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{{Infobox War Faction
|name          = ''Taliban'' <br/> طالبان
|war           = the [[Civil war in Afghanistan]], the [[War in Afghanistan (2001–present)]] and the [[War in North-West Pakistan|Waziristan War]]
|image         = [[Image:Flag of Taliban.svg|border|200px|Taliban flag]]
|caption       = Taliban flag
|leaders       = Mullah [[Mohammed Omar]]<br />Mullah [[Abdul Ghani Baradar]]<br /> Mullah [[Obaidullah Akhund]]
|clans         =
|ideology      = [[Islamism]]
|active        = September 1994-December 2001 (government)<br>2004-present (Islamic Insurgency)
|headquarters  =
|area          = [[Afghanistan]] and [[Pakistan]]<ref name="PakistanTaliban">
Pajhwok Afghan News, [http://www.pajhwok.com/viewstory.asp?lng=eng&id=36208 Taliban have opened office in Waziristan (Pakistan)].</ref>
|strength      = 45,000 (2001 est.)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa092801a.htm |title=Taliban and the Northern Alliance |publisher=Usgovinfo.about.com |date= |accessdate=2009-11-26}}</ref><br />11,000 (2008 est.)<ref>
[http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2008/09/10/52244/911-seven-years-later-us-safe.html 9/11 seven years later: U.S. 'safe,' South Asia in turmoil] ''"There are now some 62,000 foreign soldiers in Afghanistan, including 34,000 U.S. troops, and some 150,000 Afghan security forces. '''They face an estimated 7,000 to 11,000 insurgents''', according to U.S. commanders."'.' Retrieved 2010-08-24.</ref><br /> 36,000 (2010 est.).<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7047321.ece | location=London | work=The Times | title=MajorGeneral Richard Barrons puts Taleban fighter numbers at 36000 | date=2010-03-03}}</ref>
|previous      = Students of [[Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam]]
|allies        =[[Al-Qaeda]]<br />[[Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan]]<br />[[Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin]]<br />[[Haqqani network]]<br />[[Islamic Emirate of Waziristan]]<br />[[Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan]]<br/> [[East Turkestan Islamic Movement]]
|international = [[Saudi Arabia]], [[Pakistan]], [[United Arab Emirates]] (before [[September 11 attacks|11 September attacks]])
|opponents     = [[International Security Assistance Force|ISAF]] (led by [[NATO]])<br />[[Participants in Operation Enduring Freedom]]
}}
{{Campaignbox Afghanistan}}
{{Deobandi}}
The '''Taliban''', alternative spelling '''Taleban''',<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/144382.stm | title=Analysis: Who are the Taleban? | date=2000-12-20 | work=BBC News}}</ref> ({{lang-ps|{{Nastaliq|طالبان}}}} ''{{transl|ps|ṭālibān}}'', meaning "[[student]]s") is a traditionalist/[[hanafi]] [[Islamism|Islamist]] [[political movement]] that governed [[Afghanistan]] from 1996 until it was [[overthrow]]n in late 2001. It has regrouped since 2004 and revived as a strong [[insurgency]] movement governing mainly local [[Pashtunistan|Pashtun areas]] and fighting a [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla war]] against the governments of [[Politics of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]], [[Government of Pakistan|Pakistan]], and the [[NATO]]-led [[International Security Assistance Force]] (ISAF).<ref>
ISAF has participating forces from 39 countries, including all 26 NATO members. See [http://www.nato.int/isaf/docu/epub/pdf/isaf_placemat.pdf ISAF Troop Contribution Placement, 2007-12-05]{{dead link|date=August 2010}}.</ref>
It would be a misnomer to term Taliban movement a Wahabi movement as Abdullah Wahab followed interpretation of Zahiri School and the forerunners of this School are Imam ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Hazm. The Taliban movement is a tribal confederacy of Ghilzai and their allied tribes and are staunch Afghan/Pashtoon Nationalists (strictly follow the social cultural norm called pashtoonwali) and also are Hanafi traditionalists i.e., followers of Imam Abu Hanifa School of interpretation.
The Taliban movement is primarily made up of members belonging to ethnic [[Pashtun tribes]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.shavemagazine.com/politics/090501/2 |title=Pakistan and the Taliban: It's Complicated|publisher=[http://www.shavemagazine.com/ ShaveMagazine.com]}}</ref> along with volunteers from nearby [[Islam]]ic countries such as [[Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan|Uzbeks]], [[Tajik people|Tajiks]], [[Punjabi people|Punjabis]], [[Islamic mujahid movement|Arabs]], [[Chechen Republic of Ichkeria|Chechens]] and others.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.zimbio.com/World+Politics/articles/5TCU8hCsNPI/Wiping+out+Uzbek+Tajik+Foreign+terrorists |title=Wiping out Uzbek, Tajik & Foreign terrorists in FATA |publisher=Zimbio.com |date= |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009/06/24/story_24-6-2009_pg7_16 |title=Terrorist camp may hold clues to Taliban operations |publisher=Dailytimes.com.pk |date=2009-06-24 |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref><ref>[http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091110/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan Suicide car bomb kills 24 in northwest Pakistan]{{dead link|date=August 2010}}</ref> It operates in Afghanistan and Pakistan, mostly in provinces around the [[Durand Line]] border. U.S. officials say their headquarters is in or near [[Quetta]], Pakistan, and that Pakistan and [[Iran]] provide support,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theworldreporter.com/2010/09/pakistan-taliban-brothers-and-rivals.html |title=Pakistan and Taliban, Brothers or Rivals? |publisher=Theworldreporter.com |date=2010-09-14 |}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Sep 22nd, 2009 |url=http://www.axisofjustice.org/world/u-s-says-pakistan-iran-helping-taliban.html |title=U.S. says Pakistan Iran helping Taliban |publisher=Axisofjustice.org |date=2009-09-22 |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iranfocus.com/en/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=19300 |title=Iran helping the Taliban, US ambassador claims |publisher=Iranfocus.com |date=2009-12-18 |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pajhwok.com/viewstory.asp?lng=eng&id=88803 |title=Iran accused of assisting Afghan Taliban |publisher=Pajhwok.com |date= |accessdate=2010-08-27}} {{Dead link|date=September 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=McElroy |first=Damien |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/6835102/Iran-helping-the-Taliban-US-ambassador-claims.html |title=Iran helping the Taliban, US ambassador claims |publisher=Telegraph.co.uk |date=2009-12-17 |accessdate=2010-08-27 | location=London}}</ref> although both nations deny this.<ref name="nyt20090209">{{
cite news
 | title = Taliban Haven in Pakistani City Raises Fears
 | last = Schmitt
 | first = Eric
 | publisher = New York Times
 | date = 2009-02-09
 | url = http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/world/asia/10quetta.html}}</ref><ref name="nyt20090924">{{
cite news
 | title = Taliban Widen Afghan Attacks From Base in Pakistan
 | last = Schmitt
 | first = Eric
 | publisher = New York Times
 | date = 2009-09-24
 | url = http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/world/asia/24military.html}}</ref>

The main leader of the Taliban movement is [[Mullah]] [[Mohammed Omar]], who is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan with a $25 million reward for information leading to his capture.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pajhwok.com/viewstory.asp?lng=eng&id=97651 |title=No word from Islamabad on Omar's arrest |publisher=Pajhwok.com |date= |accessdate=2010-08-27}} {{Dead link|date=September 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e2325?_hi=34&_pos=4 |title=From the article on the Taliban in Oxford Islamic Studies Online |publisher=Oxfordislamicstudies.com |date= |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref> Omar's original commanders were "a mixture of former small-unit military commanders and [[madrassa]] teachers,"<ref>{{
Harvnb|Goodson|2001|p=114}}.</ref> while its rank-and-file was made up mostly of [[Afghan refugees]] who had studied at [[Islamic religious schools]] in Pakistan.{{Citation needed|date=July 2010}} The Taliban received valuable training, supplies and arms from the Pakistani government, particularly the [[Inter-Services Intelligence]] (ISI),<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|pp=17–30}}.</ref> and many recruits from madrasas for Afghan refugees in Pakistan, primarily ones established by the [[Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam]] (JUI).<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=26, 29}}.</ref>

Although in control of Afghanistan's capital ([[Kabul]]) and most of the country for five years, the Taliban regime, which called itself the "[[Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan]]", gained [[diplomatic recognition]] from only three states: Pakistan, [[Saudi Arabia]], and the [[United Arab Emirates]]. It has regained some amount of political control and acceptance in Pakistan's border region, but recently lost one of its Pakistani leaders, [[Baitullah Mehsud]], in a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] [[Drone attacks in Pakistan|missile strike]].<ref>{{
Cite news |last1=Mazzetti |first1=Mark |last2=Schmitt |first2=Eric |title=C.I.A. Missile Strike May Have Killed Pakistan's Taliban Leader, Officials Say |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/world/asia/07pstan.html |newspaper=New York Times |date=2009-08-06 |accessdate=2010-01-13}}</ref> However Pakistan has launched an offensive to force the Taliban from its territory.<ref>{{
cite news| url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/6356367/Pakistan-offensive-troops-meet-heavy-Taliban-resistance.html | work=The Daily Telegraph | location=London | title=Pakistan offensive: troops meet heavy Taliban resistance | date=2009-10-17 | accessdate=2010-04-09}}</ref>

While in power, the Taliban enforced one of the strictest interpretations of [[Sharia law]] ever seen in the [[Muslim world]],<ref name="Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=29">{{Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=29}}</ref> and became notorious internationally for their [[Taliban treatment of women|treatment of women]].<ref name="Maley">Dupree Hatch, Nancy. "Afghan Women under the Taliban" in Maley, William. ''Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban''. London: Hurst and Company, 2001, pp. 145–166.</ref> Women were forced to wear the [[burqa]] in public.<ref name="Gohari">M. J. Gohari (2000). ''The Taliban: Ascent to Power''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 108-110.</ref> They were allowed neither to work nor to be educated after the age of eight, and until then were permitted only to study the [[Qur'an]].<ref name="Maley"/> They were not allowed to be treated by male doctors unless accompanied by a male [[chaperon]], which led to illnesses remaining untreated. They faced public flogging in the street, and public execution for violations of the Taliban's laws.<ref name=physicians>{{PDFlink|[http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/library/documents/reports/talibans-war-on-women.pdf "The Taliban's War on Women"]}}, Physicians for Human Rights, August 1998.</ref>

In mid-2009, the Taliban established an [[ombudsman]] office in northern [[Kandahar]], which author [[David Kilcullen]] describes as a "direct challenge" to the ISAF.<ref>{{cite book | last = Kilcullen | first = David | authorlink = David Kilcullen | title = The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2009 | location = New York | isbn = 9780195368345}}</ref>

==Etymology==
The word ''Taliban'' is Pashto, {{lang|ps|طالبان}} ''{{transl|ps|ṭālibān}}'', meaning "students", the plural of ''ṭālib''. This is a loan word from [[Arabic language|Arabic]] {{lang|ar|طالب}} ''{{transl|ar|ṭālib}}'',<ref name="Arabic Dictionary">[http://online.ectaco.co.uk/main.jsp?do=e-services-dictionaries-word_translate1&status=translate&lang1=23&lang2=ar&source_id=2248807 English <-> Arabic Online Dictionary].</ref> plus the Indo-Iranian plural ending -an  {{lang|ps|ان}} (the Arabic plural being {{lang|ar|طلاب}} ''{{transl|ar|ṭullāb}}'', whereas {{lang|ar|طالبان}} ''{{transl|ar|ṭālibān}}'' is a dual form with the incongruous meaning, to Arabic speakers, of "two students"). Since becoming a [[loanword]] in English, ''Taliban'', besides a plural noun referring to the group, has also been used as a singular noun referring to an individual. For example, [[John Walker Lindh]] has been referred to as "an American Taliban" rather than "an American Talib".  In the English language newspapers of Pakistan the word talibans is often used when referring to more than one taliban. The spelling 'Taliban' has come to predominate over 'Taleban' in English.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2009/06/from_taleban_to_taliban.html From 'Taleban' to 'Taliban'] BBC&nbsp;– The Editors.</ref>

==Early history==
===Emergence===
{{Main|Taliban's rise to power}}
The most credible and often-repeated story of how Mullah Omar first mobilized his followers is that in the spring of 1994 [[Singesar]] neighbors told him that a warlord commander had abducted two teenage girls, shaved their heads and taken them to a camp where they were raped repeatedly. 30 Taliban (with only 16 rifles) freed the girls and hanged the commander from the barrel of a tank. Later that year two warlord commanders killed civilians while fighting for the right to sodomize a young boy. The Taliban freed him.<ref>{{Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=25}}</ref><ref>Matinuddin, Kamal, ''The Taliban Phenomenon, Afghanistan 1994-1997'', Oxford University Press, (1999), pp.25–6</ref>

The Taliban's first major military activity was in 1994 when they marched northward from [[Maywand District|Maiwand]] and captured [[Kandahar|Kandahar City]] and the surrounding provinces, losing only a few dozen men.<ref>{{Harvnb|Rashid|2000|pp=27–29}}.</ref> They captured a border crossing at [[Spin Baldak]] and an ammunition dump from warlord [[Gulbuddin Hekmatyar]] on October 29. Kandahar fell November 3–5. A few weeks later they freed "a convoy trying to open a trade route from Pakistan to Central Asia" from another group of warlords attempting to extort money for permission to pass their checkpoints. The convoy owners paid a large fee and promised ongoing payments for this service.<ref>[http://www.infoplease.com/spot/taliban.html The Taliban] Infoplease.com.</ref>

The areas in which the Taliban emerged were not under the control of the central government in Kabul which had no hands in the affairs of southern Afghanistan during that time. The Taliban were first viewed as a force of liberation. 

