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Where Are the Taliban Now?

Thousands of Mullah Omar's former foot soldiers have melted back into Afghan society.
Some are angry; many are poor.
Are they still a danger?

Issue: September 30, 2002 / VOL. 160 NO. 12
By Phil Zabriskie
TIME Asia

In Tirin Kot, many ex-Talibs are back among their neighbors without much controversy.
Image Credit: Steve Connors -- TIME.

Ideology -- that is, the strict fundamentalism practiced by the Taliban -- is still a motivation for some of the ex-Talibs. Afghan officials say that the man who tried to kill Karzai three weeks ago by firing on his car in Kandahar was a Taliban soldier who had been released from the Sheberghan prison camp two months earlier. According to some reports, the man changed his name from Abdul Razaq to Abdul Rahman in order to get hired as a compound guard for the Kandahar governor, who was with Karzai when Rahman struck. Government authorities suspect Rahman, 22, who was shot dead by U.S. special forces guarding Karzai, was part of a larger Taliban conspiracy, and are holding his entire guard unit while they search for concrete proof. Neighbors in his native Helmand province say the young man appeared unhinged when he returned from Sheberghan.

TIRIN KOT -- TIME
It is early morning, and a group of men are squatting on stones by the trickle of a river that runs through Tanali, a village outside Tirin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan province in south-central Afghanistan. Some wear turbans; some do not. A few have long beards; others a few days' growth or none at all. The differences are trivial, though, given what unifies them. This village is their home. And, says Mullah Muramza, a slight, young man gently cradling a small bird in his hands: "Everyone here was with the Taliban."

Muramza, 24, fought the Northern Alliance in and around Kabul. Asked who his commander was, he points to a heavy-breathing bear of a man, who angrily responds, "Why did you tell them that?" Several Tanali men are being held at Sheberghan prison in the north, and several more died in the fighting in Mazar-i-Sharif. One who made it home is Nurzai, 24, who straggles by, carrying a blanket full of long grass over his shoulder, food for the sheep he tends. He says he was captured in Kunduz and, like thousands of other prisoners, stuffed into a shipping container and ferried to Sheberghan by troops loyal to warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum. Hundreds died in the heat inside those metal boxes. Shown pictures of the prisoners, Nurzai names three he recognizes. "I was an innocent," he says, claiming he had been conscripted into the Taliban army months earlier. But moments later he admits he volunteered for service four years ago.

To date, the story of the war in Afghanistan has focused on the ones who got away, chief among them Osama bin Laden, Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and, according to an Afghan intelligence official, "99% of the hard-core leadership" of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. But if Tirin Kot is any indication, most of the Taliban rank and file are not in hiding. They are back in their hometowns, farming, opening shops in the bazaar or just looking for work. The intelligence official estimates there "could be as many as 10,000, maybe more." Where? "Man, just look around you," says Steve, a member of the U.S. special forces stationed in Tirin Kot.

The ex-Taliban in town are being monitored by the new local authorities loyal to President Hamid Karzai, and special forces regularly patrol Tirin Kot. Despite some reports of harassment and beatings by the town's police force, Talibs say their return has caused little friction. They are quite open about their Taliban affiliations. Afghan security officials admit they have neither the budget nor the reach to fully investigate these men for abuses during the Taliban period. Sardar Mohammed, head officer of Tirin Kot's district police force, says the Taliban foot soldiers are not a problem. "They surrendered and gave us their weapons. The senior commanders have all left." Secret police watch the bazaars for any sign of subversion, sharing what they find with the special forces, which are focused on the big fish. "If it's a leader, then we got a problem," says Steve. "If we see one or two guys, we're not too concerned." For his part, President Karzai has called for national reconciliation, out of concern that mass arrests and trials are unfeasible and would be an invitation to further conflict.
(More: TIME.com News Source)
2002 © TIME, Inc.

Dan