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Mullah Dadullah Akhund, the ruthless Taliban leader in charge of the militia’s campaign against NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in southern and eastern Afghanistan is fast becoming what Abu Musaib al Zarqawi had become for US forces in Iraq.
He shares many traits with Zarqawi, though unlike the slain al Qaeda Iraq chief, he is disabled, having lost one of his legs after stepping on a landmine in Herat in eastern Afghanistan in 1994 while battling the Ahmad Shah Masood led Northern Alliance.
He has a fondness for beheading his captives, and is feared by both his opponents and followers. He is also known to behead his followers who disobey him, but is still respected as a leader who can deal a crushing blow to his adversaries.
Deriving sadistic pleasure – by beheading captives – is not the only trait Mullah Dadullah shares with Zarqawi.
He churns out propaganda DVD’s encouraging scores of suicide bombers and fighters to participate in the bloody jihad against the US led `occupation forces` and the Karzai government. The DVD’s show him blasting a target with a heavy machine gun, dishing out blessings and ordaining a succession of would-be "martyrs".
The black-turbaned `one-legged Mullah` commands mythological status among his compatriots, which is partly why the Taliban top brass dispatched him for its frontline recruitment campaign to seminaries in Pakistan`s Balochistan province.
The success of his recruitment campaign can be seen in the occupation of Panjwai and Pushwa districts of Kandahar Province, the former headquarter of the Taliban regime and also giving the toughest time to the NATO and Coalition Forces in Helmond province bordering Balochistan.
The big spurt in suicide bombings, school burnings and guerrilla ambushes that have killed more than 500 Afghan civilians and at least 150 coalition soldiers this year is mostly attributed to Mullah Dadullah.
Mullah Dadullah took the responsibility for the deadly attack on the Chairman of Afghanistan’s Upper House, Meshrano Jirga, Prof. Sibghatullah Mojaddedi in Kabul on March 12, this year.
His men are also held responsible for the kidnapping and killing of the Border Roads Organisation engineer and another worker from the Indian road construction company earlier this year.
Dadullah boasts of 500 suicide bombers awaiting his orders as well as 12,000 fighters on the ground.
So effective is his campaign that Taliban guerrillas have for the first time captured government installations in Afghanistan`s remote south provinces of Helmond, Kandahar, Uruzghan and Paktiya, Paktiya and Oruzghan, if only for brief periods, though the coalition forces recaptured it soon afterwards.
His brutality can be gauged from the fact that even Mullah Omar, the one eyed chief of the Taliban found it difficult to digest the punishment and the atrocity meted out during one assignment in 1998.
In order to "pacify" the ethnic minority Hazaras, a Shia group in the Central Highland province of Bamiyan, Mullah Dadullah massacred hundreds of civilians. As a result Mullah Omar relieved him of his command after the episode, but he soon came back to action.
During fighting, Taliban radio would often report his presence on the front lines even when he was days away from the fighting, to unnerve the opposition fighters.
His terror ways remain as vicious as it was during the Taliban’s heydays. He shows no mercy to people suspected of spying for the US coalition forces.
His men roam the dusty Afghan villages with impunity warning them of the dire consequences if they ally with the US forces. To emphasise the point, one of Dadullah`s recent videos showed his fighters slitting the throats of six men accused of spying for the Americans.
A master strategist and a leader who likes attention, Mullah Dadullah often allows himself to be photographed and regularly gives interviews to foreign journalists, sometimes calling them from his own cell phones.
Recently promoted as the overall Commander of the Taliban`s military wing, the 40-year-old Mullah enjoys complete operational freedom, carrying out his deadly operations from Afghanistan’s Helmand and Kandahar provinces, where Britain has about 3,300 troops.
Though he never spends the whole night at one place, he is confident of the Taliban’s military strength.
As he says: "we have the strength to take over Kabul in a single day, but what we lack is the strength to sustain this control”.