Over the next three months this hitherto unknown force took control of twelve of 34 [[Provinces of Afghanistan|provinces]] not under central government control, disarming the "heavily armed population". Militias controlling the different areas often surrendered without a fight.<ref name="Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=29"/> The Taliban imposed on the parts of Afghanistan under their control their interpretation of Islam. The Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) analyze: "To PHR’s knowledge, no other regime in the world has methodically and violently forced half of its population into virtual house arrest, prohibiting them on pain of physical punishment ..."<ref name=physicians /> Women were required to wear the all-covering chadof, they were banned from public life, denied access to health care and education, windows needed to be covered so that women could not be seen from the outside and they were not allowed to laugh in a manner they could be heard by others.<ref name=physicians /> The Taliban, without any real court or hearing, cut people's hands or arms off when accused of stealing.<ref name=physicians /> Taliban hit-squads watched the streets conducting brutal public beatings.<ref name=physicians />

With the strong support of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Osama Bin Laden the Taliban proceeded further to Kabul [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzPcMB9SQz0&feature=search see video], where for the first time they faced the troops of defense minister [[Ahmad Shah Massoud]] who then controlled parts of the capital and provinces in the north and east of Afghanistan. [[Ahmad Shah Massoud]] had been named "The Afghan who won the cold war" by the Wall Street Journal.<ref name="Charlie Rose">{{cite web |year=2001 |url =http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2911290068493351924# |title = Charlie Rose March 26, 2001| publisher = [[CBS]]}}</ref> He had defeated the Soviet Red Army nine times in his home region of Panjshir, in north-eastern Afghanistan.<ref name="CNN">{{cite news |year=2009 |url =http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/05/27/massoud.afghanistan/ |title = He would have found Bin Laden| publisher = CNN}}</ref> Massoud, unarmed, went to talk to some Taliban leaders in Maidan Shar to convince them to join a peaceful political process so that democratic elections could be held to decide on a future government for Afghanistan. He hoped they could be allies in bringing stability to Afghanistan before the Afghans could choose their future government themselves. But the Taliban declined to join such a political process. When Massoud returned unharmed to Kabul, the Taliban leader who had received him as his guest payed with his life (he was killed by other senior Taliban) for failing to execute Massoud while the possibility was there. Over the following weeks Massoud handed the Taliban their first major military defeat. Some months later, however, after Taliban forces had again encircled the capital, Massoud ordered a retreat from [[Kabul]] on September 26, 1996.<ref>Coll, ''Ghost Wars'' (New York: Penguin, 2005), 14.</ref> Massoud and his troops retreated to the northeast of Afghanistan.<ref>{{cite news|last=Bearak |first=Barry |url=http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/09/world/afghan-lion-fights-taliban-with-rifle-and-fax-machine.html |title="Afghan 'Lion' Fights Taliban With Rifle and Fax Machine" |location=Afghanistan |publisher=Nytimes.com |date=1999-11-09 |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Burns |first=John F. |url=http://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/08/world/afghan-driven-from-kabul-makes-stand-in-north.html |title="Afghan Driven From Kabul Makes Stand in North" |location=Gulbahar (Afghanistan); Afghanistan |publisher=Nytimes.com |date=1996-10-08 |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref>

===War against the United Front (Northern Alliance)===
{{Main|Afghan Civil War (1996-2001)}}
[[File:Ahmad Shah Massoud.jpg|thumb|[[Ahmad Shah Massoud]] (Leader of the United Front) {{puic|Ahmad Shah Massoud.jpg|2010 September 13}}]]
[[File:1996afghan.png|thumb|Map of the situation in Afghanistan in late 1996; Massoud, Dostum and Taliban territories]]

The [[Islamic State of Afghanistan]] (ISA) which had been created after the Soviet and Afghan communist defeat, whose president was [[Burhanuddin Rabbani]] and whose defense minister was [[Ahmad Shah Massoud]], from 1995 onwards came under attack by Mullah Omar's Taliban, Pakistan and Al Qaeda. In September 1996 the Taliban with their allies succeeded in taking power in Kabul.

[[Ahmad Shah Massoud]], who still represented the legitimate government of Afghanistan as recognized by most foreign countries and the United Nations, and [[Abdul Rashid Dostum]], one of his former archnemesis, for the survival of their remaining territories were forced to create an alliance against the Taliban, Pakistan (who had 28 000 Pakistani nationals fighting alongside the Taliban) and Al Qaeda coalition which was about to attack the areas of Massoud and those of Dostum.<ref name="Journeyman Picture/ABC Australia">{{cite web |year=1997 |url =http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvYglyjbHkI |title = Massoud's Last Stand| publisher = [[Journeyman Pictures/ABC Australia]]}}</ref> [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvYglyjbHkI see video] The alliance was called United Front but in the Western and Pakistani media became known as the ''[[United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan|Northern Alliance]]''.

As the Taliban committed massacres, especially among the Shia and Hazara population which they regarded as "sub-humans" worse than "non-believers" an thus according to them were without any rights <ref name="National Geographic">{{cite web |year=2007|url =http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpQI6HKV-ZY&feature=related |title = Inside the Taliban| publisher = [[National Geographic]]}}</ref> many Hazaras fled to the area of Massoud. The Hezb-i Wahdat, main faction of the Hazaras, consequently also joined the United Front. The National Geographic concluded: "The only thing standing in the way of future Taliban massacres is Ahmad Shah Massoud."<ref name="National Geographic" /> In the following years many more were to join the United Front. These included Afghans and Afghan commanders from all regions and Afghan ethnicities including many Pashtuns such as Commanders Abdul Haq, Haji Abdul Qadir and Qari Baba or diplomat and future Afghan president Hamid Karzai.

Closely tied with Pakistan's [[JUI party]], the Taliban not only received help from regular Pakistani army troops and Bin Laden's 055 Brigade but also manpower from madrasas in Pakistan’s border region. After a request from Mullah Omar in 1997, JUI's [[Maulana Samiul Haq]] shut down his 2,500+ student madrasah ([[Darul Uloom Haqqania]]) and "sent his entire student" body hundreds of miles to fight with the Taliban. The next year, he helped persuade 12 madrasas in Pakistan's [[North-West Frontier Province]] to shut down for one month and send 8,000 students to reinforce the Taliban.<ref>{{Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=91}}.</ref> Meanwhile in Pakistan followers of Mullah Omar were also imposing their interpretation of Islam. By 1998 some Pakistani groups along the "Pashtun belt" were banning TV and videos, imposing Sharia punishments "such as stoning and amputation in defiance of the legal system, killing Pakistani [[Shia|Shi{{okina}}a]] and forcing the people, particularly women, to adapt to the Taliban dress code and way of life."<ref>{{Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=93}}.</ref> In December 1998 the Tehrik-i-Tuleba or Movement of Taliban in the [[Orakzai Agency]] ignored Pakistan’s legal process and publicly executed a murderer in front of 2,000 spectators. They also promised to implement Taliban-style justice and ban TV, music and videos.<ref>Yousufzai, Rahimyllah, "Pakistani Taliban at work," The News, 1998-12-18. See also AFP, "Murder convict executed Taliban style in Pakistan", 1998-12-14.</ref> In [[Quetta]], Pashtun pro-Taliban groups "burned down cinema houses, shot video shop owners, smashed satellite dishes and drove women off the streets".<ref>{{Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=194}}.</ref> In [[Kashmir]] [[Afghan Arabs]] attempted to impose a "Wahhabi style dress code" banning jeans and jackets. "On 15 February 1999, they shot and wounded three Kashmiri cable television operators for relaying Western satellite broadcasts."<ref>''Agence France Presse'', "Kashmir militant group issues Islamic dress order," 1999-02-21.</ref>

In 1998 the forces of [[Rashid Dostum]] were defeated by the Taliban in Mazar-i-Sharif and Dostum lost his territories. When the Taliban captured Mazar-i-Sharif in August 8, 1998, they killed thousands of civilians and several Iranian diplomats. Subsequently Dostum went into exile. Meanwhile the Taliban in an major effort to also retake the Shomali plains, indiscriminately killed young men, while uprooting and expelling the population. Kamal Hossein, a special reporter for the [[UN]], reported on these and other [[war crimes]]. Arab militants under Bin Laden were also responsible for some of the worst massacres in the war, killing hundreds of civilians in areas controlled by the United Front.<ref name="Ahmed Rashid/The Telegraph">{{cite news |year=2001|url =http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/1340244/Afghanistan-resistance-leader-feared-dead-in-blast.html |title =Afghanistan resistance leader feared dead in blast| publisher = [[Ahmed Rashid in the Telegraph]]| location=London}}</ref>

The only leader to remain in Afghanistan and who was able to defend vast parts of his area against the Taliban was [[Ahmad Shah Massoud]]. Massoud also set up democratic institutions including political, economic, health and education committees. Massoud signed the Women's Rights Charta in the year 2000. In the area of Massoud women and girls did not have to wear the Afghan burqa. They were allowed to work and to go to school. In at least two known instances Massoud personally intervened against cases of forced marriage.<ref name="Webster University Press Book">{{cite book | last = Marcela Grad| authorlink = Marcela Grad| title = Massoud: An Intimate Portrait of the Legendary Afghan Leader|edition=March 1, 2009 |page=310  | publisher =  Webster University Press| isbn= }}</ref>  While it was Massoud's stated conviction that men and women are equal and should enjoy the same rights, he also had to deal with Afghan traditions which he said would need a generation or more to overcome. In his opinion that could only be achieved through education.<ref name="Webster University Press Book" />

