Chapter 2 continues…

It had a structure where the supreme leader or the Amir is assisted in his duty of governance by Shuras or consultative bodies. Initially, the Taleban had brought hope for peace amongst Afghans and the fact that they would govern through a collective political leadership was considerably appreciated. A central Shura was established in Kandahar, with Mullah Omar designated as Amir-ul- Momineen.

Later in October 1997, Omar renamed the Islamic State of Afghanistan as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Ahmed Rashid says that he was reasonably impressed with the working of the Taleban Shura in Kandahar and claimed that it was following the early Islamic model where discussion was followed by a consensus amongst ‘the believers’ and sensitivity and accessibility to the public were deemed important. Infact Kandahar became the defacto capital of Afghanistan and the headquarters of the Taleban.

Originally Mullah Omar headed a 10-member supreme shura and a military shura both based in Kandahar. It is interesting to note that the Kandahar shura had at least five non-Pashtun members and initially it tried to project itself as a broad-based and not predominantly Pashtun force.

After their capture of Kabul, they established the Kabul shura for some time, constituting a parallel power structure. This was a six-man shura with Mullah Mohammad Rabbani as the head till he mysteriously disappeared in late 1998. There was a third shura, composed of the chief of security, chief of armed forces and the chief of police who met regularly in Kabul to determine policies relating to the maintenance of law and order. However, later these structures were abolished in favour of a more conventional government structure where the Amir had the final say. Hence the Taleban were trying to recreate a strong centralized government with provincial governors and administrators of cities and towns reduced to mere figureheads.

The national capital was also deprived of the power to take crucial decisions. Hence the 10- member Kandahar Shura with Mullah Omar as the Amir was main decision-making body of the Taleban administration.

To be continued…