Durrani (Pashto: دراني) or Abdali (Pashto: ابدالی) is the name of a chief Pashtun tribal confederation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Originally known by their ancient name Abdali later as Durrani they have been called Durrani since the beginning of the Durrani Empire in 1747.^[1] The number of Durranis are estimated to be roughly 16% of the population of Afghanistan or 5 million individuals.^[2] Durrani are found throughout Afghanistan, although large concentrations are found in the South, they are also found to less extent in East, West and Central Afghanistan. They are also found in large numbers in Pakistan, mainly inhabiting the Western area of the nation. The Durrani Pashtuns of Afghanistan are usually bilingual in Pashto and Persian while those of Pakistan in Pashto and Urdu.

The Durranis have been prominent leaders, as the royal family of Afghanistan is derived from this tribe, and a substantial number of Durrani Pashtuns are bureaucrats and public officials, as well as businessmen, wealthy merchants and hold high ranks in the military.

History[link]

Ahmad Shah Durrani established the Durrani Empire in 1747 and the name Durrani originates from that period.

The Durranis are, like other Pashtun people, most probably Indo-European, Iranic in heritage and language. They were known in the past as Abdalis, from approximately the 7th century until the mid-18th century when Ahmad Shah Durrani was chosen as the new Emir and the Durrani Empire was established. One of Ahmad Shah's first acts as Emir was to adopt the title padshah durr-i durran ('King, "pearl of the age").^[3] He united the Pashtun tribes following a loya jirga in western Kandahar and changed his own name from Ahmad Shah Abdali to Ahmad Shah Durrani. Since that period, the kings of Afghanistan have been of Durrani extraction.

The origins of the Abdalis were most likely the Hephthalites.^[4] However, the traditional tribal-mythical account of the Abdalis is traced to (Qais ul-Malik) Abdal Rashid (the first and supposed founder of the Pakhtun/Pukhtun race). Abdal had three sons, one of them was Ibrahim [Sarabun] whose first son was Sharf ud-din [Sharakh-bun] and his eldest son was Tarin (or Tareen) and Tarin's son was Malik Abdul and Abdul's son was Rajjal [Rajor] after Rajjal comes his son Isa, who produced a son Sulaiman (Zirak Khan) who was the ancestor of the Durranis. The Zirak line begins with Sulaiman (Zirak Khan). Zirak was father to Popalzai, Barakzai, and Alakozai.^[5]

The Durranis were the most divided Pashtun tribe(مهمبن)during the rule of the Ghilzai, with some having openly opposed them. The Durrani are the politically dominant Pashtun group in Afghanistan as the current President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, is of the Durrani sub-group known as the Popalzai and has close ties to the last king of Afghanistan, Zahir Shah, another member of the Durrani tribe Mohammadzai/Barakzai.

According to Hayat Khan's history of Afghanistan from their progenitor Bor Tarin/Tareen, otherwise known as Abdal, are descended their two main divisions the Zirak and the Panjpai. The term Abdal, however, gradually superseded that of Bor Tareen and came into special prominence when Ahmad Shah Abdali Sadozai/Popalzai commonly known as Durrani, began his career of conquest. The Achakzais are, in strictness, a branch of the Barakzai but Ahmad Shah, Durrani himself an Abdal/Bor Tarin/Tareen, fearing the growing numbers of the Barakzai, separated them from the parent stock, since which time their organization has remained distinct. It is still used, though sparingly, for the Achakzais, who have become localised in Toba and are regarded as a separate political unit from the rest of the Tarin/Tareens.

Durrani prince tomb in Kohat

Branches or subtribes[link]

Sadozai Abdali tribe is the tribe Ahmad Shah Abdali was from. The Durrani Tareen tribe is divided into two branches Panjpai and Zirak. Durrani tribes of the Zirak branch include Popalzai, Alikozai, Barakzai, Badozai, and Achakzai.^{[citation needed]}

The Panjpai branch are mainly found in the western Kandahar, Helmand and Farah area, and they include Alizai, Noorzai, Ishakzai or Sakzai, Khogyani(Khakwani), and Maku.

