Translated material
All power to the students!
Evgeniy Pakhomov
In the homeland of the Taliban, Pakistan, they are preparing for a global Islamic revolution
In the homeland of the Taliban, Pakistan, they are preparing for a global Islamic revolution
(Photo: Evgeny Pakhomov )
If you look at Peshawar from the bridge over the Bara River, it seems that you are standing on the border of two different worlds. On the one hand, an ordinary South Asian city with its bustle, colorful colors and the smell of hot cakes. On the other, poor buildings stretching to the horizon: refugee camps from neighboring Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans, fleeing the war, founded dozens of camps in the 1980s on the outskirts of Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, not far from the Afghan border. Then the city became the leading center of resistance to Soviet troops: the headquarters of Mujahideen organizations, bases, and training camps for recruits were located here.
Today those “fighters for the faith” are a thing of the past; their headquarters no longer exist. But in refugee camps and local madrassas, other “fighters for the faith” appeared - the Taliban, whose influence is now felt in countries from the Arabian Sea to Central Asia.
The camp resembles a large and poor Asian village. Women hide their faces at the sight of strangers, boys play among the garbage dumped right on the side of the road and deliberately climb into the camera lens. A tall old man comes out of the house and gestures for me to get out. I apologize and leave this street. A stone is flying after me...
1002nd night
Perhaps no other political movement causes as many controversial assessments as the Taliban. The Taliban are called both radical Islamists and Pashtun nationalists; the hand of Saudi Arabia and the American oil giants is seen behind them; they are considered Pakistani spies. Some say that the goal of the movement is to bring order, albeit tough, to war-torn Afghanistan, others are confident that the Taliban will not stop in Afghanistan and the warriors of Allah in black turbans are about to move to neighboring countries.
Legends are told about the Taliban in Peshawar's refugee camps. The most common one says that in 1994, in the Afghan city of Kandahar, there lived a young mullah Omar, who returned from Pakistan, where he studied at a madrasah. Once he was told that soldiers of one of the Mujahideen groups had captured two teenage girls, raped them and taken them to their barracks for the amusement of the others. People were afraid to oppose the armed Mujahideen, who established their own order in Afghanistan after the victory over the Soviet regime. Mullah Omar said: “Enough of this!” He gathered his students and led them to save the girls. “Tall and handsome, wearing a black turban,” Omar allegedly walked in front, and the bullets did not harm him because he called on Allah for help. The Mujahideen fled, the mullah and his disciples seized the weapons of those who fled "and began to fight for justice."
In another version of this story, we are talking about a little boy, for the right to sodomize whom two gangs of Mujahideen started shooting on the streets of Kandahar and who was saved by Mullah Omar and his students. Such legends make it possible to imagine the situation in Afghanistan in the mid-90s. The squabbling groups of Mujahideen constantly fought with each other, gangs of “fighters for the faith” robbed and raped, and fought for control of bazaars and roads.
“The Taliban are simple people who learned Islam and knew what to do,” Afghan Hafiz, whom I met in a refugee camp, offers his explanation. “They bring peace!” Hafiz is a truck driver. “Previously, in Afghanistan, at every turn, you paid everyone,” he says. “These mujahideen could take away the cargo and kill. If they see the money, give it back; if you like the things, take them off. Once we were driving, and my friend had an expensive pen sticking out of his pocket, so They took his pen, and they beat him. And when the Taliban came, you gave him money once and you went in peace!"
The entrance to the Haqqaniya Madrasah (pictured) faces directly onto the Peshawar-Islamabad highway. Classes in the madrasah are taught by respected mullahs. Some students agreed to talk with a foreign correspondent, although few allowed themselves to be photographed (Photo: Evgeny Pakhomov )
We started talking on the street of the refugee camp, where several trucks painted with bright patterns were lined up. Afghanistan, located in the middle of the Silk Road, has always been famous for its caravan drivers and camel drivers. These days, an influential community of truck drivers has emerged, including Afghan refugees living in Pakistan. In South Asia they are called the "Afghan road mafia". It has a strict internal structure and strict discipline. Despite all the wars, the “mafia” skillfully maintained a constant flow of cargo in the region: colorful vehicles easily find their way across all front lines and borders from Bangladesh to Central Asia. They say that an important source of income for this “mafia” was the transportation of drugs, the production of which in Afghanistan is growing every year. The caravan leaders of our time quickly established contacts with Taliban leaders. According to the Pakistani press, at the first stage the “road mafia” was one of the main sponsors for the Taliban.
