A Recluse Mullah's Nine Lives

He has never allowed himself to be photographed (the accompanying picture is from footage surreptitiously shot by a TV crew before the Taliban's march on Kabul); his voice is not on tape and of the hundred-odd requests for interviews in the last two years, he has granted no more than two. And that too to Muslim journalists. He studiously avoids meeting foreigners, including diplomats, which in turn ensures that the normal rules of conducting international business do not apply to him. Omar's only flirtation with lightness of being is going out fishing with son-in-law Osama bin Laden, who in turn lionises him as the ideal Muslim ruler promoting the purest form of Islam.

So much of a recluse is Omar that not many of the 20 million-odd people who constitute the population of Afghanistan have seen their ruler. The only ones who have interacted with Omar regularly are his chief patrons, the Pakistanis. Ahmed Rashid, Pakistani author of the widely respected book Taliban, says: "Omar is hardly cut out to be a leader. He is shy and withdrawn. He is a poor public speaker and has never travelled even in his own country, let alone a foreign one. For the last seven years, he has led a life bordering on the paranoid, making no public speeches or appearances. He is such an enigma that for a long time many Afghans thought he was a figment of the imagination of Pakistan's isi."

Now with Islamabad showing signs of going along with Uncle Sam in its drive against the Taliban, this hefty one-eyed warrior may become even more invisible. Unless, of course, the Americans catch up with him. But that may not be too easy. Omar has already let it be known that there is no question of 'handing over' Osama, his old friend, ideological bedfellow, financier, Islamic fighter as well as the husband of one of his daughters. He has also warned that if the US invades Afghanistan from neighbouring countries, then "it is not impossible that we would attack such a country under compulsion and the mujahideen would have to enter their territory."

It was bin Laden who introduced Omar to the wider world of Islamic radicalism and global jehad. He also hailed Omar as Amir of the world. While the Taliban granted him sanctuary and facilities, bin Laden in turn built a bomb-proof house for Omar and his wives, funded the Taliban movement and recruited thousands of Arabs to the cause. He also facilitated business ventures with the Taliban—the smuggling of consumer goods from Dubai and Pakistan.

Very little is known about Omar's personal life except that he was born in 1959 near Kandahar to Pashtun parents. He started a madrassa at a young age and fought then Afghanistan ruler Najibullah between 1989 and 1992, being wounded four times in the bargain. Like bin Laden, he has three wives, the second a teenager whom he married in 1995. According to Indian intelligence sources, Omar keeps two huge trunks: one filled with Afghani, the local currency and the other with US dollars. Together, they form the treasury of the Taliban government. Militant leaders looking for funds have free access to the money. No red tape here.

All of this has added to the mystique of Mullah Omar, of a fanatical Muslim cleric promoting a brand of Islam practiced by the Wahabi sect but no longer accepted in progressive Muslim societies.According to Indian security experts, Omar has been a regular India baiter, bidding relentlessly for the Pakistanis. Witness the Kandahar hijacking in '99 and the slew of foreign-trained mercenaries, mostly Afghans, attached to Pakistan-backed terror groups in Kashmir like the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Harkat-ul-Ansar. (Foreign minister Jaswant Singh told cnn on Thursday night that there was information that Mullah Omar had asked mujahideen active in Kashmir to return to Afghanistan in the event of a war.)

Add to this the shameful vandalisation of the Bamiyan Buddha in March this year. The latest of Omar's acts was the murder last fortnight of Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Masood, the Lion of Panjshir, who had been trying of late to establish close contacts with New Delhi.

Indian agencies are watching the post-September 11 developments in the region with some trepidation. According to some of them, the fallout could well have repercussions, mainly in Kashmir. But argues security analyst Kulbir Krishna: "The lessons are for the Kashmiris. If Pakistan could do this to the Taliban which they literally created, what hope do the Kashmiris have in a Pak-backed dispensation? For the first time, out of pure opportunism, the Pakistanis have turned the heat on Omar and the Taliban."

Rarely has a head of government been so insular as Omar. Bearded and black turbaned, the Commander of the Faithful or Amir-ul-Momineen as he is called, has rarely ventured out of Kandahar and has visited the Afghanistan capital Kabul just once. His one eye was blown away when a Soviet bomb exploded near him in 1989 during the decade-long 'holy' war: the good eye's now hawk-like and unrelenting. Says strategic affairs expert Brahma Chellaney: "Omar has a one-dimensional view and a very rudimentary knowledge of the world."

Omar and the Taliban's rise dates back to 1989 when the Soviets left Afghanistan and everyone, including the Americans, lost interest. The ones who stayed on were, of course, the locals with Soviet proxy Najibullah in charge. But after the Moscow-backed regime fell in 1992, this once-westernised, liberal country slid into lawlessness, tribal intrigues and general mayhem. But even while inter-faction feuds reigned supreme, students indoctrinated in Sunni Wahabism were being churned out of theological seminaries on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Backed by Pakistan's all-powerful intelligence agencies, these students headed by Mullah Omar became fodder for the new revolution sweeping across the jagged terrain of the Hindukush mountains. One outrage by the militias that goaded Omar was reportedly a deadly tank battle between two rival commanders in Kandahar who fancied the same 'handsome' boy!

According to Indian intelligence estimates, the first nine provinces in Afghanistan were taken by the Taliban without a shot being fired. Omar also adopted another classic tactic: he bought over rival commanders into his fold. The only resistance came from the Northern Alliance, a group of former communist fighters. By 1994, Omar had launched the Taliban, ostensibly to restore order and carry forward the logic of 'jehad' as an instrument of political and social change. Says a western journalist: "During the holy war, the rocket-propelled grenade was Omar's favourite weapon. After the Taliban came into being, it became faith."

Shortly before the attack on Kabul in the spring of 1996, Omar entered Kandahar's grand mosque and emerged with the holy cloth of Prophet Mohammad, which he waved from a rooftop to ecstatic Taliban warriors.This sacred relic has been displayed just a few times this century—its magical powers last invoked to end a cholera epidemic. Kabul fell effortlessly and Omar's belief in his god-guided destiny swelled.

Since then it has been all about turning Afghanistan into an archaic, medieval arena with a modern agenda of targeting interests perceived to be inimical to itself and to Pakistan. Along came public hangings, stoning to deaths, bans on everything from nail polish to homosexuality.

Omar's word is law in Afghanistan. Wakil Ahmed, one-time personal attendant and spokesman for Mullah Omar, had this to tell to Arabic magazine Al-Majallah: "Decisions are based on the advice of the Amir-ul-Momineen. For us, consultation is not necessary. We abide by the Amir's view, even if he alone takes this view."

Indian intelligence estimates show how the Pakistanis have kept the Taliban afloat. They say in '97-98 Islamabad provided the Taliban with an estimated $30 million in aid. This included 600,000 tonnes of wheat, petroleum, arms and ammunition, aerial bombs and virtually every infrastructural requirement needed. Indian security specialists say that if the Taliban is crippled in the event of a US invasion, it would mean only good tidings for us. Says an analyst: "For the last week or so, attacks in Kashmir have come down." Who knows, the real test for One-eyed Jack may have just begun.