The Most Wanted

He is known as the mysterious personality of this century, he is known as a terrorist by the Western World but is considered a religious hero amongst the Muslims. Whole of the world knows about him yet nobody has any knowledge of his whereabouts. This mysterious man is Osama bin Laden. He belongs to a movement that is termed as the Fundamentalist Islamic Military group but on the other hand this group is termed as the motivating force for the suppressed freedom movements in the world.

Mohammad bin laden, belonged to Yamman. He migrated to Saudi Arabia in the early sixties. Facing the new challenges this man of determination was able to launch his own project with the name of “Bin Laden Construction company”. Their business expanded like a web around the Arabia’s economy.

After his father’s death, Osama led the business following the footsteps of his father. But his life changes completely when Russian Army invaded in Afghanistan in December 1979.

Before mentioning his military adventures in Afghanistan I would like to give a brief preview of Afghanistan’s History.

	YEAR	EVENT
	1838-1842	Afghanistan invaded by British forces. First Afghan War. Anglo-Indian force heavily defeated. British occupation ended in December
	1878-1879	Second Afghan War, precipitated again by Afghan and Russian cooperation, and British invasion. Kabul occupied by British forces.
	1919-1926	Angered by British influence, war declared on Britain by Amanullah Khan. He is made the king.
	1947-1967	Ongoing border dispute with Pakistan
	1973	King Zahir deposed by his cousin Muhammad Daud. Afghanistan declared a republic
	1978	Daud killed in coup d’état. Programme of ‘scientific socialism’ initiated by new rulers Taraki and Amin. Armed resistance from Muslims. New government aided by Soviet Union
	1979	Afghanistan invaded by Soviet Union, and Babrak Karmal installed as President. Soviet occupation resisted by mujahedin (Taliban are called mujahedin by the western world during the war) through the 1980s
	1989	Soviet troops withdraw. Continuation of civil war
	1990	Civil War. Increased Islamic influence in area
	1996	Strict Islamic regime established in Kabul in 1996 by the Taliban (now termed as fundamentalist Islamic militia according to the western countries)
	1997	Pakistan and Saudi Arabia formally recognize legitimacy of Taliban government
	1998	US launches missile attacks on Afghanistan

Osama’s involvement in International politics started in mid-1980. In April 1978 Daud was killed during a violent coup d’état who were generally perceived as the Russian Agents. The reason was that he tried to settle their disputes with Pakistan (which was termed as a Pro-American country). The new rulers, organized in a Revolutionary Council led first by Noor Muhammad Taraki, and later by Hafizullah Amin initiated a programme of “scientific socialism” (according to Russian interests). This led to armed resistance by devout Muslims, especially among the mountain tribes.

Unable to control the rebellion movement, Taraki and Amin turned to the USSR for help. Despite Soviet military aid, resistance to the government continued in 1979. In December of that year, Amin was overthrown and killed in a Soviet-backed coup, and Afghanistan was occupied by Soviet troops. In fact, during this era Russians were the actual forces; they assigned a puppet on the Afghani people and then killed him in a so-called coup. More than 3 million refugees fled to neighboring Pakistan. During the mid-1980s, government forces and about 118,000 Soviet troops held major cities and roads but were unable to dislodge the rebel mujahedin. The conflict became an international issue, with the United States and Muslim nations supplying arms and support to the mujahedin, while the USSR was drawn into a protracted, costly, and ultimately futile conflict. The interesting part of this international drama was that American CIA and president Ronald Reagan himself, were interested to drag Osama bin Laden in this war. Osama got his military training right under the nose of American government. In fact America had no interest with the Afghani conflict. Their main purpose was to tear off the Iron Curtain, thus this was just a game of power between the two super powers of that time and Osama played a role of mid-person in that war.

In 1985, Osama officially declared his organization “AL-Quaida” to support the Afghan mujahedin. He supported this movement in every way and brought this issue to international forum. Thousands of Bin Laden Construction Company’s equipment were used to construct roads, hospitals and tunnels. At last in 1989 after the retrieval of Russian army he returned to his motherland Saudi Arabia. Now this Saudi Prince was a celebrity. He was started terming as the motivating force for the Muslims activists all around the world. Now Osama bin Laden was a threat for the international forces. During the Gulf War he kept on criticizing the government’s policies as a punishment his Saudi citizenship was cancelled in 1994. This is indeed the biggest dilemma of the Muslim that they turned their backs on their heroes. He took refugee in Sudan. Now At that time American intelligence was not involving him for any type of terrorist activity directly. The cat came out of the bag in August 1998 when two bombs exploded at the US embassies in East Africa and CIA named Osama bin Laden as the prime suspect. The US launched missile attacks against Afghanistan and Sudan. However in November the Supreme Court of the Taliban totally exonerated bin Laden of terrorist charges.

This doesnot mean that Talibans don’t have any flaws, as I don’t agree with their stubborn policies especially on the issues of Buddhist’s monuments and Christian missionaries. Islam is a religion of peace, flexibility and humanity. It teaches us to have respect for all the religions. Talibans must have acted in a more flexible way. Because of their stubborn attitude they have lost political support on international forum. The flaw on USA part is that they are not providing enough evidences to prove Osama’s involvement in the recent attacks. No doubt all the Muslim countries have condemned this act of terrorism on America. But they have also been condemning the slaughter of helpless people in Palestine and Kashmir. According to a British, Muslim Industrialist “The life of a Muslim or any other helpless person is as much important as that of a American citizen”. Whenever there is an action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Newton’s law can definitely be applied to the prevailing political situation in the world. USA needs to change its policies only in that case it can catch “The Most Wanted”.

From: Tooba Shahid - BCSE-III – 24th October 2001