The Taliban repeatedly offered Massoud a position of power to make him stop his resistance. Massoud declined for he did not fight for the sake of power. He explained in one interview: "The Taliban say: “Come and accept the post of prime minister and be with us”, and they would keep the highest office in the country, the presidentship. But for what price?! The difference between us concerns mainly our way of thinking about the very principles of the society and the state. We can not accept their conditions of compromise, or else we would have to give up the principles of modern democracy. We are fundamentally against the system called “the Emirate of Afghanistan”. I would like to return to the question of the emirate in a moment. In fact it is Pakistan that is responsible for deepening the crack between the ethnic groups in Afghanistan. It is again the old method of “divide and rule”. Pakistanis want to make sure that this country will not have any sovereign power for a long time."<ref name="Interview">{{cite web |year=2001|url =http://www.orient.uw.edu.pl/balcerowicz/texts/Ahmad_Shah_Masood_en.htm |title =The Last Interview with Ahmad Shah Massoud | publisher = [[Piotr Balcerowicz]]}}</ref> Massoud, instead, wanted to convince the Taliban to join a political process which would have ensured the holding of democratic elections in a foreseeable future.<ref name="Interview" /> His proposals for peace can be seen [http://www.peace-initiatives.com/frame.htm here: Proposal for Peace, promoted by Commander Massoud]. American journalist Sebastian Junger who frequently travels to war zones stated in March 2001: "They [the Taliban] receive a tremendous amount of support by Pakistan. ... without that involvement by Pakistan the Taliban would really be forced to negotiate ..."<ref name="Charlie Rose" /> Massoud stated in early 2001 that without the support by Pakistan the Taliban would not be able to sustain their military campaign for up to a year.<ref name="EU Parliament">{{cite web |year=2001|url =http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkw-g27AUKE&feature=related |title = Massoud in the European Parliament 2001| publisher = [[EU media]]}}</ref> "The Taliban are not a force to be considered invincible. They are distanced from the people now. They are weaker than in the past. There is only the assistance given by Pakistan, Osama bin Laden and other extremist groups that keep the Taliban on their feet. With a halt to that assistance, it is extremely difficult to survive."<ref name="St. Petersburg Times">{{cite web |year=2002|url =http://www.sptimes.com/2002/09/09/911/The_man_who_would_hav.shtml |title =The man who would have led Afghanistan| publisher = [[St. Petersburg Times]]}}</ref>  He also said: "There should be an Afghanistan where every Afghan finds himself or herself happy. And I think that can only be assured by democracy based on consensus."<ref name="St. Petersburg Times" />
In early 2001 Massoud employed a new strategy of local military pressure and global political appeals.<ref name="Steve Coll: Ghost Wars">{{cite book | last = Steve Coll| authorlink = Steve Coll| title =Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 |edition=February 23, 2004 |page=720| publisher =Penguin Press HC | isbn= }}</ref> His plans were for his allies to seed small revolts around Afghanistan in the areas where the Afghans wanted to rise against the Taliban. Resentment was increasingly gathering against Taliban rule from the bottom of Afghan society including the Pashtun areas.<ref name="Steve Coll: Ghost Wars" /> Massoud would publicize their cause "popular consensus, general elections and democracy" worldwide. Massoud was very wary not to revive the failed Kabul government of the early 1990s.<ref name="Steve Coll: Ghost Wars" />  Instead, already in 1999, he started the training of police forces which he trained specifically in order to keep order and protect the civilian population in case the United Front would be successful.<ref name="Webster University Press Book" />

In 2001 one million people had fled the Taliban, many to the areas of Massoud where they sought protection from the commander. There was a huge humanitarian problem because there was not enough to eat for both the existing population and the refugees. In early 2001 Massoud and a French journalist described the bitter situation of the refugees and asked for humanitarian help in front of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium.<ref name="EU Parliament (2)">{{cite web |year=2001|url =http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1iCsEnXdIw |title = Massoud in the European Parliament 2001| publisher = [[EU media]]}}</ref> [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1iCsEnXdIw see video] Massoud further went on to warn that his intelligence agents had gained limited knowledge about a huge-scale terrorist attack on U.S. soil being imminent.<ref>{{cite web|publisher= [http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/ History Commons]|url=http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a040601massoudspeech#a040601massoudspeech |title=''April 6, 2001: Rebel Leader Warns Europe and US About Large-Scale Imminent Al-Qaeda Attacks''|accessdate=May 17, 2007}}</ref> The president of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, Nicole Fontaine in 2001 called him the "pole of liberty in Afghanistan". [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkw-g27AUKE&feature=PlayList&p=885E368BF20C138F&index=0&playnext=1 see video]

Massoud, then aged 48, was the target of a [[suicide attack]] by two Arab extremists, who are believed to have strong connections to [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]] and [[Osama Bin Laden]], at Khwaja Bahauddin, in [[Takhar Province]] in northeastern Afghanistan on September 9, 2001.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/10/world/taliban-foe-hurt-and-aide-killed-by-bomb.html |title="Taliban Foe Hurt and Aide Killed by Bomb" |location=Afghanistan |publisher=Nytimes.com |date=2001-09-10 |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Burns |first=John F. |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/09/world/threats-responses-assassination-afghans-too-mark-day-disaster-hero-was-lost.html |title="THREATS AND RESPONSES: ASSASSINATION; Afghans, Too, Mark a Day of Disaster: A Hero Was Lost" |location=Afghanistan |publisher=Nytimes.com |date=2002-09-09 |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref> Commander Massoud died in a helicopter that was taking him to a hospital. The funeral, although happening in a rather rural area, was attended by hundreds of thousands of people. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq-zqA1DMWs Sad day] (video clip).
The assassination on September 9, 2001, was not the first time Al Qaeda, the Taliban, the Pakistani ISI and before them the Soviet KGB, the Afghan communist KHAD and Hekmatyar had tried to assassinate Massoud. He survived countless assassination attempts over a period of 26 years. The first attempt on Massoud's life was carried out by Hekmatyar and two Pakistani ISI agents in 1975 when Massoud was only 22 years old.<ref name="Roy Gutman">GUTMAN, Roy (2008): How We Missed the Story: Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban and the Hijacking of Afghanistan, Endowment of the United States Institute of Peace, 1st ed., Washington D.C.</ref> In early 2001 Al Qaeda would-be assassins were captured by Massoud's forces while trying to enter his territory.<ref name="Steve Coll: Ghost Wars" /> The assassination of Massoud is considered to have a strong connection to the [[September 11, 2001 attacks]] on U.S. soil which killed nearly 3000 people and which appeared to be the terrorist attack that Massoud had warned against in his speech to the European Parliament several months earlier. [[John P. O'Neill]] was a counter-terrorism expert and the Assistant Director of the FBI until late 2001. He retired from the FBI and was offered the position of director of security at the World Trade Center (WTC). He took the job at the WTC two weeks before 9/11. On September 10, 2001, John O’Neill told two of his friends, "We're due. And we're due for something big. ... Some things have happened in Afghanistan. [referring to the assassination of Massoud] I don’t like the way things are lining up in Afghanistan. ... I sense a shift, and I think things are going to happen. ... soon."<ref name="PBS">{{cite web |year=2002 |url =http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/etc/script.html|title =The Man Who Knew | publisher = [[PBS]]}}</ref> John O'Neill died on September 11, 2001, when the south tower collapsed.<ref name="PBS" />

For many days the United Front denied the death of Massoud for fear of desperation amongst their people. The United Front managed to hold together, however. The slogan "Now we are all Massoud" became a unifying battle cry. It was Massoud's troops who ousted the Taliban from power in Kabul in 2001 with American air support after the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 on U.S. soil had killed 3000 people. The United Front also played a crucial role in establishing the post-Taliban interim government in late 2001.

==Invasion, exile and resurgence==
{{Main|War in Afghanistan (2001–present)}}

===Prelude===
After the September 11 attacks on the U.S. and the [[PENTTBOM]] investigation, the United States made the following demands<ref>{{cite news|url=http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/20/gen.bush.transcript/ |title=United States ultimatum |publisher=Archives.cnn.com |date= 2001-09-21|accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref> to the Taliban, and refused to discuss them:

<blockquote>
# Deliver to the U.S. all of the leaders of Al Qaeda
# Release all foreign nationals that have been "unjustly imprisoned"
# Protect foreign journalists, diplomats and aid workers
# Close immediately every terrorist training camp
# Hand over every terrorist and their supporters to appropriate authorities
# Give the United States full access to terrorist training camps for inspection
</blockquote>

Over the course of the investigation, the United States petitioned the international community to back a military campaign to overthrow the Taliban. The [[United Nations Security Council]] and NATO approved the campaign as self-defense against armed attack.<ref>
United Nations S.C. Res. 1368, 12 September 2001; S.C. Res. 1373, 2001-09-28.</ref><ref>
Statement by the North Atlantic Council, 12 September 2001, in Press Release 124.</ref>

On September 21, the Taliban responded to the ultimatum, promising that if the United States could bring evidence that bin Laden was guilty, they would [[Extradition|hand him over]], stating that they had no evidence linking him to the [[September 11 attacks]].<ref name="CBS21Oct01"/>

On September 22, the [[United Arab Emirates]], and later [[Saudi Arabia]], withdrew recognition of the Taliban as Afghanistan's legal government, leaving neighbouring Pakistan as the only remaining country with diplomatic ties. On October 4 the Taliban agreed to turn bin Laden over to Pakistan for [[trial]] in an international [[tribunal]]<ref>
[http://www.j-n-v.org/AW_briefings/ARROW_briefing005.htm JNV briefing].</ref> that operated according to Islamic [[Sharia law]], but [[Pakistan]] blocked the offer as it was not possible to guarantee his safety.<ref>
BISHOP, P., [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/10/04/wpak04.xml Pakistan Halts Secret Plan for bin Laden Trial], ''Daily Telegraph'', 2001-10-04.</ref> On October 7, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan offered to detain bin Laden and try him under Islamic law if the United States made a formal request and presented the Taliban with evidence. A Bush administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, rejected the Taliban offer, and stated that the US would not negotiate their demands.<ref>
[http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/10/07/ret.us.taliban/ Taliban offers to try bin Laden in an Islamic court].</ref>

===Coalition attack===
Still on October 7, and less than one month after the towers fell, the United States, aided by the [[United Kingdom]], [[Canada]], and other countries including several from the NATO alliance, initiated [[War in Afghanistan (2001–present)|military action]], bombing Taliban and Al Qaeda-related camps.<ref>
[http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/10/07/gen.america.under.attack/ The United States declares war on the Taliban].</ref><ref>
[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/enduring-freedom.htm Operation Enduring Freedom].</ref> The stated intent of military operations was to remove the Taliban from power and prevent the use of Afghanistan as a [[terrorist]] base of operations.<ref>
[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2001/10/mil-011007-usia01.htm Intentions of U.S. military operation].</ref>

The CIA's elite [[Special Activities Division]] (SAD) units were the first U.S. forces to enter Afghanistan. They joined with the Afghan United Front ([[Northern Alliance]]) to prepare for the subsequent arrival of U.S. Special Operations forces. The United Front (Northern Alliance) with SAD and Special Forces combined to overthrow the Taliban with minimal coalition casualties and without the use of international conventional ground forces. The Washington Post stated in an editorial by John Lehman in 2006:

<blockquote>What made the Afghan campaign a landmark in the U.S. Military's history is that it was prosecuted by Special Operations forces from all the services, along with [[United States Navy|Navy]] and [[United States Air Force|Air Force]] tactical power, operations by the Afghan Northern Alliance and the CIA were equally important and fully integrated. No large [[United States Army|Army]] or [[United States Marine|Marine]] force was employed.<ref>{{
cite news|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/30/AR2006083002730.html|title=We're Not Winning This War|publisher=Washington Post|date=August 31, 2006 |accessdate=2009-12-03 | first=John | last=Lehman}}</ref></blockquote>

On October 14 the Taliban offered to discuss handing over Osama bin Laden to a neutral country in return for a bombing halt, but only if the Taliban were given evidence of bin Laden's involvement.<ref>
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,573975,00.html Taliban offers to hand bin Laden to a neutral nation for trial].</ref> Once again, the U.S. rejected this offer and continued military operations. Mazari Sharif fell November 9, triggering a cascade of provinces falling with minimal resistance. Many local forces switched loyalties from the Taliban to the Northern Alliance. On the night of November 12, the Taliban retreated south from Kabul. On November 15, they released eight Western [[aid worker]]s after [[Attacks on humanitarian workers|three months in captivity]]. By November 13 the Taliban had withdrawn from both [[Kabul]] and [[Jalalabad]]. Finally, in early December, the Taliban gave up Kandahar, their last [[stronghold]], dispersing without surrendering.

===Resurgence===
{{Main|Taliban insurgency}}
[[Image:Taliban bounty flyer.jpg|thumb|right|US [[propaganda]] flyer offering individuals "wealth and power beyond your dreams" and "millions of dollars" for working against the Taliban]]
Before the summer 2006 offensive began, indications existed that [[Canadian]] soldiers in Afghanistan had lost influence and power to other groups, including potentially the Taliban. {{Citation needed|date=July 2010}} A notable sign was [[riot]]ing in May after a street accident in the city of [[Kabul]].<ref>
{{cite web
  | last =
  | first =
  | title = npr: Truck Accident Sparks Riots in Afghanistan
  | url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5437226
  | accessdate = 1 July 2010 }}</ref><ref>
{{Cite news
  | last = Constable
  | first = Pamela
  | title = U.S. troops fired at mob after Kabul accident
  | page = 1
  | newspaper =  Washington Post
  | location = Washington
  | date = 1 June 2006
  | url = http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2006/jun/01/us-troops-fired-at-mob-after-kabul-accident/
  | accessdate = <!-----1 July 2010----->}}</ref>

The continued support from tribal and other groups in Pakistan, the drug trade and the small number of NATO forces, combined with the long history of resistance and isolation, indicated that Taliban forces and leaders were surviving. [[Suicide attack]]s and other terrorist methods not used in 2001 became more common. Observers suggested that poppy eradication, which destroys the livelihoods of rural Afghans, and civilian deaths caused by airstrikes encouraged the resurgence. These observers maintain that policy should focus on "hearts and minds" and on economic reconstruction, which could profit from switching from interdicting to diverting poppy production—to make medicine.<ref>
[http://www.senliscouncil.net/modules/publications/018_publication "Countering the insurgency in Afghanistan, Losing friends and making enemies" The Senlis Council]{{dead link|date=August 2010}}.</ref><ref>
[http://www.senliscouncil.net/modules/events/London_event_on_afghanistan/documents/poppy_medicine_technical_dossier "Poppies for Medicine" The Senlis Council]{{dead link|date=August 2010}}.</ref>

In September 2006, Pakistan recognized the [[Islamic Emirate of Waziristan]], an association of [[Waziristan]]i chieftains with close ties to the Taliban, as the de facto security force for Waziristan. This recognition was part of the agreement to end the [[War in North-West Pakistan|Waziristan War]] which had exacted a heavy toll on the [[Pakistan Army]] since early 2004. Some commentators viewed [[Islamabad]]'s shift from war to diplomacy as implicit recognition of the growing power of the resurgent Taliban relative to American influence, with the US distracted by the threat of looming crises in [[Iraq]], [[Lebanon]], and [[Iran]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}}

Other commentators view [[Islamabad]]'s shift from war to diplomacy to appease growing discontent.<ref>
[http://spaces.brad.ac.uk:8080/display/ssispsru/Home Pakistan Security Research Unit (PSRU)].</ref> Because of the Taliban's leadership structure, Mullah Dadullah's assassination in May 2007 did not have a significant effect, other than to damage incipient relations with Pakistan.<ref>{{
cite news
| title = Pakistan: Hello Al-Qaeda, goodbye America
| first = Syed Saleem
| last = Shahzad
| publisher = Asia Times Online
| url = http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HI08Df03.html
|date= 2006-09-08
| accessdate = 2006-09-12
}}</ref>

By 2009, a strong [[insurgency]] had emerged,<ref>
[http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/t/taliban/index.html?inline=nyt-org taliban. nytimes.com].</ref><ref>
[http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2374331 Empowering “Soft” Taliban Over “Hard” Taliban: Pakistan’s Counter-Terrorism Strategy by Sadia Sulaiman]{{dead link|date=August 2010}}.</ref> in the form of a guerrilla war. The Pashtun [[tribe|tribal group]], with over 40 million members (including Afghanis and Pakistanis) has a [[Pashtun#Pashtuns in the modern era|long history]] of resistance to occupation forces, so the Taliban may comprise only a part of the insurgency. Most post-invasion Taliban fighters are new recruits, mostly drawn from local madrasas.

In early December, the Taliban offered to give the U.S. "legal guarantees" that it would not allow Afghanistan to be used for attacks on other countries. The U.S. ignored the offer, and continued military action.<ref name="atimes.com"/>

==Ideology==
{{Islamism sidebar}}
The Taliban initially enjoyed goodwill from Afghans weary of the warlords' corruption, brutality, and incessant fighting.<ref>
Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim world / editor in chief, Richard C. Martin, Macmillan Reference USA : Thomson/Gale, c2004</ref> However, this popularity was not universal, particularly among non-Pashtuns.

The Taliban's extremely strict and [[antimodernism|anti-modern]] ideology has been described as an "innovative form of [[sharia]] combining Pashtun tribal codes,"<ref name="Muslim World 2004">''Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World,'' (2004).</ref> or [[Pashtunwali]], with radical [[Deobandi]] interpretations of Islam favored by JUI and its splinter groups. Also contributing to the mix was the [[Wahhabism]] of their [[Saudi Arabia|Saudi]] financial benefactors, and the [[jihad]]ism and [[pan-Islamism]] of Osama bin Laden.<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|pp=132, 139}}.</ref> Their ideology was a departure from the [[Islamism]] of the anti-Soviet mujahideen rulers they replaced who tended to be mystical [[Sufism|Sufis]], traditionalists, or radical Islamicists inspired by the [[Muslim Brotherhood]] (Ikhwan).<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=87}}.</ref>

Under the Taliban regime, [[Sharia law]] was interpreted to forbid a wide variety of previously lawful activities in Afghanistan. One Taliban list of prohibitions included:
{{cquote|pork, pig, pig oil, anything made from human hair, satellite dishes, cinematography, and equipment that produces the joy of music, pool tables, chess, masks, alcohol, tapes, computers, VCRs, television, anything that propagates sex and is full of music, wine, lobster, nail polish, firecrackers, statues, sewing catalogs, pictures, Christmas cards.<ref>{{
cite news | last = Waldman | first = Amy | title = No TV, no Chess, No Kites: Taliban's Code, from A to Z | work = New York Times | date = 2001-11-22 | pages = A1, B5 | url = http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/22/world/a-nation-challenged-the-law-no-tv-no-chess-no-kites-taliban-s-code-from-a-to-z.html | accessdate = 2009-09-11}}</ref>}} They also prohibited employment, education and sports for women, dancing, clapping during sports events, kite flying, and depictions of living things, whether drawings, paintings, photographs, stuffed animals, or dolls. Men were required to have a beard longer than a fist placed at the base of the chin. Conversely, they had to wear their head hair short. Men were also required to wear a head covering.<ref name="cr">
[http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/sa/8222.htm US Country Report on Human Rights Practices - Afghanistan 2001].</ref>

Many of these activities were hitherto lawful in Afghanistan. Critics complained that most Afghans were not Pashtuns and followed a different, less strict and less intrusive interpretation of Islam. The Taliban did not eschew all traditional popular practices. For example, they did not destroy the graves of Sufi [[Pir (Sufism)|pirs]] (holy men) and emphasized dreams as a means of revelation.<ref>
Roy, Olivier, ''Globalized Islam'', Columbia University Press, 2004, p. 239.</ref>

{{Wikiquote|religious police}}

Punishment was severe. Theft was punished by the amputation of a hand, rape and murder by public execution, and married adulterers were stoned to death. In Kabul, punishments including executions were carried out in front of crowds in the city's [[National Stadium (Afghanistan)|soccer stadium]].<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=3}}</ref> Rules were issued by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Suppression of Vice (PVSV) and enforced by its "[[religious police]]", importing that Wahhabi concept.

Taliban have been described as both anti-nationalist and Pushtun nationalist. According to journalist [[Ahmed Rashid]], at least in the first years of their rule, they adopted [[Deobandi]] and [[Islamist]] anti-nationalist beliefs and opposed "tribal and feudal structures," eliminating traditional tribal or feudal leaders from leadership roles.<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=92}}.</ref> According to Ali A. Jalali and Lester Grau, the Taliban "received extensive support from Pashtuns across the country who thought that the movement might restore their national dominance. Even Pashtun intellectuals in the West, who differed with the Taliban on many issues, expressed support for the movement on purely ethnic grounds."<ref>
[http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/990306-taliban.htm Foreign Military Studies Office, "Whither the Taliban?" by Mr. Ali A. Jalali and Mr. Lester W. Grau ].</ref>

Like Wahhabi and other Deobandis, the Taliban do not consider [[Shia Islam|Shi{{okina}}i]] to be Muslims. The Taliban also declared the [[Hazara people|Hazara]] ethnic group, which totaled almost 10% of Afghanistan's population, "not Muslims."<ref name = "hrw.org-Niazi">
[http://www.hrw.org/reports98/afghan/Afrepor0-03.htm#P186_38364 Human Rights Watch Report, `Afghanistan, the massacre in Mazar-e-Sharif`, November 1998. INCITEMENT OF VIOLENCE AGAINST HAZARAS BY GOVERNOR NIAZI].</ref>

The Taliban were averse to debating doctrine with other Muslims. "The Taliban did not allow even Muslim reporters to question [their] edicts or to discuss interpretations of the [[Qur'an]]."<ref name="rashid 107">{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=107}}.</ref>

===Treatment of women===
{{Main|Taliban treatment of women}}
[[Image:Talibanbeating.jpg|right|thumb|200px|A member of the Taliban's [[Mutaween#Other groups|religious police]] beating a woman in [[Kabul]] on August 26, 2001. The footage, filmed by the [[Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan]], can be seen here.<ref>http://www.rawa.us/movies/beating.mpg</ref>]]
[[Image:Taliban public execution of Zarmeena 1999.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Public execution of a woman known as Zarmina by the Taliban at the Ghazi Sports Stadium, Kabul, November 16, 1999. The mother of five had been found guilty of killing her husband while he slept, after allegedly being beaten by him.<ref>[http://www.rawa.org/murder-w.htm "Taliban publicly execute woman"], Associated Press, November 17, 1999; also see Antonowicz, Anton. 'Zarmina's story"], ''The Daily Mirror'', June 20, 2002.</ref> The footage can be seen here.<ref>http://www.rawa.us/movies/zarmeena.mpg</ref>]]
Women in particular were targets of the Taliban's restrictions. They were prohibited from working; from wearing "stimulating and attractive" clothing; taking a taxi without the presence of a close male relative; washing clothes in streams; or having their measurements taken by tailors.<ref name="Rashid218">Rashid, Ahmed. ''Taliban''. Yale Nota Bene Books, 2000, p.218–219.</ref>

Employment for women was restricted to the medical sector, because male medical personnel were not allowed to examine them.  One result of the banning of employment of women by the Taliban was the closing down in places like Kabul of primary schools not only for girls but for boys, because almost all the teachers there were women.<ref>Rashid, Ahmed. ''Taliban''. Yale Nota Bene Books, 2000, p.106.</ref> Women were made to wear the [[burqa]], a traditional dress covering the entire body except for a small screen to see out of. Taliban restrictions became more severe after they took control of the capital.  In February 1998, religious police forced all women off the streets of Kabul and issued new regulations ordering people to blacken their windows, so that women would not be visible from the outside.<ref>Rashid, Ahmed. ''Taliban''. Yale Nota Bene Books, 2000, p. 70.</ref>

===Explanation of ideology===
Rashid suggests that the devastation and hardship of the Soviet invasion and the following civil war influenced Taliban ideology.<ref name="rashid 32">{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=32}}.</ref> The madrasas' teachers were often "barely literate," and did not include scholars learned in Islamic law and history. The refugee students, brought up in a totally male society, not only had no education in [[mathematics]], [[science]], [[history]] or [[geography]], but also had no traditional skills of [[farming]], [[herding]], or [[handicraft]]-making, nor even knowledge of their tribal and clan [[lineage]]s.<ref name="rashid 32"/>