The literacy rate of the Durrani is the highest among all the Pashtun tribes and are also considered the most liberal of the Pashtun tribes. The Durranis continue to live close to other people of Afghanistan and culturally overlap in many ways with the Tajiks whom they often share more cultural and socio-economic traits in comparison to the more tribal Pashtuns such as the Ghilzai, which is the other major Pashtun tribe.

See also[link]

• Alizai
• Ghilzai
• Hephthalite

References[link]

External links[link]

• Encyclopædia Britannica - Durrani

Tehmina Durrani in 1994

This article is an autobiography, or has been extensively edited by the subject or an institution related to the subject. Please help edit it to conform to Wikipedia's neutral point of view, in line with the discussion on the talk page. (April 2012)

Tehmina Durrani (Urdu: تہمینہ درانی), born: 18 February 1953, is the daughter of a former Governor of State Bank of Pakistan and Managing Director of Pakistan International Airlines, S.U. Durrani and a grand-daughter of Sir Liaqat Hayat Khan, who was a brother of former Punjab Premier Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan. Her first book, My Feudal Lord, caused ripples in Pakistan's male-dominated society by describing her abusive and traumatic marriage with Ghulam Mustafa Khar, then Chief Minister and later Governor of Punjab and her experience of a feudal society. She is currently involved in the emancipation of women in Pakistan.^[1]

Brief Life Sketch[link]

An Afghan Pathan by descent, and born into an educated and influential family, Durrani was only 17, when she married Anees Khan, and they had one daughter, Tania. She divorced him in 1976 and then married Khar. In the process she had to give up the claim of her daughter's custody. It was Durrani's second marriage and the sixth marriage for Khar. The couple later divorced after 13 years during which they had four children, Nasiba, Nafisa, Ali and Hamza. After her divorce, Durrani wrote her autobiography called My Feudal Lord in 1991, detailing her marriage with Khar in addition to other issues. The book became an international bestseller very soon,^[2] and depicts the gory details of her marriage, including the abuse inflicted on her by her powerful husband, a prominent political figure, leading it to be initially banned in Pakistan. The book narrates how Khar physically beat Durrani, kidnapped their children, had an affair with her youngest sister, and once forced her to strip naked, when she disobeyed his orders.^[3] She argued in the book that the real power of feudal landlords like Khar is derived from the distorted version of Islam that is supported by the mullahs and maulvis. Khar later went on to marry Durrani's sister.^[4]. Tehmina Durrani later married to current Cheif Minister of Punjab, Mian Shahbaz Sharif. This was the third marriage of both Shahbaz and Tehmina. These days she is enjoying the life as wife of Shahbaz Sharif. Later, Shahbaz Sharif married (4th marriage) to a young bureaucrat, Kalsoom Hayi who was earlier wife of a police officer and is mother of three children, in May 2012.

Current Activities[link]

Since 2005, Durrani is associated with a non-governmental organization that works for the social rehabilitation of women after abuse.^[5] In 2001, Durrani publicly took on the caregiver role of Fakhra Yunas, the former wife of Bilal Khar, the son of Khar from his first marriage, after the former had been a victim of an acid attack allegedly at the hands of her husband who even refused to let her undergo treatment. Durrani arranged to take Yunas abroad, capturing media attention and spurring her commitment to bring Khar, convicted of the attack, to trial. Fakhra was initially denied a passport to leave Pakistan to undergo surgery, because the government feared that the news would soil the reputation of Pakistan. But later, under public mobilized mainly by Durrani, the government allowed her to leave Pakistan,^[6] who was also successfully able to provide reconstructive surgery free-of-cost to Fakhra, courtesy of the Italian cosmetics firm Sant'Angelica.^[7] The firm is now working in Pakistan for many such battered and abused women.^[8] However, after twelve years of misery, Fakhra committed suicide on the 17th March 2012 and was buried in Karachi a day later.^[9] Durrani resides in Lahore with her husband, Shahbaz Sharif, brother of Nawaz Sharif, the current Chief Minister of Punjab whom she married at a private but well attended ceremony in Dubai in 2003.^[10][11][12] Upon divorcing Khar, she signed away all financial support, lost custody of her children, her name, social standing and was disowned by her parents.^[13] Only when Khar re-married, she did regain custody of her four children.