The official, without legends, history of the Taliban begins with trucks. In 1994, the Pakistani government of Benazir Bhutto decided to boost the national economy by developing trade ties with the young states of Central Asia. In October, the first caravan of 30 army trucks carrying medicines and other goods set off for Ashgabat through Afghanistan. Near Kandahar, the Mujahideen group of the famous warlord Mansur Ochakzai plundered a caravan and demanded a ransom from the Pakistani government for the drivers. The then Minister of Internal Affairs of Pakistan, Nasrullah Babar, a Pashtun by nationality, suggested turning to the Taliban - Pashtun youth from among Afghan refugees who were educated in Pakistani madrassas and were extremely dissatisfied with the order that had developed in their native Afghanistan. It was known that the “road mafia” actively recruited them to guard their caravans. Pakistani authorities promised Taliban leader Mullah Omar official recognition and support with weapons and money.
Omar's Taliban detachment unexpectedly attacked Ochakzai's Mujahideen, surrounded them and offered to surrender. They agreed. All the Mujahideen who laid down their arms were shot in cold blood by the Taliban. Mansur Ochakzai, still alive and bleeding, was tied to the barrel of a tank gun and brought to Kandahar for everyone to see. Since then, demonstrative executions of opponents, whose monstrous cruelty has nothing to do with the canons of Islam, have become commonplace for the Taliban, and their nickname “black mullahs,” given for the color of their headdresses, has acquired another, sinister meaning.
Islam streets
Oddly enough, such actions of the Taliban only added to their popularity in Afghanistan. Tired of the Mujahideen “lawlessness,” people greeted the “students” as liberators and welcomed the death of their tormentors. Afghan youth began to gather under the banner of Mullah Omar; according to Pakistani press estimates, by December 1994 Omar had 12 thousand fighters, a significant part of whom came from Afghan refugee camps near Peshawar. Thus began the triumphant march of the Taliban across Afghanistan.
"In a strife-torn country, power lay underfoot. The Taliban simply snatched it up," Salim Safi, bureau chief of the Pakistani news agency NNI in Peshawar, told me. "If the mujahideen were a 'reaction' to the Soviet invasion, the Taliban were a 'reaction to the reaction.'" The Taliban "is not a Muslim movement at all, but a social movement under Islamic slogans."
Mr. Safi is somewhat categorical. Of course, the Taliban is a Muslim movement. But the Islam of the Taliban is the Islam of the peasants and urban lower classes, which filled the ideological vacuum in Afghanistan, when both the socialist leaders and the leaders of the “educated” Islamists were discredited. The Taliban assert the ideology of the Muslim street with fanatical cruelty. Hence such attention to external “religiosity”, for example, the requirement that women completely cover their faces (which is natural for an Afghan peasant woman, but this is required not by religion, but by traditions that are of great importance for the Muslim street), and dislike for everything “un-Islamic” - from TVs to foreign clothes.
According to one Pakistani journalist, the USSR made a significant contribution to the emergence of the Taliban: “You destroyed traditional Afghanistan with its clear social structure, where everyone had their place, and brought ideas of social equality and justice.” But "paternity", however, is attributed to many, from the Pakistani intelligence agency ICI to the American oil giant Unocal. Indeed, various forces have influenced and continue to influence the Taliban leadership. But in the bazaars and busy intersections of Peshawar, it becomes clear that the “students in black turbans” primarily represent themselves - people from the streets.
Here everyone speaks with admiration about the order in Afghanistan: “The bribe-takers are shot, the bandits were all killed, everyone there is equal...” They do not believe the information that reaches here that Taliban officials do not shy away from bribes. “We will also have such an order,” a strawberry seller told me with confidence at the bazaar. “The Taliban will bring real Islam and democracy to us!”
Sami-ul-Haq is proud to run the madrassa where Taliban leaders studied. (Photo: Evgeny Pakhomov )
Many legends are also told here about the head of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Omar. However, we can only be content with them. Mullah Omar is one of the most mysterious modern leaders. He does not meet with the press and has only recently started giving interviews and only by fax or via the Internet. No one really knows what he looks like, since Omar refuses to be photographed. He lives as a recluse in the city of Kandahar and only once appeared in public in the capital of the country, Kabul - when in 1996 the Taliban who captured the city declared him amir-ul-muminin (head of all the faithful), and he renamed the country the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan. It is officially stated that in the 80s, Omar fought against the “godless communist government” and lost an eye. But little is known about this period of his life: according to some sources, he was in the detachment of the field commander Nabi Mohammadi, and according to others, he fought with the influential Mujahideen Yunus Khales. In the Western press, the “Mullah Omar phenomenon” - the mystery of the head of the Taliban - is often compared to the closed power in Cambodia during the time of Pol Pot.
