Jamiat-e Islami - History

History

Jamiat was one of the most popular and broadly spread party during Jihad with representations in every ethnic group. In Pakistan Rabbani gathered important people and established the party. Sayed Noorullah Emad, who was then a young Muslim in the university of Kabul became General Secretary of the party and, later, its deputy chief. Some of the prominent commanders of Jamiat included Ustad Zabihullah, Ahmad Shah Massoud, Ismail Khan, Atta Muhammad Nur, Mullah Naqib and Dr. Fazlullah. Ahmad Shah Massoud directed the military wing of the party. In 1979 Ahmad Shah Massoud, who had joined Jamiat as a university student, organised a mujahideen group in Parwan Province to fight against the Communist government and their Soviet allies. This group grew to control multiple provinces and include thousands of fighters. The Soviet Army launched a series of major offensives to attempt to destroy the Jamiat forces, but they were unable to engage most of Massoud's men. After the withdrawal of the Soviet troops in 1988, the mujahideen groups continued to wear down the government forces; in 1992 the communist government collapsed entirely. Jamiat's forces were among the first to enter Kabul.

Meanwhile, a peace and power-sharing agreement among the leadership of the Afghan political party leaders led to a tentative agreement to appoint Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani, who had spent the civil war in exile, as interim president. The peace agreement was called the Peshawar Accords.

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar however, did not support the peace agreement despite the fact that Hekmatyar was repeatedly offered the position of prime minister. Subsequently Hekmatyar's Hezb-i Islami attacked the new interim government and the capital of Kabul with tens of thousands of rockets. As Hezb-i Wahdat and Ittihad-i Islami started a second war in 1992 and Dostum's Junbish-i Milli joint Hekmatyar in 1994 Kabul witnessed a gruesome war. The war led to massive civilian casualties and destruction of much of the city. In 1995 the Islamic State of Aghanistan government also with Jamiat forces retained control of Kabul, pushing back a coalition of Hekmatyar's Hezb-i Islami, the Hizb-i-Wahdat and Abdul Rashid Dostum's Jumbish-i-Milli Islami.

By 1995 the Taliban, which had seized control of much of southern Afghanistan with comparative ease in the previous year, were advancing on Kabul. Jamiat rejected Taliban demands that he surrender and the Taliban rejected Jamiat's offer to join a peaceful political process leading towards general elections. In March 1995, Massoud handed the Taliban their first major loss. The Taliban regrouped and were then by Osama Bin Laden's forces and Saudi Arabia, which allowed them to launch another offensive in mid-1996. Massoud ordered the retreat of his troops among them Jamiat to avoid another bloodbath.

Following the capture of Kabul, the major mujahideen factions put aside their previous feuds and formed the United Front, United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan, commonly known in the west as the Northern Alliance. Burhanuddin Rabbani, officially became political leader of the United Front. Other Jamiat members took up senior positions within the United Front Government. Yunus Qanuni served as Interior Minister and Dr. Abdullah became Foreign Minister.

On the 9th of September 2001, Massoud was assassinated by two suicide bombers. Immediately afterwards Taliban forces launched a major offensive against United Front positions. Mohammed Qasim Fahim was chosen to succeed Massoud as leader of Jamiat's military wing and repulsed the Taliban offensive. With extensive assistance from an American-led coalition in October and November 2001 (see War in Afghanistan (2001–present)), United Front forces recaptured most of Afghanistan.