Main Works[link]

"My Feudal Lord" has been translated into 36 languages and received many awards and recognition overseas in recognition of the authoress' courage.^[14] and she is regarded as a role model by many women in Pakistan.

Her second book, A Mirror to the Blind, is the biography of Abdul Sattar Edhi, Pakistan's renowned and highly decorated social worker, as narrated to her during the two years in which she accompanied him on his visits in the course of his daily life. The book was published by the National Bureau of Publications in 1996.^[15]

Her third book, "Blasphemy", from 1998 marked her return to controversy, and was another success. In the novel she describes the secret lives of the Muslim clergy and spritual leaders or pirs. Durrani declares that the story is factual, with some names and events altered to protect the identity of the woman, who is at the center of the story. The book also delves into a critical approach to the tradition and practice of Nikah Halala, which she has highlighted through several cases resulting in humiliation and torture of Muslim women.^[16] The book also made it into Pakistan's bestseller list.^[17] She has thus been engaged in highlighting gender-based violence in Pakistan's rural and urban society.

References[link]

External links[link]

• The South Asian Women's NETwork: Tehmina Durrani
• Her fearless pen - Mid-Day By Muhammad Najeeb 26/10/1998
• Sending ripples in Pak society 1/11/1998
• Crime By Ayesha Javed Akram, July 2001
• Time for renaissance - Religion - Islam By Tehmina Durrani for New Internationalist, Jan-Feb, 2002
• Help for Pakistan's acid attack victims By Sahar Ali, 4/8/2003
• Acid Attacks: A Brutal Crime of Passion By Leela Jacinto 3/9/2003
• Out Of The Realm Of Fear Interview by Sahar Ali, 4th Quarter 2003
• Punjab's ex-CM Shahbaz Sharif confirms Marriage with Tehmina Durrani 7/2/2005
• Shahbaz wedding: political fallout 11/2/2005
• Pakistani Women’s Writing: Voices of Progress 2006
• Breaking the Silence in Tehmina Durrani's My Feudal Lord By Shabina Nishat Omar, 2008
• Aliens among us: Reflections of women writers on women - Tehmina Durrani's Blasphemy from a Multiple Perspective

Asad Durrani
Birth name	Mohammad Asad Durrani
Nickname	Fire Fox
Born	(1941-02-07) February 7, 1941 (age 71) Lahore, British Punjab State, British Indian Empire
Allegiance	Pakistan
Service/branch	Pakistan Army
Years of service	1959-1993
Rank	Lieutenant-General
Unit	Military Intelligence Corps
Commands held	Inter-Services Intelligence (DG ISI) Military Intelligence (DG MI) ( Judge Advocate General Branch Command and Staff College National Defence University 350th Military Intelligence Brigade
Battles/wars	Indo-Pakistani war of 1965 Bangladesh Liberation War Indo-Pakistani war of 1971 Soviet war in Afghanistan Operation Midnight Jackal
Awards	Hilal-i-Jur'at Hilal-i-Imtiaz (military)

Lieutenant General Mohammad Asad Durrani (born 7 February 1941), is a retired 3-star rank general in the Pakistan Army and presently an intelligence commentator. Durrani previously served as the Director-general of the Inter-Services Intelligence and former director-general of the Pakistan Army's Military Intelligence.

Career[link]

Durrani was born in in 1941 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan in an Afghan family. From 1957 to 1959, Durrani attended the Government College, now a University, where he did his degree in Bachelor of Science, and subsequently joined the Pakistan Military Academy, Kakul. In 1960, he was commissioned as Second lieutenant in the Army as a gunner officer. Durrani, as Captain participated in the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965 where he commanded his company. In 1968, he was promoted to Major. Also took part in the 1971 war against India.