What is known for certain is that Omar’s inner circle, like most Taliban leaders, are graduates of the famous Haqqaniya Madrasah, located near Peshawar. This madrassa is considered the ideological birthplace of the movement, and many Taliban proudly add the prefix "Haqqani" to their name. According to some reports, the mysterious Omar also studied here. To get an answer to this question, I went to the town of Akora Khattak, where this educational institution is located.
Alma mater of the "black mullahs"
Akora Khattak is located right on the Peshawar-Islamabad highway: poor houses, the obligatory market square. Next to it is a mosque with a new minaret under construction and several neat buildings surrounded by a fence. There is a sign on the gate: Dar-ul-Uloom (House of Knowledge) Haqqaniya.
- Indeed, Mullah Omar was my student. - says Sami-ul-Haq, sarbarah ("dean") of the madrasah.
“They say that Omar studied in Kandahar,” I note.
- Yes, but then I completed my studies in Haqqaniya.
Sami-ul-Haq bears the title of maulana (respected theologian) and sits on the floor of the "teachers' lounge", surrounded by other teachers. He reads the papers, signs something and talks to me: “It’s not true that the Taliban are cruel, they brought peace to a country plundered by atheists. Tell everyone in your Russia that the Taliban will not fight against you, their goal is only Afghanistan.”
Sami-ul-Haq orders tea to be brought to me, and continues: “Taliban ministers often come here to discuss Afghan affairs with me.” - He proudly names several names of high-ranking Taliban. "And Mullah Omar?" - “No, Mullah Omar never leaves Kandahar.”
To the surprise of everyone in the "teacher's room", Sami-ul-Haq agrees to be photographed and allows me to inspect the madrassah. The accompanying person received clear instructions: “Let him look, but not for long, and let him take photographs, but not in classrooms and only of those who allow it.”
We walk along the long veranda where the classroom doors open. In front of each door is a pile of sandals; through the doors, which are open due to the heat, students are visible sitting on the floor. Many are wearing characteristic “Taliban” black turbans. They showed me a hostel where young people were dozing on the floor in the rooms with their clothes on. “Let them sleep,” the attendant told me. “They have a break from classes, then they will study until the evening.”
In the square near the madrasah, several people performed namaz. I started talking with students standing in the shadow of the gallery near the mosque. Few agreed to be photographed, just as few confirmed that Mullah Omar, this phantom man, studied here (“I don’t know myself. But if Sami-ul-Haq speaks, then it is so”). I was told that it was near this mosque that the term “Taliban” was born, translated as “students”, in relation to the religious and political movement. “They called themselves that here, in this square, when in 1994 all the senior students went to Afghanistan to restore the laws of Islam,” Hafizullah, a graduate student, himself originally from Afghanistan, told me. “We are proud that we will also be Haqqanis.” As Hafizullah said, from the same square in 1998, on the orders of Sami-ul-Haq, several hundred students left to help the Taliban who stormed Mazar-i-Sharif.
When classes take a break during the hot day, students can relax in the dorm or in the shade outside, like these senior students (pictured), one of whom covered his face with his hands when he saw the camera. (Photo: Evgeny Pakhomov )
Today there are approximately 2,500 students in Haqqaniya. Typically, “higher Muslim education” is completed in four years. But there are many here, including Hafizullah, who study for two or three years. "There is no more time, we need to return to Afghanistan."
I met another student named Siddiqullah in the hostel. I saw a tape recorder on the floor of his room. "Do you like music?" “No!” He even jumped. “Listening to music is a sin, it distracts from thoughts about Allah! I listen to sermons of famous Muslims.”
Siddiqullah is a Pakistani from Peshawar, in good English he assures me that only in Afghanistan there is real Islam, and other “pseudo-Muslim regimes” only hide behind the Koran. “Islam prohibits murder, lies, envy. In true Islam there will be no poor, there will be justice and equality - after all, the rich will have to pay zakat al-fitr (a tax obligatory in Islam to support the poor). But today the rich do not want to share.”
Siddiqullah believes that there are three or four years left before the Islamic revolution in Pakistan. “And then other countries will follow the path of Islam.” Siddiqullah is sure of this: “They used to say that only Pashtuns join the Taliban, but now our ideas are becoming popular all over the world!”