In such an environment, war meant employment, peace unemployment. Dominating women simply affirmed manhood. For their leadership rigid fundamentalism was a matter not only of principle, but of political survival. Taliban leaders "repeatedly told" Rashid that "if they gave women greater freedom or a chance to go to school, they would lose the support of their rank and file."<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=111}}.</ref>

===Criticisms===
The Taliban were criticized for their strictness toward those who disobeyed the novel ([[Bid‘ah]]) rules. Some Muslims complained that many had no basis in the [[Qur'an]] or [[sharia]].<ref>
Clapping during sports events, kite flying, beard trimming, or sports for women have been defended.</ref> Another objection was that the Taliban called their 20% tax on truckloads of opium "[[zakat]]", which is traditionally limited to 2.5% of the zakat-payers' disposable income (or wealth).<ref name="rashid 41-42">{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|pp=41–42}}.</ref>

Muhammad Omar's title as [[Amir al-Mu'minin]] was criticized on the grounds that he lacked scholarly learning, tribal pedigree, or connections to the [[Prophet Mohammed|Prophet's]] family. Sanction for the title traditionally required the support of all of the country's [[ulema]], whereas only some 1,200 Pashtun Taliban-supporting Mullahs had declared Omar the Amir. "No Afghan had adopted the title since 1834, when King [[Dost Mohammed Khan]] assumed the title before he declared jihad against the [[Sikh]] kingdom in [[Peshawar]]. But Dost Mohammed was fighting foreigners, while Omar had declared jihad against other Afghans."<ref name="rashid 41-42"/>

==Governance==
Rashid described the Taliban government as "a secret society run by [[Kandahar]]is ... mysterious, secretive, and dictatorial."<ref name="Rashid 2000 98"/> They did not hold elections, as their spokesman explained:

<BLOCKQUOTE> The [[Sharia]] does not allow politics or political parties. That is why we give no salaries to officials or soldiers, just food, clothes, shoes and weapons. We want to live a life like the Prophet lived 1400 years ago and [[jihad]] is our right. We want to recreate the time of the Prophet and we are only carrying out what the Afghan people have wanted for the past 14 years.<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=43}} Interview with Mullah Wakil, March 1996</ref></BLOCKQUOTE>

They modeled their decision making process on the Pashtun tribal council (''[[jirga]]''), together with what they believed to be the early Islamic model. Discussion was followed by a building of a consensus by the "believers".<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=95}}.</ref> Before capturing Kabul, there was talk of stepping aside once a government of "good Muslims" took power and law and order were restored.

As the Taliban's power grew, decisions were made by Mullah Omar without consulting the ''jirga'' and without consulting other parts of the country. He visited the capital, Kabul, only twice while in power. Instead of an election, their leader's legitimacy came from an oath of allegiance ("[[Bay'ah]]") in imitation of the Prophet and the first four [[Caliph]]s. On April 4, 1996, Mullah Omar had "the Cloak of the Prophet Mohammed," taken from its shrine for the first time in 60 years. Wrapping himself in the relic, he appeared on the roof of a building in the center of Kandahar while hundreds of Pashtun mullahs below shouted "[[Amir al-Mu'minin]]!" (Commander of the Faithful), in a pledge of support. Taliban spokesman Mullah Wakil explained:

<BLOCKQUOTE>Decisions are based on the advice of the Amir-ul Momineen. For us consultation is not necessary. We believe that this is in line with the Sharia. We abide by the Amir's view even if he alone takes this view. There will not be a head of state. Instead there will be an Amir al-Mu'minin. Mullah Omar will be the highest authority and the government will not be able to implement any decision to which he does not agree. General elections are incompatible with Sharia and therefore we reject them.<ref>
Interview with Taliban spokesman Mullah Wakil in Arabic magazine ''Al-Majallah'', 1996-10-23.</ref></BLOCKQUOTE>

The Taliban were very reluctant to share power, and since their ranks were overwhelmingly Pashtun they ruled as overlords the 60% of Afghanis from other ethnic groups. In local government, such as Kabul city council<ref name="Rashid 2000 98">{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=98}}.</ref> or Herat,<ref name="rashid 39-40">{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|pp=39–40}}.</ref> Taliban loyalists, not locals, dominated, even when the [[Pashto language|Pashto]]-speaking Taliban could not communicate with the roughly half of the population who spoke [[Dari]] or other non-Pashtun tongues.<ref name="rashid 39-40"/> Critics complained that this "lack of local representation in urban administration made the Taliban appear as an occupying force."<ref name="rashid 101-102"/>

====Organization====
Consistent with the governance of early Muslims was the absence of state institutions or "a methodology for command and control" that is standard today even among non-Westernized states. The Taliban didn't issue press releases, policy statements or hold regular press conferences. The outside world and most Afghans didn't even know what their leaders looked like, since photography was banned.<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=5}}.</ref> The "regular army" resembled a [[lashkar]] or traditional tribal [[militia]] force with only 25,000 to 30,000 men, expanding as the need arose.

[[Cabinet (government)|Cabinet]] ministers and deputies were mullahs with a "[[madrasah]] education." Several of them, such as the Minister of Health and Governor of the State bank, were primarily military commanders who left their administrative posts to fight when needed. Military reverses that trapped them behind lines or led to their deaths increased the chaos in the national administration.<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=100}}.</ref> At the national level, "all senior [[Tājik people|Tajik]], [[Uzbeks|Uzbek]] and [[Hazara people|Hazara]] bureaucrats" were replaced "with Pashtuns, whether qualified or not." Consequently, the ministries "by and large ceased to function."<ref name="rashid 101-102">{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|pp=101–102}}.</ref>

The Ministry of Finance had neither a budget nor "qualified economist or banker." Mullah Omar collected and dispersed cash without book-keeping.

===Conscription===
{{Main|Taliban conscription}}
According to the testimony of [[Guantanamo captive]]s before their [[Combatant Status Review Tribunal]]s, the Taliban, in addition to conscripting men to serve as soldiers, also conscripted men to staff its [[civil service]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2008}}

===Bamyan Buddhas===
In 1999, Omar issued a decree protecting the [[Buddhas of Bamyan|Buddha statues at Bamyan]], because Afghanistan had no [[Buddhism|Buddhists]], implying [[idolatry]] would not be a problem. But in March 2001 they were destroyed following a decree stating, "all the statues around Afghanistan must be destroyed."<ref>{{cite news|author=Luke Harding |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4145138,00.html |title=How the Buddha got his wounds|date=2001-03-03|publisher=Guardian|accessdate=2010-08-27 | location=London}}</ref>

==Economy==
Peace did not bring economic development. The so-called "transportation mafia" operating out of Pakistan "cut down millions of acres of timber in Afghanistan for the Pakistani market, denuding the countryside without attempting reforestation. They stripped rusting factories, ... even electricity and telephone poles for their steel and sold the scrap to steel mills in [[Lahore]]."<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=192}}.</ref>

===Business dealings===
In 1997, the Taliban and [[Unocal]] negotiated arrangements for [[CentGas]] to build a [[Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline|gas pipeline]] from [[Turkmenistan]] to Pakistan.<ref>
BBC, "[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/west_asia/37021.stm Taliban in Texas for talks on gas pipeline]".</ref> Reportedly, a deal was struck but later collapsed,<ref>
BBC, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/west_asia/21007.stm Afghan Pipeline Deal Close]".</ref> rumored to be because of competing negotiations with [[Bridas]], an [[Argentine]] company.<ref>
BBC, "[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/s/w_asia/44521.stm Taliban says it's ready to sign Turkmen pipeline deal]{{dead link|date=August 2010}}".</ref>

===Swat's emerald mines===
The Taliban took over [[emerald]] mines in Pakistan's [[Swat, Pakistan|Swat]] valley (not a tribal area) the once '[[Switzerland]] of Pakistan', a popular [[tourist]] area for skiers. The government did not react to the move. The Taliban reached an agreement with the region's mining labor allowing the Taliban to keep one-third of the miners' output while equally sharing costs. The Taliban does not take part in the mining operations.<ref>
[http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/Dawn%20Content%20Library/dawn/news/pakistan/nwfp/taliban-take-over-swat-emerald-mines--za Taliban take over Swat’s emerald mines] ''[[Dawn Media Group]]'', 2009-03-25.</ref>

===Opium===
{{See also|Opium production in Afghanistan}}

[[Opium poppy|Opium poppies]] are a traditional crop in Afghanistan, and, with the war shattering other sectors of the [[economy]], opium became its largest export.

<blockquote>The Taliban have provided an Islamic sanction for farmers ... to grow even more opium, even though the Koran forbids Muslims from producing or imbibing intoxicants. Abdul Rashid, the head of the Taliban's anti-drugs control force in Kandahar, spelled out the nature of his unique job. He is authorized to impose a strict ban on the growing of [[hashish]], "because it is consumed by Afghans and Muslims." But, Rashid told me without a hint of sarcasm, "Opium is permissible because it is consumed by [[kafir]]s in the West and not by Muslims or Afghans."<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|pp=118–119}}.</ref></blockquote>

In 2000 the Taliban banned opium production, a first{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}} in Afghan history. That year Afghanistan's opium production still accounted for 75% of the world's supply. On July 27, 2000, the Taliban again issued a decree banning cultivation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://opioids.com/ |title=opioids.com |publisher=opioids.com |date= |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref> By February 2001, production had been reduced from {{convert|12600|acre|km2|0}} to only {{convert|17|acres|0|abbr=on}}.<ref name="autogenerated1">
[http://opioids.com/afghanistan/index.html Afghanistan, Opium and the Taliban].</ref> When the Taliban entered North Waziristan in 2003 they immediately banned cultivation and punished those who sold it.{{Citation needed|date=March 2007}}

Another source claims opium production was cut back by the Taliban not to prevent its use but to increase its price, and thus increase the income of Afghan [[poppy]] farmers and tax revenue.<ref>
Benjamin, Daniel, ''The Age of Sacred Terror'' by Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, New York: Random House, c2002, p.145) (source: Edith M. Lederer, "U.N. Panel Accuses Taliban of Selling Drugs to Finance War and Train Terrorists," Associated Press, 2001-05-25.</ref>

The Taliban's top drug official in [[Nangarhar]], Mullah Amir Mohammed Haqqani, said the ban would remain regardless of whether the Taliban received aid or international recognition. "It is our decree that there will be no poppy cultivation. It is banned forever in this country," he said. "Whether we get assistance or not, poppy growing will never be allowed again in our country."<ref name="autogenerated1" />

However, with the 2001 expulsion of the Taliban, opium cultivation returned,<ref>
[http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,605618,00.html Victorious warlords set to open the opium floodgates].</ref> and by 2005 Afghanistan provided 87% of the world supply,<ref>
[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/14/60minutes/main946648.shtml Afghanistan: Addicted To Heroin].</ref> rising to 90% in 2006.<ref>
[http://12.129.147.65/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120101654.html Afghanistan Opium Crop Sets Record]&nbsp;– [[Washington Post]], 2006-12-02.</ref>
<!-- dead link and nonsensical statement in that 2001<2003!
Hashemi also detailed this in his March 2001 lecture in California.<ref>[http://www.robert-fisk.com/taliban_lecture.htm Transcript].</ref>-->

In October 2009 a report, citing only 'American and Afghan officials', appeared in the ''New York Times'' asserting that the Taliban were supporting the opium trade and deriving funding from it,<ref>
[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/world/asia/19taliban.html?_r=1&hp "", by Eric Schmitt, October 18, 2009, [[New York Times]]]</ref> counter to their documented prior banning and elimination of the drug trade in Afghanistan.

==International relations==
During its time in power, the Taliban regime, or "[[Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan]]", gained [[diplomatic recognition]] from only three states: the [[United Arab Emirates]], [[Pakistan]], and [[Saudi Arabia]] all of which also provided aid. Most other states, including [[Russia]], [[Iran]], [[India]], [[Uzbekistan]], [[Kyrgyzstan]], and [[Tajikistan]], and later the [[United States]], opposed the Taliban and aided the Northern Alliance.{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}}

===United Kingdom===
{{Expand section|date=January 2010}}

In 2008, the U.K. announced plans to pay Taliban fighters to switch sides or lay down arms;<ref>{{
cite news| url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/2529278/British-cash-to-buy-off-Taliban-goes-to-farmers.html | work=The Daily Telegraph | location=London | title=British cash to buy off Taliban 'goes to farmers' | first=Nick | last=Meo | date=2008-08-09 | accessdate=2010-04-09}}</ref> later in 2009 the United Kingdom government backed talks with the Taliban.<ref>{{
cite news| url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/feedarticle/8628150 | work=The Guardian | location=London | date=2008-01-23 | accessdate=2010-04-09 | title=UK news}}</ref> In 2010 a British General announced, 'Taliban must join security forces' (Police or Army).<ref>{{
cite news| url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/6924558/Taliban-must-join-security-forces-says-Brit-general.html | work=The Daily Telegraph | location=London | title=Taliban must join security forces, says Brit general | first=Ben | last=Farmer | date=2010-01-03 | accessdate=2010-04-09}}</ref>

===United States===
Foreign powers, including the [[United States]], briefly supported the Taliban, hoping it would restore order in the war-ravaged country. For example, it made no comment when the Taliban captured Herat in 1995 and expelled thousands of girls from schools.<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=177}}.</ref> These hopes faded as the Taliban began killing unarmed civilians, targeting ethnic groups (primarily Hazaras) and restricting the rights of women.<ref name="Muslim World 2004"/> In late 1997, American Secretary of State [[Madeleine Albright]] began to distance the U.S. from the Taliban. The next year the American-based oil company [[Unocal]], withdrew from negotiations on pipeline construction from Central Asia.<ref>{{
cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/west_asia/38115.stm | work=BBC News | title=US pledges support for Afghan oil pipeline if Taliban makes peace | date=1997-12-10 | accessdate=2010-04-09}}</ref>

One day before the capture of Mazar, bin Laden affiliates [[1998 United States embassy bombings|bombed two U.S. embassies]] in Africa, killing 224 and wounding 4,500, mostly Africans. The [[United States]] responded by launching cruise missiles on suspected terrorist camps in Afghanistan, killing over 20 though failing to kill bin Laden or even many Al Qaeda. Mullah Omar condemned the missile attack and American President [[Bill Clinton]].<ref>
Reuters, "Taliban blame Clinton scam for attacks", 1998-08-21.</ref> Saudi Arabia expelled the Taliban envoy in protest over the refusal to turn over bin Laden and after Mullah Omar allegedly insulted the Saudi royal family.<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|pp=138, 231}}.</ref> In mid-October the U.N. [[Security Council]] voted unanimously to ban commercial aircraft flights to and from Afghanistan and freeze its bank accounts worldwide.<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=78}}.</ref>

Adjusting its [[counterinsurgency]] strategy, in October, 2009, the U.S announced plans to pay Taliban fighters to switch sides.<ref>{{
cite news| url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/28/afghanistan.taliban.pay/index.html | work=CNN | title=U.S. set to pay Taliban members to switch sides | accessdate=2010-04-09 | date=2009-10-29}}</ref><!--here-->

On November 26, 2009, in an interview with [[CNN]]'s [[Christiane Amanpour]], President [[Hamid Karzai]] said there is an "urgent need" for negotiations with the Taliban, and made it clear that the Obama administration had opposed such talks. There was no formal American response.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ipsnews.net/text/news.asp?idnews=49701 |title=IPS Inter Press Service |publisher=Ipsnews.net |date= |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2009/12/06/right-after-interviewing-karzai/ | work=CNN | accessdate=2010-04-09 | title=Right after interviewing&nbsp;Karzai}}</ref>

In early December, 2009, the Taliban offered to give the U.S. "legal guarantees" that they would not allow Afghanistan to be used for attacks on other countries. There was no formal American response.<ref name="atimes.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KL17Df02.html |title=Asia Times Online :: South Asia news, business and economy from India and Pakistan |publisher=Atimes.com |date=2009-12-17 |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref>

On December 6, U.S officials indicated that they have not ruled out talks with the Taliban.<ref>{{cite web|last=Homan |first=Timothy R. |url=http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aUO6eLdxBxqo&pos=9 |title=bloomberg.com |publisher=bloomberg.com |date=2009-12-06 |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref> Several days later it was reported that Gates sees potential for reconciliation with the Taliban but not with Al Qaeda. Furthermore he said that reconciliation would politically end the insurgency and the war. But he said reconciliation must be on the Afghan government's terms and that the Taliban must be subject to the sovereignty of the government.<ref>{{cite web|author=Reuters |url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/666993 |title=stuff.co.nz/world/666993 |publisher=Stuff.co.nz |date=2001-09-11 |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref>

In 2010 General McChrystal said his troop surge could lead to a negotiated peace with the Taliban.<ref>{{cite web|author=(AFP) – Jan 24, 2010 |url=http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iKXQC2HwynedmTU1YcjQQFpyPA_g |title=google.com/hostednews/afp/article |publisher=Google.com |date=2010-01-24 |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref>

====Allegations of connection to United States CIA====
There are many claims that the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] directly supported the Taliban or [[Al Qaeda]]. In the early 1980s, the CIA and the ISI (Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency) provided arms and money and the ISI helped gather radical [[Muslim]]s from around the world to fight against the Soviet invaders.<ref name='R000321'>{{
cite news | first=Joseph | last=Fitchett | coauthors= | title=What About the Taliban's Stingers? | date=26 SEPTEMBER 2001 | publisher= | url =http://www.iht.com/articles/2001/09/26/stinger_ed3_.php | work =[[The International Herald Tribune]] | pages = | accessdate = 2008-11-11 | language = }}</ref> [[Osama Bin Laden]] was one of the key players in organizing training camps for the foreign Muslim volunteers. "By 1987, 65,000 tons of U.S.-made weapons and ammunition a year were entering the war."<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000}}</ref> [[FBI]] translator [[Sibel Edmonds]], who was fired from the CIA for disclosing sensitive information, claims that the U.S. was on intimate terms with the Taliban and [[Al-Qaeda]], using them to further U.S. goals in [[Central Asia]].<ref>[http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=102232&sectionid=3510203 ]{{dead link|date=August 2010}}</ref> Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher is quoted as saying, "The Taliban was a construct of the CIA and was armed by the CIA... The Clinton administration, along with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, created the Taliban." <ref>{{cite web|url=http://rupeenews.com/usa/the-taliban-was-a-construct-of-the-cia-and-was-armed-by-the-cia/ |title=The Taliban was a construct of the CIA and was armed by the CIA |publisher=Rupeenews.com |date= |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref>

===India===
[[India]] is one of the Taliban's most outspoken critics. India was concerned about growing Islamic militancy in its neighborhood and refused to recognize the Taliban regime.<ref>
[http://books.google.com/books?id=sOTZqI5zREoC&pg=PA248&dq=india+taliban&client=firefox-a#PPA250,M1 The idea of Pakistan By Stephen P. Cohen].</ref> Ahmad Shah Massoud also had close ties to India.<ref>
[http://www.rawa.org/massoud.htm Massoud joins hands with India].</ref>

In December 1999, [[Indian Airlines Flight 814]] en route from [[Kathmandu]] to [[Delhi]] was hijacked and taken to [[Kandahar]]. The Taliban moved its militias near the hijacked aircraft supposedly to prevent [[Special Forces of India|Indian special forces]] from storming the aircraft and stalled the negotiations between India and the hijackers for days. The ''[[New York Times]]'' later reported that there were credible links between the hijackers and the Taliban.<ref>
[http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/dec/07ter.htm Bombay terrorist reveals links with IC 814 hijackers].</ref> As a part of the deal to free the plane, India released three militants. The Taliban gave a safe passage to the hijackers and the released militants.<ref>
[http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GH30Df01.html India reaches out to Afghanistan].</ref>

Following the hijacking, India drastically increased its efforts to help Massoud, providing an arms depot in [[Dushanbe]], [[Tajikistan]].<ref>
[http://mea.gov.in/opinion/2003/03/07o01.htm India's Afghan policy].</ref> India also provided a wide range of high-altitude warfare equipment, [[helicopter]] technicians, medical services and tactical advice.<ref>[http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jir/jir010315_1_n.shtml India joins anti-Taliban coalition]{{dead link|date=August 2010}}</ref> According to one report, Indian military support to anti-Taliban forces totaled US$70 million, including five [[Mi-17]] helicopters, and US$8 million worth high-altitude equipment in 2001.<ref>
[http://books.google.com/books?id=EqDdfZwSc3EC&pg=PA93&dq=india+hijacking+ahmed+shah+massoud&client=firefox-a India and Pakistan By Duncan Mcleod].</ref>

India has extensively supported the new administration in Afghanistan,<ref>{{cite news
|last=Tharoor
|first=Ishaan
|url=http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1945666,00.html
|title=India, Pakistan and the Battle for Afghanistan
|publisher=Time.com
|date=2009-12-05
|accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref> leading several reconstruction projects<ref>{{cite news
|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7492982.stm
|title=India: Afghanistan's influential ally
|publisher=BBC News
|date=2009-10-08
|accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref> and by 2001 had emerged as the country's largest regional donor.<ref>{{cite web
|last=Bajoria
|first=Jayshree
|url=http://www.cfr.org/publication/17474/indiaafghanistan_relations.html
|title=India-Afghanistan Relations
|publisher=[[Council on Foreign Relations]]
|date=2009-07-22
|accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref>

===Iran===
In early August 1998, relations with other countries became much more troubled. After attacking the city of Mazar, Taliban forces killed several thousand civilians and 10 Iranian diplomats and intelligence officers in the Iranian consulate. Alleged radio intercepts indicate Mullah Omar personally approved the killings.<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|pp=74–75}}.</ref> The Iranian government was incensed and crisis ensued as Iran mobilized 200,000 regular troops,<ref>
[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/1998/09/wwwh8915.html IRANIAN-AFGHAN TENSIONS].</ref> although war was eventually averted.

===Palestine===
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for a 3 September 2010 deadly suicide bomber attack against a pro-Palestine rally in Pakistan.<ref>[http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/09/03/pakistan.violence/?hpt=Sbin#fbid=UmPw3wDi82F&wom=false Death toll from Pakistan suicide bombing rises to 73]</ref>

===Pakistan===
{{Main|War in North-West Pakistan|Quetta Shura}}

The "vast majority" of the Taliban's rank and file and most of the leadership, (though not Mullah Omar), were Koranic students who had studied at madrasas set up for [[Afghan refugees]], usually by JUI. [[Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman]], JUI's leader, was a political ally of [[Benazir Bhutto]]. After Bhutto became prime minister, Rehman "had access to the government, the army and the ISI," whom he influenced to help the Taliban.<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=26}}.</ref>

====Support by ISI====
The Soviet withdrawal in 1989 created a power vacuum. Afghanistan was torn apart by warring [[mujahideen]] groups. Pakistan's [[Inter-Services Intelligence|ISI]] supported a previously unknown Kandahari student movement.<ref name="telegraphgodfathers">{{
cite news
 | title = Pakistan's godfathers of the Taliban hold the key to the hunt for Bin Laden
 | url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/1341405/Pakistans-godfathers-of-the-Taliban-hold-the-key-to-hunt-for-bin-Laden.html
 | author = Julian West
 | publisher = Daily Telegraph
 | date = 23 Sep 2001
| location=London}}</ref>
They continued to support the Taliban, as the group conquered Afghanistan in the 1990s.<ref name="nytinterview">{{
cite news
 | title = Former Pakistani officer embodies policy puzzle
 | author = Carlotta Gall
 | date = 3 March 2010
 | publisher = New York Times
 | url = http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/world/asia/04imam.html}}</ref>