Durrani has been on key posts including instructor-ship at the officers academy and later at the Command and Staff College, Quetta, Director General of Military Intelligence, Director General of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence, Inspector General Training and Evaluation at the General Head Quarters and Commandant at the National Defence College, now a University.

Durrani is a graduate from the General Staff Academy, Germany. He has also been Pakistan's military attaché to Germany from 1980 to 1984. After retiring from the Army, he was Pakistan's ambassador to Germany (1994-97) and Saudi Arabia (2000-02).

^[1]

References[link]

v t e Pakistan Armed Forces Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman Joint Chiefs Joint Staff Headquarters National Defence University Paramilitary Force Command National Command Authority Military history (Air Force history) UN peacekeeping missions Weapons of mass destruction Awards and decorations Nuclear doctrine Inter-Services Intelligence Arms Industry Inter Services Public Relations Nuclear industry Missiles programme Judge Advocate General Branch Establishment University Department of Defence and Strategic Studies Army   General Headquarters Azad Kashmir Regiment Baloch Regiment Frontier Force Regiment Northern Light Infantry Punjab Regiment Sind Regiment Governor General's Bodyguard Military Academy Command and Staff College Army Special Service Group Army Rangers Chief of Army Staff Serving and active-duty generals Army Cantonments Pakistan Army Museum Army Strategic Forces Command Army Educational Establishment Air Force   Air Headquarters Air War College Air Force Academy Special Service Wing Air Force Bases List of combat aircraft Combatant Air Force Squadrons Chief of Air Staff Pakistan Air Force Sherdils PAF Museum Aeronautical Complex Air Force Institute of Aviation Technology Air Force Education and Development Command Air Force Strategic Command Navy   Naval Headquarters Naval War College Naval Special Service Group Chief of Naval Staff Naval Strategic Forces Command Active ships Naval Engineering College Naval Academy Pakistan Maritime Museum PNS Ghazi PNS Hangor Naval School of Logistics and Management Strategic Institute for Naval Affairs Makran Naval Base Qasim Naval Base Kalmat Naval Base Naval hospitals (P.N.S. Shifa P.N.S. Rahat) Naval Air Station (Mehran Naval Air Base Ahsan Naval base Jinnah Naval Base) Research vessel (PNS Behr Paima) Marines Naval Air Arm Coast Guard Naval Education Establishment Wars and conflicts Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 / 1965 / 1971 1970s Baloch insurgency Siachen conflict Kargil War War in North-West Pakistan Portal Category (Army Air Force Navy)

Amrullah Saleh امرالله صالح
Amrullah Saleh speaking at an international conference in Berlin
Director of National Directorate of Security
In office February 2004 – June 2010
Preceded by	Muhammad Arif Sarwari
Succeeded by	Ibrahim Spinzada (temporarily) followed by Rahmatullah Nabil
Personal details
Born	1971 Panjshir, Afghanistan
Religion	Sunni Islam
Military service
Awards	Cleary University (honorary Doctorate Degree in Political Science)

Amrullah Saleh (Persian: امرالله صالح; born 1971) is an Afghan politician who last served as head of the Afghan National Directorate of Security. In 1997, at the age of 24, he was appointed by anti-Taliban leader Ahmad Shah Massoud to lead the United Front's (Northern Alliance) liaison office inside the Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe handling contacts to international non-governmental (humanitarian) organizations and intelligence agencies. After the fall of the Taliban regime, Saleh was appointed by President Hamid Karzai in early 2004 to lead the National Directorate of Security. Due to political differences with Karzai, Saleh resigned his position in 2010. He is currently leading one of the strongest Afghan pro-democracy and anti-Taliban movements, the Basej-i Milli (National Movement) or Afghanistan Green Trend, with about 10,000 of his supporters rallying against the Taliban in Kabul in 2011.

