Sources: How Mullah Omar’s Uprising Began
The story often told of the Taliban’s ascent — starting at a checkpoint
along Highway 1 in what is today Zhari district — often lacks specific
details about the exact warlord responsible for the kidnapping of the
women, or the checkpoint where they were discovered.
BuzzFeed News drew from original documents and memoirs from three
Taliban leaders — Mullah Omar, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, and Akbar
Agha — as well as interviews with tribal elders in Zhari, accounts from
tribal elders in Kandahar, and district-level Tribal Liaison Office Reports.
According to these accounts, in 1994, there were at least five major
checkpoints near Sangesar, where Mullah Omar lived, going east toward
Kandahar City. Locals said the worst of them was the one run by Saleh. He
had been linked to a Communist militia in the 1980s, and after the Soviet
withdrawal, set up shop for himself, buttressed by the support of three
other commanders: Habibullah Jan in Zhari, and Ustaad Haleem and Arif
Khan Nurzai in Kandahar City. As Mullah Omar and his band
of guerrilla forces ousted checkpoint commander after commander, it was
at Saleh's checkpoint that they found the women.