Agriculture Helps in Wardak Counter Insurgency Fight, Afghanistan

[amna.]

You think Hizbi is more popular than the Taliban? On which basis?
do they like Gulbuddin, or maybe think he will win out later and want to be on his side?
I expect the people of Wardak remember Maulavi Jelaluddin's contributions earlier and must respect him. After all, the Wardak mujahideen supply caravans had to go through his territory and there was a good cooperation it seemed at least at that time before. I saw that myself and I believe it lasted.

Hizbi and the Taliban according to my relatives are unified to defeat the infidels.

[Zarawar]

do they like Gulbuddin, or maybe think he will win out later and want to be on his side?

haha I don't think Wardago qawm needs to rely anyone, we are a proud Musalman nation. Our history is full of bravery and less bragging, we don't need to rely on anyone in the future. We are going to have our own Hekmatyars, just waite until a few years, da nawee zwanan mo Alhamdulilah ham da qalam aw ham da torey zmaryan dee. I don't like bragging like most Wardags, but we were never power thirsty.
Ghazi Mohammad Jan Wardak, one of the heros of second Afghan-Anglo war had the entire country during the war and was offered and had the control of the kingdom many times, he refused it saying he didn't want to betray the ones that deserved it ( Ayub khan) that was not present in Kabul at the time. You see the history was always written by the ones that controlled the resources and educational institutions. Ghazi Kamal Khan, a general in Ahmad Shah Baba's army and the front line commander in the battle of Panipat, that latter on became the ruler of northern India, present day Pakistan and whole Kashmir region. There are Qalas (castles) in Wardak built in his times, he had brought all of the gates after the invasions of India on elephant backs (they are still there) and most importantly the saddle and knife of the slain Maratha's army chief that he had killed in panipat. The knife and the saddle is still in one of the local family's possession. Again, there is no history written on that........Khabara me pa Hekmatyar saib darta waka.
Wardak people's nature is not very loud, glittery, bragging and conceited. They've always remained neutral and backed the majority Pashtun movements of the times NOT their leaders for the sake of power, they would back the parties up based on Chegha and unity regardless of the movements motives and ideologies.

[Zarawar]

^^ Jasmine khorey pa Naseeb ke de na woo, I wrote the longest reply ever. Accidently got removed, there is no way in the world i'm writing that again..Waite until I write a formal biography about him then i'll let you know.

[Catya Sher]

Great discussion here, very illuminating for everyone.
Very glad if there is a powerful unity being forged in Wardak which will succeed in reclaiming the province for its own people.
My understanding from before during the Soviet time was that while there were some beautiful mountains, too much of Wardak was plains. Hence the Sovs could bombard way too easily and Wardak could not resist as well as mountainous areas.
Glad that thousands came to assist in Jelaluddin's campaigns in the east. Yes of course I know he was the main commander for Maulavi Khalis.
In fact I had for years their original mujahideen poster ! I might reproduce it if anyone is interested once I figure out how to do that! It was all over the place and showed a number of shahids beneath the portraits of the two.
Then, it was commonplace. But after these difficult years that have passed, it seems a historic document. There is a very optimistic spirit which I like about it. (In fact, I had my photo of this poster right on my computer for a week and then i discovered this site! So maybe it led me here... kidding a little!)

Speaking of artifacts, I hope that knife and saddle are still safe.
Zarawar wrote: "Majority of the tribal elders were either detained and abused (to ruin their reputation), their houses were raided. While the rest fled to Kabul and other cities of Afghanistan, i.e. Mazar, Herat, Kandahar, Ghazni etc. Speaking at the moment, majority of the well known tribal elders have fled and in the process of leaving Wardak"

Can you explain this more?
Also how the outside forces were trying to ruin the elders' reputations? I didn't get how that works. And WHY??? Why were the NATO or American forces so suspicious of Wardakis?

And then a big can of worms I'm sure to open up : what about the notorious "general" rahim wardak? I always warned people who asked me about him. A local area group raised funds for Afghanistan and wanted to fly him over to give a lecture. When I heard who they chose I said he's the worst, don't bring him! There are so many real mujahideen out there. But they ignored me and made a big show of promoting him.
Then the next thing I see he is a "general" and Minister of Defense.
My impression of him was poor because I had to ask him to gain access to interview the Soviet prisoners he had charge of.
He was I think the commander for Gailani party. But never accomplished much in the field, that was the reputation he had. Then suddenly a general?

Thanks SO much for these reactions of everyone who posted here.

[Feroza_Banu]

is there any way possible to make a list of famous and/or accomplished wardags throughout the history.

Considering how wardags are very very down to earth people, most of their achievements and stories of bravery are unknown to many afghans.

[Zarawar]

Great discussion here, very illuminating for everyone.
Very glad if there is a powerful unity being forged in Wardak which will succeed in reclaiming the province for its own people.
what exactly do you mean by reclaiming the province for its own people? are you referring to the NATO invasion?
Unless you are referring to some other type of reclaiming, elaborate...


