Taliban, 2 volumes
By N. K. Verma
September 2010
MD Publications
ISBN: 9788175332706
535pages
$92.50 Hardcover
The Taliban is a Sunni Islamist, predominatly Pashtun radical religious and political movement created in 1994 by Mohammed Omar in Southern Afghan city of Kandhar that governed Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, when its leaders were remved from power by NATO forces. Based in the Pasthun region in the country's southeast, the group grew out of a student movement dedicated to purifying Afghanistan. Its rise was intially greeted with relief by many Afghans weary of the corruption and brutality of the warlords who had fought for control in the years after the end of Soviet occupation.
The Taliban movement is headed by Mullah Mohammed Omar, who is still in hiding has gained some amount of political control and acceptance in Pakistan's border region, but recently lost one of its key leaders, Baitullah Mehsud, in CIA strike. However Pakistan has launched offensive to force "alternative government" in Afghanistan. It operates fifteen Sharia law courts in the country's southern provinces handling civil and commercial cases and collects taxes on harvests in farming areas.
Return to Coronet Books main page