Bureau Report
Mullah Dadullah Akhund, the ruthless Taliban leader in charge of the militia’s campaign against NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in southern and eastern Afghanistan is fast becoming what Abu Musaib al Zarqawi had become for US forces in Iraq.
He shares many traits with Zarqawi, though unlike the slain al Qaeda Iraq chief, he is disabled, having lost one of his legs after stepping on a landmine in Herat in eastern Afghanistan in 1994 while battling the Ahmad Shah Masood led Northern Alliance.
He has a fondness for beheading his captives, and is feared by both his opponents and followers. He is also known to behead his followers who disobey him, but is still respected as a leader who can deal a crushing blow to his adversaries.
Deriving sadistic pleasure – by beheading captives – is not the only trait Mullah Dadullah shares with Zarqawi.
He churns out propaganda DVD’s encouraging scores of suicide bombers and fighters to participate in the bloody jihad against the US led `occupation forces` and the Karzai government. The DVD’s show him blasting a target with a heavy machine gun, dishing out blessings and ordaining a succession of would-be "martyrs".
The black-turbaned `one-legged Mullah` commands mythological status among his compatriots, which is partly why the Taliban top brass dispatched him for its frontline recruitment campaign to seminaries in Pakistan`s Balochistan province.
The success of his recruitment campaign can be seen in the occupation of Panjwai and Pushwa districts of Kandahar Province, the former headquarter of the Taliban regime and also giving the toughest time to the NATO and Coalition Forces in Helmond province bordering Balochistan.
The big spurt in suicide bombings, school burnings and guerrilla ambushes that have killed more than 500 Afghan civilians and at least 150 coalition soldiers this year is mostly attributed to Mullah Dadullah.
Mullah Dadullah took the responsibility for the deadly attack on the Chairman of Afghanistan’s Upper House, Meshrano Jirga, Prof. Sibghatullah Mojaddedi in Kabul on March 12, this year.
His men are also held responsible for the kidnapping and killing of the Border Roads Organisation engineer and another worker from the Indian road construction company earlier this year.
Dadullah boasts of 500 suicide bombers awaiting his orders as well as 12,000 fighters on the ground.
So effective is his campaign that Taliban guerrillas have for the first time captured government installations in Afghanistan`s remote south provinces of Helmond, Kandahar, Uruzghan and Paktiya, Paktiya and Oruzghan, if only for brief periods, though the coalition forces recaptured it soon afterwards.
His brutality can be gauged from the fact that even Mullah Omar, the one eyed chief of the Taliban found it difficult to digest the punishment and the atrocity meted out during one assignment in 1998.
In order to "pacify" the ethnic minority Hazaras, a Shia group in the Central Highland province of Bamiyan, Mullah Dadullah massacred hundreds of civilians. As a result Mullah Omar relieved him of his command after the episode, but he soon came back to action.
During fighting, Taliban radio would often report his presence on the front lines even when he was days away from the fighting, to unnerve the opposition fighters.
His terror ways remain as vicious as it was during the Taliban’s heydays. He shows no mercy to people suspected of spying for the US coalition forces.
His men roam the dusty Afghan villages with impunity warning them of the dire consequences if they ally with the US forces. To emphasise the point, one of Dadullah`s recent videos showed his fighters slitting the throats of six men accused of spying for the Americans.
A master strategist and a leader who likes attention, Mullah Dadullah often allows himself to be photographed and regularly gives interviews to foreign journalists, sometimes calling them from his own cell phones.
Recently promoted as the overall Commander of the Taliban`s military wing, the 40-year-old Mullah enjoys complete operational freedom, carrying out his deadly operations from Afghanistan’s Helmand and Kandahar provinces, where Britain has about 3,300 troops.
Though he never spends the whole night at one place, he is confident of the Taliban’s military strength.
As he says: "we have the strength to take over Kabul in a single day, but what we lack is the strength to sustain this control”.
Bureau Report
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