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Spreading the Taliban
word
By Amin Tarzi
In a
commentary titled "Who is the Taliban spokesman?"
in early August, the government-owned Kabul daily
Anis questioned how the militants opposing the
Afghan government could have a specific spokesman
who is seemingly able to communicate with the
media with ease from Pakistan. Calling the freedom
of action accredited to the spokesman a
controversial matter, Anis asked why he had not
been silenced.
Since the demise of the
Taliban regime in December 2001 in the face of the
US-led invasion of Afghanistan, remnants and
loyalists of that regime, disenchanted Pashtuns,
religious conservatives and, increasingly,
criminals involved in the country's flourishing
narcotics business have joined forces to terrorize
parts of southern and eastern Afghanistan. This
loose coalition - the Taliban - has its bases of
operation in the tribal areas of Afghanistan and
in neighboring Pakistan. And according to Kabul,
they continue to receive assistance from elements
within the Pakistani military, intelligence and
religious establishments.
The Taliban
began their disruptive activities against the
Afghan government and its foreign backers in 2002
in a rather disorganized fashion and without any
announced structural cohesion.
It was not
until early in 2003 that the Taliban issued a
public statement of their intentions. In February
2003, the Peshawar-based Afghan Islamic Press
(AIP) cited a fatwa or judgment signed by
"Amir al-Mo'menin, the Servant of Islam, Mullah
Mohammad Omar Mujahed" as saying that some 1,600
"prominent scholars from around Afghanistan" had
adopted two common articles.
The first
article stipulated that it was every Muslim's duty
to wage jihad "at a time when America has invaded
Islam's limits and the Muslim and oppressed nation
of Afghanistan". The second article warned that
anyone who "helps the aggressive infidels and
joins their ranks under any name or task" deserved
death.
The statement requested the "Muslim
people of Afghanistan" either to wage jihad
against the US forces or, if they were unable to
join in the struggle, to separate themselves from
the Americans, "their allies and their puppet
government ... so that Muslims are differentiated
from Christians".
Finally, the statement
warned that after the issuance of the
fatwa, people working with the coalition or
the Afghan administration headed by Hamid Karzai
would "be considered Christians by God and [by]
the Muslims", and they would face punishment "in
accordance with human society and by the
mujahideen of Islam and the scholars".
In
June, Mohammad Mokhtar Mojahed, purported to be
the spokesman for the Taliban, announced the
formation of a 10-member leadership council. Three
months later, Hamed Agha again reported the
establishment of such a council under the
chairmanship of Mullah Omar and claimed that he
had been appointed as the Taliban spokesman.
Since then, several people have claimed to
be speaking on behalf of the Taliban, often in
contradictory terms. The list of people who have
purported to speak on behalf of the Taliban
includes, in addition to Mojahed and Agha: Mullah
Abdul Samad, Mohammad Amin, Saif al-Adl, Ustad
Mohammad Yasir, and the person mentioned by Anis,
Mufti Latifullah Hakimi.
In February 2004,
refuting some comments made by al-Adl, the Taliban
faxed a statement to several news organizations
naming Agha as the movement's only authorized
spokesman. Increasingly in 2004, Hakimi emerged as
the person speaking for the Taliban and unlike
Agha, who usually faxed his statements to news
organizations, Hakimi began giving telephone
interviews, beginning with Pakistan-based news
organizations and then to other outlets, including
Western and Kabul-based media.
In December
2004, Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) quoted Hakimi as
saying that Mohammad Yasir "has replaced Hamed
Agha as the head of the Taliban cultural council".
According to Islam, a jihadist daily published in
Karachi, in January 2005 Mohammad Yasir was
appointed the chief spokesman for the Taliban
while Hakimi was made his assistant. Whereas Yasir
has appeared on an Arabic television network,
Hakimi has been the main voice of the Taliban
since the latter half of 2004.
Who is
the spokesman?
Hakimi - whose first names
have appeared in various sources as "Latif",
"Abdul Latif" and "Latifullah" and who has been
given the religious titles of "mufti", "mawlawi"
and "mullah", is not an unknown figure. In early
1999, Sharia Zhagh (Voice of Sharia) - the Kabul
government radio station during Taliban rule -
mentioned Hakimi as the head of the justice
department in the western Herat province. Later in
1999 and in 2000, Taliban-run media referred to
Hakimi as the head of the information and culture
department in Herat. In all early references
available, Hakimi has been identified as Mufti
Latifullah.
The fact that Hakimi was a
known personality in the ousted Taliban regime was
one of the complaints that Anis presented and also
one with which the Afghan government has been
uncomfortable. In June, Jawed Ludin, who was then
spokesman for Afghan President Karzai, called on
Islamabad to curb the activities of the Taliban,
including their media access. Ludin charged that
Hakimi had lived in the Pakistani city of Quetta.
In its commentary, Anis goes further, charging
that Hakimi maintains an office with a "specific"
telephone number in Quetta.
Taliban
media campaign
Recently the Taliban have
not only managed to increase their terrorist and
disruptive activities, but have also become bolder
in their use of the media.
In April,
residents of the southern Afghan city of Kandahar
were once again able to hear Sharia Zhagh from
what Hakimi claimed were mobile transmitters.
Although the radio was no longer detected after a
few broadcasts, the fact that the Taliban dared to
transmit radio waves, even for few hours, was seen
by their supporters as an accomplishment.
The Taliban also flirted with a website in
July, though it is no longer accessible.
The area where the Taliban have made great
strides is in using outside media to portray
themselves as a legitimate opposition group in
Afghanistan, not as a terrorist group set on
destroying the government, as the US-backed Kabul
government claims. Hakimi seems to have no fear of
being found through his telephone number and gives
almost daily and lengthy interviews to an array of
news organizations.
As Anis asks with some
surprise, with the available technology to trace
the location of telephone calls, why has Hakimi
not yet been arrested?
Copyright (c)
2005, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted with the permission of
Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty,
1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC
20036 |
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