Who was Mullah Omar? A brief history on his life!

 On 23rd April 1959, the legendary Mullah Muhammad Omar was born. He established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in September 1996. No leader of 20th century was surrounded by as much secrecy and mystery as Mullah Muhammad Omar.

First, It's important to know that Mullah Omar and his Afghan Taliban were not involved in 9/11 attack. In fact the 9/11 Commission Report by US has a section entitled ‘Dissent within the al-Qaeda leadership’ where it's mentioned that Mullah Omar opposed attacks against the US. Mullah Omar was the first to condemn 9/11. He denied involvement, demanded proof and an independent court to assess claims on OBL's involvement. But President Bush was intransigent and he launched Operation Jawbreaker in no time.

Mullah Omar was born around 1959 in Nodeh village near Kandahar to a family of poor, landless peasants who were members of the Hotak tribe, the Ghilzai branch of Pashtuns. His tribal and social status was non existent. During the '80s jihad his family moved to Urozgan which was one of the most backward and inaccessible regions of the country. Looking for a job, Omar moved to Singesar village in Mewand district of Kandahar where he opened a small madrassa. He joined Hizb e Islami and fought under Nek Muhammad against the Najibullah regime between 1989 and 1992. Najib was a KGB agent with code name POTOMOK. As Chief of KHAD, he tortured people with electrocutions and mock executions. More than 33000 Afghans died in few months in 1985. Ali Zahma wrote in his book, “He was a good terrorist, torturer and killer”.

Mullah Omar was wounded four times, once in the right eye which was permanently blinded. He had three wives and a five children. With a height of 6'6 along with a beard and a black turban, Omar was chosen as a leader of Afghanistan for his piety and unswerving belief in Islam. Afghan Taliban said he was chosen by God. There are a lot of myths to explain how he mobilized a small group of Taliban against the barbaric warlords. Most credible one is that in the spring of 1994, Singesar neighbours came to tell him that a commander had abducted two teenage girls. Their heads have been shaved, the girls were taken to a military camp where they were repeatedly raped. Omar enlisted some 30 talibs who had only 16 rifles. They attacked the base, recovered girls and hanged the commanders from the barrel of a tank. Few months later, two commanders confronted each other in Kandahar on dispute over a young boy whom both men wanted to sodomize. In the fight that followed, civilians were killed.  

Omar's group freed the boy and public appeals started coming in for Afghan Taliban to help out. This was a time when the internecine war between Gulbudeen Hikmetyar and Ahmed Shah Massoud had devastated the Afghans. Omar emerged as a Robin Hood figure against the rapacious warlords. His prestige grew because he asked for no reward from those whom he helped. Ahmed Shah Massoud's northern alliance supported Mullah Omar initially by giving $1 million in cash to fledgling Taliban movement. Soon Taliban captured a dump in Spin Boldak. This huge cache consisted of 17 tunnels worth of ammunition and weapons, enough to supply 3 divisions. Within few months, Taliban seized control of 12 of Afghanistan's 31 provinces. On 4 April 1996, Taliban nominated Omar as the 'Amir ul Momineen'. He appeared on the roof a building in centre of the city in Kandahar, wrapped in the cloak of Prophet Muhammad PBUH. As Omar wrapped and unwrapped the cloak around his body and allowed it to to flip in the wind, he was rapturously applauded with slogans of Amir ul Momineen. No Afghan had adopted the title since 1834 when King Dost Muhammad Khan assumed the title against the Sikh kingdom. 

Prince Turki al-Faisal, former head of Saudi Arabian intelligence, said in 2001 that Mullah Omar agreed to hand over Osama bin Laden in 1998 but changed his mind after US cruise missile attacks. Prince Turki described two secret visits he made to Kandahar, the first in June 1998:

   

After the US invasion in 2001, Mullah Omar never left Afghanistan till his death. He handed over the Taliban’s daily operations to his former defense minister, Mullah Obaidullah and went to his native Zabul province. He remained hidden in the private home of his driver. The US forces searched the house once but fortunately for Omar, they didn't enter his concealed room where he lived until 2004. After the US military established a permanent base only a few minutes walk from his house, Mullah Omar relocated to a remote district called Siuray. Mullah Omar's bodyguard found a mud-brick house in Siuray. This house was only a few miles away from a smaller US base, known as Forward Operating Base Wolverine. For nine years, Mullah Omar lived in the neighbors of US forces. He passed away in 2013. This portion is from an Urdu newspaper dated 1998 when former President of Afghanistan Mullah Omar gave a statement that an attack on Pakistan will be considered an attack on Afghanistan.

He gave this statement amidst the global powers threat to a strike on Pakistan's nuclear sites.

   

Reference: 

1. ‘An Enemy We Created: The Myth of the Taliban-Al Qaeda Merger in Afghanistan’ by Alex and Felix 

2. ’Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia’ by Ahmed Rashid 

3. ‘The World Was Going Our Way’ Book by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin