Meet Mullah Rocketi

Syed Nazakat in Kabul 

In Afghanistan, he is known as Mullah Rocketi. During the anti-Soviet jihad, Mullah Abdul Salam, 47, became famous for his unerring aim with the shoulder-fired Stinger missile and RPG-7, hence the funny nickname. His favourite targets were Russian tanks and helicopters, the rusting remains of which now dot the Afghan landscape. An official estimate says Soviets lost 333 helicopters and 147 tanks in Afghanistan.

Salam’s fame increased with his joining the Taliban, and he rose through the ranks to become the right hand of Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar. Later he became commander-in-chief of the strategically important Jalalabad province, from where Osama bin Laden moved to the fortified hideouts in Tora Bora mountains.

When THE WEEK met him in his Kabul house, Salam looked so unlike the guerilla he was. "I don't like talking to journalists,” he said. “The more you write about us the more trouble for us.” Now a member of parliament, Salam does not regret his Taliban days. He said he joined them because the people wanted him to. The Taliban and President Hamid Karzai’s government have the same agenda, he said—a centralised government and reduced power to regional warlords. Sitting cross-legged and sipping green tea, he said: "During the Afghan civil war, Mullah Omar went to every village asking warlords to cease fire. If they refused, he would threaten them. Surprisingly, these warlords who loved their weapons more than their children listened to him. Thus began the legendary rise of the Taliban and Mullah Omar.” He said that though Mullah Omar was madrasa-educated, he was a mediocre orator.

Following the Taliban’s collapse in 2001, Salam spent eight months in the custody of the US forces. After his release, he moved to Kabul from his hometown of Qalat, 96 km north of Kandahar. Meanwhile, the Karzai government was reaching out to moderates in the Taliban as part of a reconciliation programme. Salam was given a house a few hundred metres away from the parliament. Former senior Taliban functionaries like its foreign minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil and its ambassador to Pakistan Mullah Abdul Salam Zaif live in the area. But unlike their houses, Salam’s has no heavily armed sentries. The burly guard at the gate did not even have a sidearm.

Salam said he was not in contact with the Taliban fighters who had regrouped in south Afghanistan. After 2001, he has turned away from the Taliban leadership, he said, and now urges his former comrades to reconcile with the government. But in Kabul, people believe that he is still held in high esteem by many senior Taliban commanders. Last year he volunteered to help negotiate the release of 23 Koreans abducted by the Taliban. Though two of the hostages were killed, the others were released later.

The former Taliban commander lost three brothers in the war—two to the Soviets and one to the mujahideen. He prefers not to speak about the possibility of the Taliban returning to power and says they should stop killing innocent people.

"I'm convinced a unified government supported by all forces in the country can ensure peace and stability in Afghanistan,” he said. "We have lost everything in the decades of war and infighting. It should stop somewhere."

Salam said the Taliban went wrong when its fanaticism led to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda becoming guests of Afghanistan. He said he had expressed public concern at Osama’s idea of a jihad against the west. Later, in early 2001 he was invited to lunch with Osama, where he outlined his objections. But Osama just smiled and turned away. Salam’s hunch was correct. Post-9/11, a ferocious US came Osama-hunting and bombed the Taliban out of power. Osama fled, Omar went into hiding near Kandahar; the US is still searching for them.

Salam met Omar one last time before he went underground. "It was three days before the fall of Kandahar and I asked him for final instructions on how to proceed," Salam said. "He said the US was invading, but if we stayed united and continued to believe in Allah, we'll defeat them, just like did the Russians." He said Osama was not with Omar during the last meeting. That is, perhaps, the last time anybody saw Mullah Omar before he went into hiding. The US army has asked Salam umpteen times if he knew where Osama and Omar were hiding. His answer remains the same: "I never saw him after that meeting. Seven years have passed now; I have no clue where he and Osama are."

The End

(THE WEEK, Nov 23, 2008)