instead formed his own group, called the Fidayan-i islam. In 1984, having been cut off from the ISI weapons pipeline, he started attacking and ransoming arms convoys destined for other mujahideen formations. These groups retaliated, and heavy fighting broke out, before the ISI managed to arrange a ceasefire. After he had turned to threatening Pakistani diplomatic personnel, the ISI's commander, General Akhtar Abdur Rahman
, summoned him to Islamabad
where he agreed to join Sayyed Ahmed Gailani
's party, in exchange for a delivery of weapons. However, the ISI refused to give him any heavy weapons, and soon began to suspect him of being an agent of the KHAD
or the KGB
. Having got wind of his imminent arrest, Ismatullah fled to Kabul
and defected to the government.
. His militia numbered at first a few hundred, but by 1988 it had risen to several thousand(between 3,000 and 10,000 depending on sources) and was equipped with armoured cars and heavy weapons. He remained popular among his own tribesmen, with a total number of supporters estimated at 50,000. With their headquarters in the strategic border town of Spin Boldak
, his forces were charged with guarding the road from there to Kandahar. Sitting astride mujahideen supply lines, they were particularly active against the resistance, inflicting casualties and capturing supply convoys. Ismatullah financed his military force through government payments, smuggling and by levying tolls on the busy traffic to Kandahar. In Kabul, he owned a large house where he held many parties involving the heavy use of drugs, alcohol and prostitutes. He was widely believed to have personally murdered hundreds of civilians, including popular singer Ubaidullah Jan
, while his forces were frequently accused of torture and rape. A US diplomat once witnessed him torturing a prisoner in his garden. When president Mohammad Najibullah
convened a Loya jirga
in November 1987, Ismatullah tried to enter the hall sided with armed bodyguards. A firefight broke out, in which Ismatullah was wounded. The next day, Najibullah remarked scathingly of him: "Unfortunately he is sick. He goes to extremes in using narcotics, and it is these which cause his illness". Following this incident, Ismatullah was placed under house arrest
, but was later released, reportedly after some of his men took hostage several KHAD operatives on the road to his stronghold of Spin Boldak
.
Ismatullah later tried to regain the ISI's favour, but the Pakistanis refused to return his property which they had confiscated when he changed sides, including two Mercedes-Benz
cars, and the proposal came to nothing. After the Soviets had withdrawn from southern Afghanistan in 1988, his militia suffered a bloody reverse, and he lost control of the of Spin Boldak to an ISI-sponsored mujahideen offensive. He died in 1991 in a Soviet hospital, presumably from the effects of drug and alcohol abuse. His tribal militia continued to exist and in 2001, led by his nephews, they supported Gul Agha Sherzai
. It was later reformed as a border guard unit in Spin Boldak.
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...
militia
Militia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
leader, who in 1979 joined the 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...
opposed to the communist PDPA
People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan
The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan was a communist party established on the 1 January 1965. While a minority, the party helped former president of Afghanistan, Mohammed Daoud Khan, to overthrow his cousin, Mohammed Zahir Shah, and established Daoud's Republic of Afghanistan...
and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, before coming over to the side of the government in 1984. Despite his military successes, Ismatullah Muslim was known for the many abuses he committed against civilians, making him a much hated figure throughout Afghanistan, except within his own tribe.
Mujahideen commander
Ismatullah, an AchakzaiAchakzai
Achakzai are Durrani primarily found in southern Afghanistan and northern regions of Balochistan Province, Pakistan.-Demographics:Achakzais of Afghanistan are mainly located in Spin Boldak, Reg, Kandahar, Helmand, Oruzgan and Herat...
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 southern Kandahar
Kandahar
Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 512,200 as of 2011. It is the capital of Kandahar Province, located in the south of the country at about 1,005 m above sea level...
, rose to the rank of major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
in the Afghan army, after having undergone training in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. In 1979 he led his tribe to join the mujahideen resistance against the communist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was a government of Afghanistan between 1978 and 1992. It was both ideologically close to and economically dependent on the Soviet Union, and was a major belligerent of the Afghan Civil War.- Saur Revolution :...
, and due to his important tribal following, became one of the principal mujahideen commanders in the Kandahar area. As well as military operations, he also perpetuated the tribal tradition of smuggling
Smuggling
Smuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.There are various motivations to smuggle...
various goods across the border, including heroin.
In 1983, the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence
Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...
, which channeled international support for the insurgency, discovered that Ismatullah had compromised almost all of its agents in Quetta
Quetta
is the largest city and the provincial capital of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan. Known as the "Fruit Garden of Pakistan" due to the diversity of its plant and animal wildlife, Quetta is home to the Hazarganji Chiltan National Park, which contains some of the rarest species of wildlife in the...
in a drug and weapon smuggling network. This led to a major reorganisation of the distribution of supplies to the mujahideen: in order to receive weapons all commanders were required to become affiliated with one of the resistance parties based in Peshawar
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....
.
Refusing to join any party, Ismatullah instead formed his own group, called the Fidayan-i islam. In 1984, having been cut off from the ISI weapons pipeline, he started attacking and ransoming arms convoys destined for other mujahideen formations. These groups retaliated, and heavy fighting broke out, before the ISI managed to arrange a ceasefire. After he had turned to threatening Pakistani diplomatic personnel, the ISI's commander, General Akhtar Abdur Rahman
Akhtar Abdur Rahman
General Akhtar Abdur Rahman Khan , born in Rampur, was a 4-star general in the Pakistan Army. He served as Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee from 1987–1988 and as Director-General Inter-Services Intelligence from 1980-1987...
, summoned him to Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
where he agreed to join Sayyed Ahmed Gailani
Ahmed Gailani
Pir Sayyid Ahmed Gailani , is the leader of the Qadiriyyah Sufi order in Afghanistan, and the founder of the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan , a party that was associated with the Mujahideen who led the war against the Soviet Union in the 1980s...
's party, in exchange for a delivery of weapons. However, the ISI refused to give him any heavy weapons, and soon began to suspect him of being an agent of the KHAD
KHAD
Khadamat-e Etela'at-e Dawlati translates directly to English as: "Government Information Agency". However, this phrase is more correctly translated as Government Intelligence Service...
or the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
. Having got wind of his imminent arrest, Ismatullah fled to Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
and defected to the government.
Pro-government militia leader
Upon joining the PDPA government, he was made a general, and in January 1986, he was given a seat on the Revolutionary CouncilRevolutionary Council (Afghanistan)
The Revolutionary Council of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan ruled the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1978 until its collapse in 1992. The council was the supreme state power under the communist regime and was a carbon copy of the Supreme Soviet...
. His militia numbered at first a few hundred, but by 1988 it had risen to several thousand(between 3,000 and 10,000 depending on sources) and was equipped with armoured cars and heavy weapons. He remained popular among his own tribesmen, with a total number of supporters estimated at 50,000. With their headquarters in the strategic border town of Spin Boldak
Spin Boldak
Spin Boldak or Spin Buldak is a border town in the southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan, right next to the Durand Line border with Pakistan. It is linked by a highway with the city of Kandahar to the north, and with Chaman and Quetta in Pakistan to the south. Spin Boldak has the second major...
, his forces were charged with guarding the road from there to Kandahar. Sitting astride mujahideen supply lines, they were particularly active against the resistance, inflicting casualties and capturing supply convoys. Ismatullah financed his military force through government payments, smuggling and by levying tolls on the busy traffic to Kandahar. In Kabul, he owned a large house where he held many parties involving the heavy use of drugs, alcohol and prostitutes. He was widely believed to have personally murdered hundreds of civilians, including popular singer Ubaidullah Jan
Ubaidullah Jan
Ubaidullah Jan Kandaharai, or simply known as Obaidullah Jan, was a prominent Pashto singer from Kandahar, Afghanistan. He was popular among the Pashtuns in southern Afghanistan and in Quetta, Pakistan. He brought some new style to traditional Pashto music and was considered a classical singer...
, while his forces were frequently accused of torture and rape. A US diplomat once witnessed him torturing a prisoner in his garden. When president Mohammad Najibullah
Mohammad Najibullah
Mohammad Najibullah Ahmadzai , originally merely Najibullah, was the fourth and last President of the Soviet-backed Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. He is also considered the second President of the Republic of Afghanistan.-Early years:Najibullah was born in August 1947 to the Ahmadzai...
convened a Loya jirga
Loya jirga
A loya jirga is a type of jirga regarded as "grand assembly," a phrase in the Pashto language meaning "grand council." A loya jirga is a mass meeting usually prepared for major events such as choosing a new king, adopting a constitution, or discussing important national political or emergency...
in November 1987, Ismatullah tried to enter the hall sided with armed bodyguards. A firefight broke out, in which Ismatullah was wounded. The next day, Najibullah remarked scathingly of him: "Unfortunately he is sick. He goes to extremes in using narcotics, and it is these which cause his illness". Following this incident, Ismatullah was placed under house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
, but was later released, reportedly after some of his men took hostage several KHAD operatives on the road to his stronghold of Spin Boldak
Spin Boldak
Spin Boldak or Spin Buldak is a border town in the southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan, right next to the Durand Line border with Pakistan. It is linked by a highway with the city of Kandahar to the north, and with Chaman and Quetta in Pakistan to the south. Spin Boldak has the second major...
.
Ismatullah later tried to regain the ISI's favour, but the Pakistanis refused to return his property which they had confiscated when he changed sides, including two Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
cars, and the proposal came to nothing. After the Soviets had withdrawn from southern Afghanistan in 1988, his militia suffered a bloody reverse, and he lost control of the of Spin Boldak to an ISI-sponsored mujahideen offensive. He died in 1991 in a Soviet hospital, presumably from the effects of drug and alcohol abuse. His tribal militia continued to exist and in 2001, led by his nephews, they supported Gul Agha Sherzai
Gul Agha Sherzai
Gul Agha Sherzai is the current Governor of Nangarhar province in Afghanistan.He previously served as Governor of Kandahar province, in the early 1990s and from 2001 until 2003.-Biography:...
. It was later reformed as a border guard unit in Spin Boldak.