Biography[link]

Amrullah Saleh hails from Panjshir.

Amrullah Saleh was born in the Panjshir Province of Afghanistan in 1971.^[1]

In the late 1990s, in his early 20s, Saleh worked for the anti-Taliban resistance, the United Front (Northern Alliance), under Ahmad Shah Massoud.^[2][3] In 1997, Saleh was appointed to lead Massoud's international liaison office in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, where he served as a coordinator for non-governmental (humanitarian) organizations and as a liaision partner for foreign intelligence agencies.^[2][4]

After the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States, Amrullah Saleh participated in leading intelligence operations of the United Front on the ground during the War in Afghanistan (2001–present) toppling the Taliban regime.^[5]

After the creation of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Saleh was appointed to head Department One of Afghanistan's main intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS).^[1] The duties of Department One included liaison with foreign military, diplomatic, and intelligence organizations. In 2004, Amrullah Saleh was appointed as the head of the NDS by President Hamid Karzai.^[3] According to the historian William Dalrymple, the ISI and the Taliban "regarded Saleh as their fiercest opponent."^[6]

In June 2010 Saleh resigned from his position. He subsequently founded the Basej-i Milli (National Movement) or Afghanistan Green Trend as a pro-democracy and anti-Taliban movement.^[7]

National Directorate of Security[link]

Saleh initiated structural reforms and helped rebuild the Afghan intelligence service.^[8] Saleh and former interior minister Hanif Atmar were viewed by the international community as two of the most competent cabinet members in the Afghan government.^[8] A western security expert told The Guardian that both men had a reputation for "clearing corruption within" their organs.^[9]

In 2005, Amrullah Saleh engaged several NDS agents infiltrating the Pakistani tribal areas to search for Bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders. Several Al-Qaeda members could be identified, but it was determined that Bin Laden was not in the area. In 2006, Amrullah Saleh was presented with evidence that Bin Laden was living in a major settled area of Pakistan just 20 miles from the town of Abbottabad, Pakistan. He shared the intelligence with former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf who angrily brushed off the claim taking no action.^[10]

After the Afghan presidential election, 2009, Afghan President Karzai's views about the security issues confronting Afghanistan and how best to deal with them reportedly changed. This impacted the working relationship between the President of Afghanistan and some of his cabinet ministers including his intelligence chief.^[11] Saleh says, "He [Karzai] thought democracy had hurt him as a person. His family had been attacked by the media unfairly, and the West was criticizing him unfairly. So after a presidential election, he was a changed man, and we could not have the same relationship as before the presidential election."^[11] Political analyst Ahmed Rashid in 2010 observed the same, "Karzai’s new outlook is the most dramatic political shift he has undergone in the twenty-six years that I have known him."^[12] Both Amrullah Saleh and interior minister Hanif Atmar subsequently had strong disagreements with Hamid Karzai on how to proceed against the Taliban, who Karzai was now referring to as "brothers". At that point Saleh and Atmar were increasingly isolated in the Karzai administration.^[11]

In early 2010, an Afghan man approached the NDS claiming to represent senior Taliban commander Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour. Offering a letter allegedly written by Mansour, he said Mansour was interested to open a channel for negotiations.^[11] Saleh's people started testing the credentials of the supposed messenger, and judged them to be false closing the case.^[11] The man then approached other Afghan government institutions. Saleh recounts, "When I learned ... that he was going through a different avenue, I warned the government that if it is this Aminullah, if he claims this, and if it is this guy, trust me, he is not representing anybody; it's a scam. ... Be careful. This is not Mansour. But there was a perception that Amrullah is against talks, so let's sideline him."^[11] The Afghan man, who lived in Pakistan where the Taliban's leadership council is based, subsequently held three meetings with NATO and Afghan officials.^[13] Having been flown from Pakistan to Kabul on a NATO airplane, the man met with President Hamid Karzai in the presidential palace.^[13] In late 2010, it turned out, that the supposed representative for Mansour was an impostor as Amrullah Saleh had previously warned. The New York Times writes: "In an episode that could have been lifted from a spy novel, United States and Afghan officials now say the Afghan man was an impostor."^[13]