From 1994 through 2001, Pakistan was the Taliban's main sponsor. It provided military equipment, recruiting assistance, training and tactical advice that enabled the band of village mullahs and their adherents to control the country.<ref>{{
Harvnb|Frantz|2001}}</ref> Officially Pakistan denied supporting the group, but its 1998 aid was an estimated US$30 million in [[wheat]], [[diesel fuel|diesel]], [[petroleum]] and [[kerosene]] fuel, and other supplies, amounting to approximately $1 per capita.<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|1998|pp=83–84}}</ref><ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=183}}</ref> Conversely, the Taliban's "unprecedented access" among Pakistan's lobbies and interest groups enabled it to "play off one lobby against another and extend their influence in Pakistan even further. At times they would defy" even the powerful ISI.<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|pp=185–186}}</ref>

From 2010, a report by a leading British institution claims that Pakistan's intelligence service has a direct link with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Published on the London School of Economics, the report said that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) has an "official policy" of support for the Taliban.
It claims the ISI provides funding and training for the Taliban, and that the agency has representatives on the so-called Quetta Shura, the Taliban's leadership council, which is believed to meet in Pakistan.
The report is based on interviews with Taliban commanders in Afghanistan, and was written by Matt Waldman, a fellow at Harvard University.<ref>http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Documents/2010/6/13/20106138531279734lse-isi-taliban.pdf</ref>

US officials have long suspected a link between the ISI and the Taliban, but those suspicions are rarely confirmed.
"Pakistan appears to be playing a double-game of astonishing magnitude," the report said.
The report also links high-level members of the Pakistani government with the Taliban.
It claims Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani president, met with senior Taliban prisoners earlier this year and promised to release them. Zardari reportedly told the detainees they were only arrested because of American pressure.
"The Pakistan government's apparent duplicity - and awareness of it among the American public and political establishment - could have enormous geopolitical implications," Waldman said.
"Without a change in Pakistani behaviour it will be difficult if not impossible for international forces and the Afghan government to make progress against the insurgency."
Afghan officials have long been suspicious of the ISI's role.
Amrullah Saleh, the former director of Afghanistan's intelligence service, told Reuters<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6571VE20100608 | title=Afghan ex-intel chief opposed Karzai peace plan | date=2010-06-08 | work=Reuters}}</ref> that the ISI was "part of a landscape of destruction in this country".

====Taliban presence====
{{Main|Islamic Emirate of Waziristan}}
{{See also|War in North-West Pakistan|Wana conflict}}

The Taliban created a new form of Islamic radicalism that spread beyond the borders of Afghanistan, mostly to Pakistan. By 1998–1999 Taliban-style groups in the Pashtun belt, and to an extent in [[Pakistan-administered Kashmir]], "were banning TV and videos ... and forcing people, particularly women to adapt to the Taliban dress code and way of life."<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|pp=93, 137}}.</ref>

As of early 2007, Taliban influence in Pakistan continued in conjunction with the [[Taliban insurgency]]. Citing a restaurant suicide bombing in [[Peshawar]] in retaliation for the arrest of a relative of [[Mullah Dadullah]], the [[Associated Press]] states "... in Pakistan's frontier regions, ... scores of people have been executed over the past two or three years apparently for being too aligned with the Pakistani government or American—allies in the U.S.-led war on terrorism."<ref>
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Published: 2007-05-15, "Suicide Bombing Kills at Least 25 in Pakistan".</ref>

The formation of a Pakistan Taliban umbrella group called [[Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan]] was announced in December 2007.<ref>
Abbas, Hassan. "[http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/17868/profile_of_tehrikitaliban_pakistan.html A Profile of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan]". ''CTC Sentinel'' 1 (2): 1–4. January 2008.</ref>

On February 8, 2009, U.S. commander of operations in Afghanistan General [[Stanley McChrystal]] and other officials said that the Taliban leadership was in [[Quetta]], although the Pakistan government denied this.<ref name="nyt20090209" /><ref name="nyt20090924" /> However the U.S. praised Pakistan military effort against the Taliban.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2009/11/18/US-praises-Pakistani-military-efforts/UPI-87491258576112/ |title=upi.com/Top_News/Special/2009/11/18/US-praises-Pakistani-military-efforts |publisher=Upi.com |date=2009-11-18 |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref> Furthermore the [[White house]] hailed the capture of Taliban No.2 leader [[Abdul Ghani Baradar]] in Pakistan, claiming a "big success for our mutual efforts (Pakistan and United States) in the region".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1710745920100217 |title=reuters.com/article |publisher=reuters.com/article |date= 2010-02-17|accessdate=2010-08-27 | first=Steve | last=Holland}}</ref>

On February 16, 2009, [[Pakistan]]i President [[Asif Ali Zardari]] signed a deal with the Taliban to implement [[Shariah]] law in some parts of [[Pakistan]], including banning girls from school.<ref>{{
cite news|first=Zein |last=Basravi
|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/02/16/pakistan.taliban.sharia.law/index.html |title=Pakistani government does deal with Taliban on sharia law - CNN.com |publisher=CNN |date= 2009-02-18|accessdate=2009-11-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=February 16, 2009 |url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJw7EQ9VYp4 |title=Taliban killing dreams of schoolgirls in Pak |publisher=[[YouTube]] |accessdate=2009-11-26}}</ref> On April 13, 2009, Zardari [[Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009|signed into law]] a peace deal for the Swat Valley, including sharia.<ref>{{
cite news|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/04/13/pakistan.swat/index.html |title=Pakistan deal enshrines sharia law - CNN.com |publisher=CNN |date=2009-04-13 |accessdate=2009-11-26}}</ref>

On June 30, 2009, the Taliban withdrew from the peace deal to protest the continuing airstrikes by [[United States|American]] [[Drone attack|drones]]. Soon after the announcement, approximately 150 militants attacked a [[Pakistan]]i [[military]] [[convoy]] near Miramshah, killing an estimated 30 soldiers. An additional 4 were killed in southwestern Pakistan by a car bomber who targeted NATO supply trucks.<ref name="NYTimes">{{
cite news|title=Pakistan Militant Group Scraps Truce|author=Salman Masood|date=June 30, 2009|accessdate=June 30, 2009|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/world/asia/01pstan.html?hp|publisher=The [[New York Times]]}}</ref> {{quote|Guerrilla attacks will be launched against the Pakistani military unless drone attacks are stopped and government troops are pulled out of North Waziristan. We will attack forces everywhere in [[Waziristan]] unless the government fulfills these two demands.|Ahmadullah Ahmadi, spokesperson for Pakistani Taliban faction|[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/world/asia/01pstan.html?hp ''New York Times'']}}

The Pakistani government is also concerned that these attacks could indicate preparation for a full-on assault.<ref name="ChristSci">{{cite web|title=Pakistani militants in North Warizistan abandon peace deal|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0630/p99s01-duts.html|date=June 30, 2009|accessdate=June 30, 2009|author=Hama Yusuf|publisher=[[Christian Science Monitor]]}}{{dead link|date=August 2010}}</ref> The government's plan to transport supplies through that region are complicated by the danger of guerilla attacks.<ref name="TheNews">{{cite web|title=Army facing tough choice after NWA ambush|url=http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=23011 |author=Rahimullah Yusufzai |date=2009-06-30 |accessdate=2009-06-20 |publisher=The News}} {{Dead link|date=September 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref> The government remains vulnerable to attacks on multiple fronts, and the North Waziristan faction of the Taliban has given no indication of accepting a compromise.<ref name="WashPost">{{
cite news |title=Deadly Ambush Could Indicate Threat to Pakistan's Army |author=Joshua Partlow |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/29/AR2009062904241.html |date=2009-06-30 |accessdate=2009-06-30 |publisher=The [[Washington Post]]}}</ref> Pakistani leaders are concerned that Bahadur was not the only one planning to carry out attacks.<ref name="WashPost"/>

===United Nations and aid agencies===
A major issue during the Taliban's reign was its relations with the [[United Nations]] (UN) and [[non-governmental organization]]s (NGOs). Twenty years of continuous warfare had devastated Afghanistan's [[infrastructure]] and economy. There was no running water, little electricity, few telephones, functioning roads or regular energy supplies. Basic necessities like water, food, housing and others were in desperately short supply. In addition, the [[clan]] and family structure that provided Afghans with a social/economic safety net was also badly damaged.<ref name="rashid 107"/><ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=126}}.</ref> Afghanistan's infant mortality was the highest in the world. A full quarter of all children died before they reached their fifth birthday, a rate several times higher than most other developing countries.<ref>
UNCP Country Development Indicators, 1995.</ref>

International charitable and/or development organisations ([[NGO]]s) were extremely important to the supply of food, employment, reconstruction, and other services. With one million plus deaths during the years of war, the number of families headed by widows had reached 98,000 by 1998.<ref>
[http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2005.00141.x?cookieSet=1&journalCode=hico quoting the ICRC].</ref> Thus Taliban restrictions on women were sometime a matter not only of [[human rights]], but of life and death. In Kabul, where vast portions of the city had been devastated from rocket attacks, more than half of its 1.2 million people benefited in some way from NGO activities, even for water to drink.<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=72}}.</ref> The civil war and its never-ending refugee stream continued throughout the Taliban's reign. The Mazar, Herat, and Shomali valley offensives displaced more than three-quarters of a million civilians, using "[[scorched earth]]" tactics to prevent them from supplying the enemy with aid.<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|pp=64, 78}}.</ref>

Despite the aid, the Taliban's attitude toward the UN and NGOs was often one of suspicion, in place of gratitude or even tolerance. The UN operates on the basis of [[international law]], not [[Sharia]], and the UN did not recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. Additionally, most foreign donors and aid workers, were non-Muslims. As the Taliban's Attorney General Maulvi Jalil-ullah Maulvizada put it:

<BLOCKQUOTE>Let us state what sort of education the UN wants. This is a big infidel policy which gives such obscene freedom to women which would lead to [[adultery]] and herald the destruction of Islam. In any Islamic country where adultery becomes common, that country is destroyed and enters the domination of the infidels because their men become like women and women cannot defend themselves. Anyone who talks to us should do so within Islam's framework. The Holy Koran cannot adjust itself to other people's requirements, people should adjust themselves to the requirements of the Holy Koran.<ref>
Maulvi Jalil-ullah Maulvizada, June 1997 interview with Ahmed Rashid; {{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|pp=111–112}}.</ref></BLOCKQUOTE>

Taliban decision-makers, particularly Mullah Omar, seldom if ever talked directly to non-Muslim foreigners, so aid providers had to deal with intermediaries whose approvals and agreements were often reversed.<ref name="rashid 101-102"/> Around September 1997 the heads of three UN agencies in Kandahar were expelled from the country after protesting when a female [[lawyer|attorney]] for the [[UN High Commissioner for Refugees]] was forced to talk from behind a curtain so her face would not be visible.<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=65}}.</ref>

When the UN increased the number of Muslim women staff to satisfy Taliban demands, the Taliban then required all female Muslim UN staff traveling to Afghanistan to be chaperoned by a [[mahram]] or a blood relative.<ref name=taliban71>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=71}}.</ref> In July 1998, the Taliban closed "all NGO offices" by force after those organizations refused to move to a bombed-out former [[Polytechnic]] College as ordered.<ref>
[http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/317/7155/369/a Aid agencies pull out of Kabul] The building had neither electricity or running water.</ref> One month later the UN offices were also shut down.<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|pp=71–72}}.</ref> As food prices rose and conditions deteriorated, Planning Minister Qari Din Mohammed explained the Taliban's indifference to the loss of humanitarian aid:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
We Muslims believe God the Almighty will feed everybody one way or another. If the foreign NGOs leave then it is their decision. We have not expelled them.<ref>
[[Agence France-Presse]], "Taliban reject warnings of aid pull-out", 1998-07-16.</ref></BLOCKQUOTE>

