Taliban
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The Taliban, officially known as the Islamic Movement of Taliban, also referring to itself by the name of the government it operates, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is the ruling government and r
President Ronald Reagan meeting with Afghan Mujahideen leaders in the Oval Office in 1983
The Darul Uloom Deoband in Uttar Pradesh, India, where the Deobandi movement began
Taller Buddha in 1963 and in 2008 after destruction
November 1999 public execution in Kabul of a mother of five who was found guilty of killing her husband with an axe while he slept
Mullah Omar
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Muhammad Umar Mujahid, commonly known as Mullah Omar or Muhammad Omar, was an Afghan militant and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. He founded t
Taliban
…Afghan Civil War (1992–1996) and largely consisted of warlords from the Pashtun areas of eastern and southern Afghanistan. Under the leadership of Mullah Omar, the movement spread through most of Afghanistan, shifting power away from the Islamic State of Afghanistan, as well as other Mujahideen militants. The…
Omar as hafiz student in his youth, 1978, colourised
A still from a 1996 video taken secretly by BBC Newsnight. It purports to show Omar (left) presenting the cloak of Muhammad to his troops in Kandahar, before their successful assault on Kabul.
The June 15, 1998 letter from Mullah Omar to "all Taliban members young and old", complaining that his orders are not being followed. The letter was found in an al-Qaeda safe house in Kabul.
Mullah Omar ordered the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan (pictured in 1976) in March 2001, receiving international condemnation.