On June 6, 2010, Amrullah Saleh resigned from the NDS while Hanif Atmar resigned from his position as interior minister after a militant attack against the national peace jirga, although nobody had been killed or wounded and the attackers had been arrested.^[8] A few days after the jirga, Karzai had summoned Hanif Atmar and Amrullah Saleh to discuss the attack against the jirga. After the meeting both men officially resigned because of the failure to stop the attack on the jirga.^[8][14] CNSNews writes: "Saleh told reporters he had submitted his resignation as general director of National Security because he had lost Karzai’s trust as a result of the attack. He said he and Atmar had briefed the president on the security preparations for the jirga, and the subsequent "success in ... capturing the facilitators," but Karzai had not been satisfied. He had therefore felt unable to continue in his post. He also said there were “tens” of reasons for leaving his position, but would not elaborate on others."^[9][15]

Amrullah Saleh at an international conference in late 2011.

The two men's resignation led to widespread concerns among Afghanistan experts.^[8] Concerns were voiced over the direction the country was moving in.^[9]

The former United Nation's Special Representative to Afghanistan Kai Eide writes:

"In June 2010 Atmar and Saleh were also gone. All ... had been highly respected among Afghans and among international partners. Since late 2008 I had been enthusiastic about the number of new reform-oriented politicians in key government positions. That trend now seemed to have been reversed."^[16]

—Kai Eide

President Karzai’s national security adviser, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, was quoted as saying:

"With Amrullah Saleh, the Afghan people have lost a huge treasure of commitment, awareness and experience in this struggle against terrorism, Al Qaeda and the ISI. I can’t think of anyone who will be able to even slightly fill the vacuum that he leaves behind. Besides being a highly efficient chief at the N.D.S., he is a man of knowledge and research with an incredible memory and intellect. When he analyzed issues at international meetings, he exhibited tremendous ability at logical reasoning. He was head and shoulder above others. ... I had many differences in arguments with him, but I always saw his presence at the N.D.S. as a huge advantage to this country and this government. Despite my high respects for the president’s decisions, I am extremely mournful about Saleh’s departure. Extremely mournful."^[17]

—Rangin Dadfar Spanta, June 2010

The resignation of Saleh and Atmar came amidst heavy disagreement between Hamid Karzai and Amrullah Saleh on how to proceed against the Taliban.^[18] Daoud Sultanzoi, a member of the Afghan parliament, said, he had observed that disagreement between Karzai on the one side and cabinet members such as Saleh and Atmar on the other side had been going on for a while.^[19] Saleh publicly blamed Pakistan for its support to the Taliban and other extremist groups and said talks with the Taliban should take place but not at the cost of democratic structures.^[19] Meanwhile Karzai had increasingly been placing his hopes on his attempts to reach a secret deal with the Taliban and Pakistan. Pakistan had repeatedly urged Karzai to oust Saleh from his position.^[19][20]

The Afghan media extensively covered the resignations with the daily liberal newspaper Hasht-e Subh headlining an article: "Resignation of Atmar and Saleh: Accountability to the People or Tribute to Pakistan?"^[17]

Amrullah Saleh said he considered Hamid Karzai a patriot, but that the president was making a mistake if he planned to rely on Pakistani support as Pakistan was trying to reimpose the Taliban.^[19]

"They are weakening him under the disguise of respecting him. They will embrace a weak Afghan leader, but they will never respect him."^[21]

—Amrullah Saleh, June 2010

Saleh on the BBC's Hard Talk explained and reiterated that Karzai in hoping to reach a deal with the Taliban and Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence through appeasement policy had alienated his internal allies as well as Afghanistan's external allies and had undermined the morale of Afghan security forces.^[22]

Bin Laden–Musharraf controversy[link]

Information about Bin Laden's possible hideout inside Pakistan were shared by Amrullah Saleh with former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf as early as 2006, but Musharraf brushed them off. Recent documents have alleged that Bin Laden was hidden in Abbottabad "with the full knowledge" of Musharraf.