In 2009 a top U.N official called for talks with Taliban leaders.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sify.com/news/un-official-calls-for-talks-with-taliban-leaders-news-international-jicuarhgaeb.html |title=sify.com/news/un-official-calls-for-talks-with-taliban-leaders-news-international-jicuarhgaeb.html |publisher=Sify.com |date= |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref> In 2010 the U.N lifted sanctions on the Taliban,<ref>{{
cite news| url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/7067537/UN-lift-sanctions-on-Taliban-to-build-peace-in-Afghanistan.html | work=The Daily Telegraph | location=London | title=UN: lift sanctions on Taliban to build peace in Afghanistan | first=Ben | last=Farmer | date=2010-01-25 | accessdate=2010-04-09}}</ref> and requested that Taliban leaders and others be removed from terrorism watch lists.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/01/25/UN-Reduce-Taliban-names-on-terror-list/UPI-69591264400185/ |title=upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/01/25/UN-Reduce-Taliban-names-on-terror-list |publisher=Upi.com |date=2010-01-25 |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref> In 2010 the U.S. and Europe announced support for President Karzai's latest attempt to negotiate peace with the Taliban.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/01/2010125185642602982.html |title=english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/01 |publisher=English.aljazeera.net |date=2010-01-26 |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref>

===Osama bin Laden===
In 1996, bin Laden moved to Afghanistan from [[Sudan]]. He came without invitation, and sometimes irritated Mullah Omar with his declaration of war and fatwas against citizens of third-party countries,<ref>{{
Harvnb|Wright|2006|pp=246–247, 287–288}}.</ref> but relations between the two groups improved over time, to the point that Mullah Omar rebuffed his group's patron Saudi Arabia, insulting Saudi minister [[Turki bin Faisal Al Saud|Prince Turki]] while reneging on an earlier promise to turn bin Laden over to the Saudis.<ref>{{
Harvnb|Wright|2006|pp=288–289}}.</ref>

Bin Laden was able to forge an [[Military alliance|alliance]] between the Taliban and [[Al-Qaeda]]. The Al Qaeda-trained [[055 Brigade]] integrated with the Taliban army between 1997 and 2001. Several hundred Arab Afghan fighters sent by bin Laden assisted the Taliban in the Mazar-e-Sharif slaughter.<ref>{{
Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=139}}.</ref>

Taliban-Al Qaeda connections were also strengthened by the reported marriage of one of bin Laden's sons to Omar's daughter. While in Afghanistan, bin Laden may have helped finance the Taliban.<ref>
[http://www.lebarmy.gov.lb/article.asp?ln=en&id=1328 International Terrorism And the Case Of Usama bin Laden], Lebanese Army Website.</ref><ref>
However, [[Lawrence Wright]] claims bin Laden was almost completely broke at this time, cut off from his family income and fleeced by the Sudanese.{{
Harvnb|Wright|2006|pp=222–223}}.</ref> Perhaps the biggest favor Al-Qaeda did for the Taliban was the Massoud assassination.<ref name="wright 337">{{
Harvnb|Wright|2006|p=337}}.</ref> This came at a time when Taliban human rights violations and extremism were creating international support for Massoud's group.<ref name="wright 337"/> The killing, reportedly arranged by [[Ayman Zawahiri]] and the Al Qaeda's [[Egyptian Islamic Jihad]] wing, left the Northern Alliance leaderless, and removed "the last obstacle to the Taliban’s total control of the country ..."<ref>{{
Harvnb|Wright|2006|p=355}}.</ref>

After the [[1998 United States embassy bombings|1998 U.S. embassy bombings]] in [[Africa]], [[FBI Most Wanted Terrorists#Osama bin Laden|Osama bin Laden]] and several Al-Qaeda members were indicted in U.S. criminal court.<ref>
[http://fl1.findlaw.com/news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/binladen/usbinladen1.pdf PDF of indictments].</ref> The Taliban rejected [[extradition]] requests by the U.S., variously claiming that bin Laden had "gone missing",<ref>
[http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/meast/9902/13/afghan.binladen.02/index.html CNN report].</ref> or that Washington "cannot provide any [[evidence]] or any proof" that bin Laden is involved in [[terrorist]] activities and that "without any evidence, bin Laden is a man without sin... he is a free man."<ref name="CBS21Oct01">{{
cite news|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/09/11/world/main310852.shtml|title=Taliban Won't Turn Over Bin Laden|publisher=[[CBS News]]|date=2001-09-21|accessdate=2007-07-07}}</ref><ref>
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/217947.stm BBC article stating that bin Laden in "a man without sin"].</ref>

Evidence against bin Laden included courtroom [[testimony]] and [[satellite phone]] records.<ref>
[http://archives.cnn.com/2001/LAW/02/14/embassy.bombing.02/index.html CNN records of evidence against bin Laden].</ref><ref>
[http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=osama_bin_laden Cooperative Research records of evidence against bin Laden].</ref> Bin Laden in turn, praised the Taliban as the "only Islamic government" in existence, and lauded Mullah Omar for his destruction of idols like the [[Buddhas of Bamyan]].<ref>
Bin Laden, ''Messages to the World,'' (2006), p.143, from Interview published in ''Al-Quds Al-Arabi'' in London, Nov. 12, 2001 (originally published in Pakistani daily, ''Ausaf,'' Nov. 7), shortly before the Northern Alliance entry into Kabul.</ref>

At the end of 2008, the Taliban was in talks to sever all ties with Al Qaeda.<ref>{{
cite news| url=http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/10/06/afghan.saudi.talks/?iref=mpstoryview | work=CNN | title=Sources: Taliban split with al Qaeda, seek peace | accessdate=2010-04-09}}</ref>

===Human rights violations===
According to [[Human Rights Watch]], the Taliban's bombings and other attacks which have led to civilian casualties "sharply escalated in 2006" when "at least 669 Afghan civilians were killed in at least 350 armed attacks, most of which appear to have been intentionally launched at non-combatants."<ref>
[http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/04/16/afghan15688.htm Human Rights News, Afghanistan: Civilians Bear Cost of Escalating Insurgent Attacks].</ref><ref>
[http://www.hrw.org/reports/2007/afghanistan0407/ The Consequences of Insurgent Attacks in Afghanistan], April 2007, Volume 19, No. 6(C).</ref> By 2008 the Taliban had increased its use of suicide bombers and targeted unarmed civilian aid workers such as [[Gayle Williams]].<ref>{{
cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7679212.stm |title=South Asia &#124; UK charity worker killed in Kabul |publisher=BBC News |date=2008-10-20 |accessdate=2009-11-26}}</ref> The United Nations reports that the number of civilians killed by both the Taliban and pro-government forces in the war rose nearly 50% between 2007 and 2009. In the first six months of 2009 the Taliban killed 595 civilians, and NATO and Afghan government forces killed 309. In the first half of 2008, the Taliban killed 495 civilians and the allies 276.<ref name="Arnoldy">
[http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0731/p06s15-wosc.html In Afghanistan, Taliban kills more civilians than US], 2009-07-31, Ben Arnoldy</ref><ref>
[http://unama.unmissions.org/Portals/UNAMA/human%20rights/09july31-UNAMA-HUMAN-RIGHTS-CIVILIAN-CASUALTIES-Mid-Year-2009-Bulletin.pdf UNAMA Mid-year Bulletin on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict].</ref> The high number of civilians killed by the Taliban is blamed in part on their increasing use of [[improvised explosive device]]s (IEDs), "for instance, 16 IEDs have been planted in girls' schools" by the Taliban.<ref name="Arnoldy"/>

==See also==
{{Portalbox|Afghanistan|Islam}}
* [[Inter-Services Intelligence]]
* [[Al-Qaeda]]
* [[Taliban treatment of women]]
* [[Colonel Imam]]
* [[Talibanization]]
* [[Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan]]
* [[Deobandi]]
* [[Pashtun people]]
* [[History of Afghanistan since 1992]]
* [[United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan|Northern Alliance]]
* [[Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs]]
* [[United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime]]
* [[Opium production in Afghanistan]]
* [[Quetta Shura]]
* [[Special Activities Division]]
* [[US Army Special Forces]]
{{-}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|colwidth=20em}}

==Bibliography==
{{Refbegin}}
*{{cite news
| last = Frantz
| first = Douglas
| title = A Nation Challenged: Pakistan ended aid to Taliban only hesitantly
| work = The New York Times
| date = 2001-12-08
| pages = A1, B4
| url = http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/08/world/nation-challenged-supplying-taliban-pakistan-ended-aid-taliban-only-hesitantly.html | accessdate = 2009-09-11
|ref=CITEREFFrantz2001
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Goodson
| first = Larry
| title = Afghanistan's Endless War: State Failure, Regional Politics, and the Rise of the Taliban
| publisher = University of Washington Press
| year = 2001
| location = Seattle
| isbn = 0295980508
|ref=CITEREFGoodson2001
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Matinuddin
| first = Kamal
| title = The Taliban Phenomenon: Afghanistan 1994-1997
| publisher = Oxford University Press
| year = 1999
| location = Oxford
| isbn = 0195792742
|ref=CITEREFKamal1999
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Peters
| first = Gretchen
| authorlink = Gretchen Peters
| title = Seeds of Terror: How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and Al-Qaeda
| publisher = Thomas Dunne Books
| year = 2009
| location = New York
| isbn = 9780312379278
|ref=CITEREFPeters2009
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Rashid
| first = Ahmed
| authorlink = Ahmed Rashid
| contribution = Pakistan and the Taliban
| title = Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban
| editor-last = Maley
| editor-first = William
| pages = 72–89
| publisher = C. Hurst & Co.
| year = 1998
| location = London
| isbn = 1850653607
|ref=CITEREFRashid1998
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Rashid
| first = Ahmed
| authorlink = Ahmed Rashid
| title = [[Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia|Taliban]]
| publisher = Yale University Press
| year = 2000
| edition = 1st Pan
| location = New Haven
| isbn = 0-300-08340-8
|ref=CITEREFRashid2000
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Wright
| first = Lawrence
| authorlink = Lawrence Wright
| title = [[The Looming Tower|The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11]]
| publisher = Knopf
| year = 2006
| location =
| isbn = 037541486X
|ref=CITEREFWright2006
}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary}}
*[http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/world/04-alternative-discourse-qs-03 Alternative discourse: A review of the former Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan's autobiography] by [[Qurat ul ain Siddiqui]]
*[http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e2325?_hi=14&_pos=4 Taliban in Oxford Islamic Studies Online]
*[http://www.alemarah.info/english/ Taliban's website (English)] [http://www.slate.com/id/2231637 How Do I Get in Touch With a Terrorist] Slate. October 2009
*[http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid271557392/bctid1151557602 The Taliban's Secret Photos]
*[http://opioids.com/afghanistan/index.html Future Opioids: Afghanistan, Opium and the Taliban]
*[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB97/index.htm The National Security Archive&nbsp;– The September 11th Sourcebooks] Volume VII: The Taliban File September 2003
*[http://www.momentmag.com/Exclusive/2007/2007-04/200704-Taliban.html "Is One of the Lost Tribes the Taliban?"]&nbsp;– from ''Moment Magazine'' (April 2007)
*[http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009%5C06%5C20%5Cstory_20-6-2009_pg3_5 The Taliban Diaries] by [[Shaukat Qadir]], ''Daily Times'', 2009-06-20

;Criticism of ideology
*[http://islamfortoday.com/taleban8.htm Islam For Today: Afghanistan's Taliban: Not a valid interpretation of Islam]

;Insurgency
*[http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/news/specials/ Battling Taliban: Where Does It Stop?] ongoing coverage from ''[[Dawn (newspaper)|Dawn]]'' in Pakistan
*[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/taliban/ Return Of The Taliban] from [[PBS]] ''[[Frontline]]'', October 2006
*[http://icosgroup.net/modules/reports/struggle_for_kabul Struggle for Kabul: The Taliban Advance] from the [[The International Council on Security and Development (ICOS)|ICOS]], December 8, 2008
*[http://projects.nytimes.com/held-by-the-taliban/#part-1 Held by The Taliban: A Reporting Trip Becomes a Kidnapping] from ''[[The New York Times]]'', 2008–2009
{{Taliban}}
{{Islamism}}
{{Political parties in Afghanistan}}
{{War on Terrorism}}

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