Human Rights A Day

Taliban take control of Kabul and most of Afghanistan. In the early 1980s, America’s Central Intelligence Agency and Pakistan’s Interservices Intelligence Agency supported any group fighting the Soviets who had invaded Afghanistan. A group of ethnic Pashtuns from various regions of Afghanistan, known as the Talib (pluralized as Taliban, meaning “student” or “seekers of knowledge”), received tens of thousands of tons of American weapons and ammunitions. In 1994, the Taliban were able to take control of towns and cities with relative ease as Afghans supported them over the corrupt and brutal warlords. That year they captured Kandahar City and the surrounding provinces with very few casualties. Within two years they had control of two-thirds of the country. On September 28, 1996 the Taliban captured Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, and executed former president Mohammad Najibullah, hanging his body from a tower. Only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates would recognize them as the legitimate governme