Amrullah Saleh has repeatedly stated that Afghan intelligence believed and had shared information about Osama Bin Laden hiding in an area close to Abbottabad, Pakistan, four years before he (Bin Laden) was killed there. Saleh had shared the information with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf who had angrily brushed off the claim taking no action.^[10]

As early as 2004, agents working for Afghan intelligence determined that Bin Laden was living in a major settled area in Pakistan proper, rather than the semi-autonomous tribal areas on the Afghan-Pakistan border, Amrullah Saleh told The Guardian. Leading Saleh and Afghan intelligence to that conclusion were "thousands of interrogation reports" and the assumption that Bin Laden "a millionaire with multiple wives and no background of toughness would not be living in a tent".^[10] "I was pretty sure he was in the settled areas of Pakistan because in 2005 it was still very easy to infiltrate the tribal areas, and we had massive numbers of informants there. They could find any Arab but not Bin Laden."^[10]

In 2007, the Afghans specifically identified two Al-Qaeda safe houses in Manshera, a town just miles from Abbottabad, leading them to believe that Bin Laden was possibly hiding there. But Amrullah Saleh says that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf angrily smashed his fist on a table when Saleh presented the information to him during a meeting in which Afghan President Hamid Karzai also took part.^[10] According to Saleh, "He said, 'Am I the president of the Republic of Banana?' Then he turned to President Karzai and said, 'Why have you brought this Panjshiri guy to teach me intelligence?'"^[10]

A BBC journalist confronting Musharraf with Saleh's allegations writes: "The former leader of Pakistan plays the dispassionate broker very well. ... [But] this is when Mr Musharraf's camouflage starts to slip. The substance of the claim he handles like a politician (it was actually a case of mistaken identity involving the CIA, he says). But he bristles with anger at the mention of Amrullah Saleh's name."^[23] Accusing Saleh of "impertinence" and being "lowly", Musharraf stated: "Amrullah Saleh I have never liked and therefore he has no right to present anything to me."^[23]

A December 2011 analysis report by the Jamestown Foundation, however, came to the conclusion that "in spite of denials by the Pakistani military, evidence is emerging that elements within the Pakistani military harbored Osama bin Laden with the knowledge of former army chief General Pervez Musharraf and possibly current Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. Former Pakistani Army Chief General Ziauddin Butt (a.k.a. General Ziauddin Khawaja) revealed at a conference on Pakistani–U.S. relations in October 2011 that according to his knowledge the then former Director-General of Intelligence Bureau of Pakistan (2004–2008), Brigadier Ijaz Shah (retd.), had kept Osama bin Laden in an Intelligence Bureau safe house in Abbottabad."^[24] Pakistani General Ziauddin Butt said Bin Laden had been hidden in Abbottabad "with the full knowledge" of Pervez Musharraf.^[24]

Recent activity[link]

In 2010 Saleh launched a peaceful campaign to warn that Hamid Karzai had lost conviction in the fight against the Taliban and was pursuing a compromise that could come at the cost of democracy, stability and human rights, especially women's rights. He criticized Karzai's policy, which he called a "fatal mistake and a recipe for civil war".^[25]

"My view is there must not be a deal with the Taliban. Ever. There must be a process. And according to that process, based on that process, the Taliban should become part of the society and play according to the script of democracy. They should be demobilized, disarmed, reintegrated the way the Northern Alliance was. ... And also they should denounce violence. And that process will bring a lasting stability. Minus that, if there is a deal, deals never bring stability. They create fragile peace. ... if there is a deal, we will resist against the deal, "we" meaning all the forces who fought the Taliban. ... [T]he Taliban have no message, no vision except intimidation, spreading fear, bringing exclusion in the Afghan society, stopping development and destroying pluralism. ... We all want to make peace, but we do not want to Talibanize Afghanistan."^[3]