At the end of the excursion, my guide prepared a surprise. We approached the building located in the depths of the courtyard: “Foreign students live here. You have ten minutes at your disposal.” We went into one of the rooms, and I introduced myself in Urdu: “I am a journalist from Moscow, I would like to ask a few questions.”
“Come in, brother,” they answered me in Russian. - Look, my fellow countryman has almost arrived...
drawn sword
Six young guys, apparently about twenty to twenty-five years old, are sitting on the floor in a small room and looking at me as if I were an alien from another planet. As it turned out, these are students from Tajikistan. All have beards and Muslim caps, but are dressed in sweatpants and T-shirts, only one is wearing a traditional Pakistani shalwar-kamis suit.
At first the conversation doesn’t go well - they treat me warily, but curiosity takes over, and I’m bombarded with questions: “Are you a Muslim? How did they let you in here? If we talk to you, won’t we get into trouble?” One of them covers the camera lens with his hand: “Just don’t take pictures, for us taking pictures is a sin.”
I ask the guys to introduce themselves, but everyone refuses. Only the one in shalwar-kamis says: “My name is Rahman, you can call me Roma.” He’s the only one looking at me with an even, confident look: “I’ll tell you everything, but you have to write that there are no terrorists here, as they say there. We’re just teaching Islam. Who cares from this?”
Roma-Rakhman is originally from Dushanbe. His story is similar to the stories of many young Tajiks: in a country whose economy has been destroyed by civil war, it is impossible to get a decent job without family ties or acquaintances. Rakhman went to Moscow, where he worked on the ZIL assembly line. He didn't like it in Moscow. He returned home. “The Koran told me the right path,” says Rahman. “I want to be an educator, to bring Islam to people.”
- How did you end up in Haqqania?
- I chose this madrasah myself. First he studied in Islamabad at the Islamic University. Did not like.
According to Rahman, “everything was too easy there.” The students were not particularly burdened, they were given a stipend - one hundred dollars a month, a lot of money by Pakistani standards (the Islamic University is sponsored by Saudi Arabia). Rahman is sure that this is wrong: “Real knowledge is gained through hard work. They told me that there is a madrasah where they teach the right way.”
Discipline in Haqqaniya is strict. Rise with the first rays of sun at 4 - 5 o'clock in the morning. After prayer, reading the Koran, ending with repeated recitation of the name of Allah, then breakfast and classes until the evening. When the heat subsides, exercise and run. “We are also strengthened physically here.”
Teaching in Haqqaniya is in Pashto, and all foreigners learn this language, but for students from Tajikistan, lectures are given in Persian, which Tajiks understand. Now there are approximately 60 students from other countries studying at the madrasah, most from Tajikistan, but there are also some from Turkey. Young people from Uzbekistan also studied here, however, according to my interlocutors, they were also mostly ethnic Tajiks. Students from abroad are supported and fed at the expense of the madrasah, but the stipend is small.
Foreigners study for an average of two years at an accelerated rate, then receive a diploma and go home. “We want to establish Sharia in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, everywhere... In Russia, in any case, there will be Islam too!” future Haqqanis passionately convince me. “The Koran says that this will happen all over the world. After all, if you are a Muslim, "You are my brother. When everyone is Muslim, everyone will become brothers!"
They also talked for a long time about how fair the world should become when “real Islam” wins, with fervor that reminded Komsomol members of the times of the first five-year plans.
“Were there any students from the Caucasus in Haqqania?” - I ask. "No. They don't know Pashto or Persian. How can they learn?" But, apparently, Chechens still came to Haqqania. One of my interlocutors unexpectedly let slip: “They asked us if we would help them. We answered, if you are fighting for your independence, for a free Chechnya, fight yourself. Politics is not our business. But if you are fighting for Islam, we will to fight for you."
Here my companion, listening to the unfamiliar Russian speech, pointed to his watch - time was up. Before leaving, I noticed the homemade posters hanging on the walls of the room. One depicted a saber and a bloody hand, the other depicted a tank standing on a map of Afghanistan. “This is an Islamic sword cutting down the Russian hand reaching out to Tajikistan,” my new acquaintances eagerly explained to me. “And here Islamic tanks from Afghanistan are occupying Central Asia. If you want, you can photograph the posters.” Here the attendant decisively led me to the door. Followed by: “Russia will be Islamic. It goes either way, brother!”
Peshawar - Akora Khattak
Students from the Haqqaniya Madrasah from Tajikistan show a homemade poster showing an Islamic sword cutting a Russian hand. (Photo: Evgeny Pakhomov )