The Bomb, the Bank, the Mullah and the Poppies A Tale of Deception by Iqbal Chand Malhotra

Author:Iqbal Chand Malhotra
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing India Pvt. Ltd.
Published: 2023-08-19T00:00:00+00:00

11

The Bomb Is Born by Caesarean

1997–1999

Within weeks of the start of President Bill Clinton’s second term in January 1997, Nawaz Sharif also returned to power in Pakistan on 4 February 1997. But the people of Pakistan had grown tired of the military’s version of democracy and largely abstained from voting. Sharif immediately revoked the 8th Amendment to Pakistan’s Constitution, ridding himself of the threat of dismissal by President Leghari. He planned to take on all the contestants who would challenge him and merrily set off on a collision course with both the US and his own army.

In February 1997, the Taliban’s move into Ghorband Valley, which lies adjacent to Massoud’s stronghold of Panjshir Valley, came after local commanders switched sides. This weakened Massoud and the Shia forces of Hizb-e-Wahdat located near the Shiber Pass. In their push through Chorband Valley a month later, the Taliban were able to split the Hizb-e-Wahdat by getting two key commanders to defect, allowing it an open route towards Mazar-e-Sharif. These two key commanders had belonged to a faction of the Hizb-e-Wahdat led by Haji Diljo, with whom the Taliban had nearly clinched an accord in July 1997 in Maidan Shahar. Azizullah and Ghafoor, two commanders from Ghorband Valley who belonged to Massoud, defected during the same period, weakening the Northern Alliance.

The father-and-son Noorzai duo, who derived their strength from a dominant position in Afghanistan’s lucrative poppy trade, were not the only benefactors of the Taliban for long. The Taliban conquered district after district in Kandahar, soon attracting other tribal chiefs with opium trade ties. As their reputation for providing security in the war-torn Afghan countryside spread, so did their ability to capture towns without a shot. In many communities, they were welcomed as protectors. In areas where the new movement’s moral and religious standing failed to carry the day, generous disbursements of cash usually succeeded.1

The ISI handed out bribes to regional strongmen as their fighters advanced through Kabul. Several key tribes joined the movement simply because Mullah Omar made deals not to crack down on poppy, according to a November 1996 DEA document.2 Supporting the poppy trade not only secured the Taliban financial backing, but it also won them political support from the tribes and the general public, particularly in regions where there were few other viable professions. In 1997, heroin-processing refineries continued to operate without interference in areas directly under Taliban control in Kandahar, Helmand and Nimroz despite an earlier Taliban decree outlawing the processing of heroin. In 1997, an Australian Federal Police liaison officer in Islamabad found that the Taliban issued official government licences permitting the cultivation of poppy and the production of opium, an indication the Taliban attempted to regulate the industry3 and milk it as well. According to numerous farmers in southern Afghanistan, a year prior to the Australian Federal Police findings, the Taliban distributed fertiliser to help enhance the poppy crop and increase its opium output. The Taliban collected tax on the cultivation of poppy and also on the

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