—Amrullah Saleh, November 2010

He also warned:

"Psychologically, there is no government. People do not recognize an authority. There are people who are paid by the government, who protect themselves and there are Taliban groups who go around and spread intimidation and fear. In between, the population is caught between two fighting forces and they do not go to [either] for a solution."^[7]

—Amrullah Saleh

Amrullah Saleh consequently founded the Basej-e Milli (National Movement), also known as Afghanistan Green Trend, a political movement which has successfully established itself in Afghanistan. In May 2011, more than 10,000 of his followers took part in an anti-Taliban demonstration in the capital Kabul.^[26][27][28]

In December 2011, Saleh also criticized the corruption of the Karzai government. He warned that if the Afghan government did not commit itself to necessary reforms and to battling corruption, the year 2014 - when international troops plan on having finalized their exit strategy - would be "a year of challenges rather than opportunities".^[29] Saleh especially emphasized the need for fundamental reforms in Afghanistan's Independent Electoral Commission.

"2014 is a year of opportunities, some coalitions will form and whoever wins transparently or in an almost transparent situation, the Afghan people will support the new order ... If there are no reforms, I can foresee a popular uprising, a just uprising different from the Taliban's.^[29]

—Amrullah Saleh, December 2011

Speaking during the inauguration of an Islamic foundation in Kabul, Saleh said the Karzai government and the United States of America cannot represent the anti-Taliban Afghan civilians and initiate peace talks while simultaneously excluding them. The former Afghan Intelligence Chief insisted on considering the views of the Afghan people during the peace talks process, as a majority of Afghans both in the northern and southern regions, he said, have negative views of the Taliban.^[30] He also questioned the honesty of the Taliban's involvement in peace talks.^[31] The recent objections by nearly all major opposition parties come amid growing efforts by the US and Hamid Karzai to make headway in secret talks with the Taliban and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-i Islami.^[31] In these talks representatives from the anti-Taliban United Front, which fought the Taliban from 1994 until 2001 and unites leaders representing roughly 60% of Afghanistan's population, are being excluded. Critizising the secretive nature of US talks with the Taliban, which they suspect might end in a return of the Taliban to power, opposition leaders have asked for a transparent UN-led peace process.^[32]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Amrullah Saleh

Official

• Amrullah Saleh on Facebook

2011

• BBC's "Secret Pakistan": Amrullah Saleh about Bin Laden and Abbottabad
• BBC Hardtalk: Amrullah Saleh: Moderate Taliban is 'an invention'
• Interview with CNN
• 'Afghanistan's Top Spy' with Amrullah Saleh by CBS
• 'Uniting a polarized Afghanistan' about Amrullah Saleh by Al Jazeera
• Anti-Taliban rally May 2011 (BBC Persian)
• Anti-Taliban rally May 2011 (Tolonews)
• Amrullah Saleh appeared on the 3rd of 3 segments featured in the Tuesday, Jan. 18th, 2011 episode of PBS's Frontline, called The Spy Who Quit.

2004-2010

• Amrullah Saleh speech at the Jamestown Foundation's Conference on Terrorism (Dec. 2010)
• Amrullah Saleh Interview with PBS's Frontline in 2006
• Amrullah Saleh Interview (Part 1 & Part 2) with Al Jazeera in 2008
• Amrullah Saleh Interview with ToloTV Part 1
• Amrullah Saleh addressing the Afghan parliament see video
• ToloTV report "Afghan Intelligence Chief Resignation Details"

References[link]

• Gall, Carlotta (2004-02-05). "Afghan Leader Removes Chief Of Intelligence". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/05/world/afghan-leader-removes-chief-of-intelligence.html?pagewanted=1. Retrieved 2010-01-29. 
• Schroen, Gary C. (2005). "Afterward". First In: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan. Random House, Inc.. ISBN 0-89141-872-5.