My understanding from before during the Soviet time was that while there were some beautiful mountains, too much of Wardak was plains. Hence the Sovs could bombard way too easily and Wardak could not resist as well as mountainous areas.
Soviets focused on the main highway and so did the Mujahideen, most of the Mujahideen fighting took place on the main high way. Obviously when the Russian convoys would pass through the rural areas, they would get ambushed and attacked. But, they had no need and point in patrolling the rural side of Wardak. That's why a lot of Wardak Mujahideen would leave their homes for weeks and months to go attack the main highway or go into Logar, Kapisa, Bamiyan and Ghazni. Wardak Mujahideen were also fighting in other provinces like Paktia, Paktika, Khost, Nangarhar, and Kunar. Good example of that would be a Moa3z e Mili commander, commander Bismillah Khan from Shneez , Patankhel. His men were all over the mentioned provinces.





Can you explain this more?
Also how the outside forces were trying to ruin the elders' reputations? I didn't get how that works. And WHY??? Why were the NATO or American forces so suspicious of Wardakis?
They want to destroy the unity/jirga/social system, and that can be easily done by giving the leaders of the are a bad reputation. For example, conspiracies like night raids, assassination through the American-Taliban etc. You would think this war is only fought with dollar bills and bullets, NO! There are much more to it. For example a while back one of the elders wedding crew/convoy was passing through a remote area, armed men stopped the wedding convoy. Looted them and even took the jewelry from the womens hands, one of the womens ear was split into two because apparently the armed men were in hurry or something. Regardless, hundreds of cases like this has happened, and people are smart enough to detect that our social system is also under attack. They've took tribal elders to bagram and sexually molested them, some had their heads shaved and other things happen to them. THIS IS NOT THE CASE WITH TRIBAL ELDERS IN WARDAK ONLY, LOOK AROUND YOU, LOYA PAKTIA, LOY KANDAHAR, and LOY NANGARHAR, the tribal system is under attack. Foreigners are not silly, they've studied us and passed on notes about us for centuries. They know that the most effective way to break the Afghan unity/pride and resistance is to distrupt their social system. Because, Pashtuns rely heavily on elder authority, in that case, tribal elders or anyone that has a good reputation amongst the public.


And then a big can of worms I'm sure to open up : what about the notorious "general" rahim wardak? I always warned people who asked me about him. A local area group raised funds for Afghanistan and wanted to fly him over to give a lecture. When I heard who they chose I said he's the worst, don't bring him! There are so many real mujahideen out there. But they ignored me and made a big show of promoting him.
Then the next thing I see he is a "general" and Minister of Defense.
My impression of him was poor because I had to ask him to gain access to interview the Soviet prisoners he had charge of.
He was I think the commander for Gailani party. But never accomplished much in the field, that was the reputation he had. Then suddenly a general?

Thanks SO much for these reactions of everyone who posted here.

He was a close friend of Haqqani and took parts in one of the biggest battles, like the jawara battle of Paktia, he also controlled the surroundings of kabul and was responsible for the blowing of hundreds of electricity poles to shut the city off, of electicity. And yes he was with Gillani's mohaz e mili. Yeah he's a vegetable......a dead vegetable!
his da kar sarai nadai.

[Catya Sher]

Great to understand all the history and the way the foreigners have tried to break the tribal system. I hadn't quite realized that in this war, the Americans were that determined to defame the elders throughout all these provinces.
[Seems to me that the Russians made some underhanded attempts to do that but did not focus so much on destroying the traditional chain of authority? I know they tried to buy off elders the same way that must have been done now.
Separate question: do you suppose the Russians handed over THEIR notes to Americans for this, or gave advice? Certainly the British would have pulled anything from their Foreign Office files. I'm curious about the Red Army though. Maybe no one knows exactly, but I wonder.]
Yes, of course I meant to reclaim the province from the nato forces. I haven't kept up too much as you can see but I do notice from time to time articles quoting "Governor so and so of Wardak said that blah blah". I always think who is THAT?! Some collaborator? It sounds so artificial, like a puppet regime for Wardak province. Not authentic. That's why I used the word 'reclaim'.

I am appalled about this taking the respected elders to Bagram and horribly mistreating them like that! Certainly the devil is gloating and working through each one of those torturers and all who cooperate with this policy. The people who seem powerful today to give these orders will nevertheless all get their punishment in the afterlife for what they have done. It's not much consolation for all the suffering right now, however.

The other question I have related to these insulting policies, is why do the nato forces want the documents of the elders' families? I was told that Americans took away all the papers of one family. WHY, I wondered? For what? It makes no sense. Americans are not record-keepers nor keen on history. They believe in the moment that's all, not analyzing past events.
So what do they need the family documents for? That concerned me a lot when I heard that.

Also now about rahim wardak - i hope he is not the relative of anybody around here, I don't mean to insult anyone - but am surprised that he was a good friend of Jelaluddin. Or cooperated. When was the Battle of Jawar?
Because I spent a week at Jawar when it was just new. Later it was bombed by the Soviets, but I did not follow events after that in any detail.

Yes I remembered after I wrote that about Sarobi - he was always attacking there and on those power lines. That's what he spoke about when I asked for the permission and a few polite interview questions. It was difficult to tell how successful he was with those operations from afar. But he did talk about them a lot.
Some Kabulis were said to be mad that their power was cut, I remember that.
Glad he helped out elsewhere too, that makes me feel better. I still thought, though, that he was too much of a heavy-drinker to be a real mujahid.
He was back and forth to America as i recall too.
I don't mean to offend any supporters of his, just mentioning my recollections of that time to throw in for the historical records.
At least no one can take them away from this site!

[Zarawar]

Please for me.

PASHTUNQUEEN

I'll let you know when I'm done with the biography..