Synopsis The Taliban is a Sunni Islamist, predominantly Pashtun radical religious and political movement created in 1994 by Mohammed Omer in Southern Afghan city of Kandhar that governed Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, when its leaders were removed from power by NATO forces. Based in the Pashtun region in the country’s southeast, the group grew out of a student movement dedicated to purifying Afghanistan. Its rise was initially greeted with relief by many Afghans weary of the corruption and brutality of the warlords who had fought for control in years after the end of Soviet occupation.

The Taliban movement is headed by Mullah Mohammed Omar, who is still in hiding has gained some amount of political control and acceptance in Pakistan’s border region, but recently lost one of its key leaders, Baitullah Mehsud, in a CIA strike. However Pakistan has launched offensive to force out of Taliban. The Taliban is today classified by security analysts as an “alternative government” in Afghanistan. It operates fifteen Sharia law courts in the country’s southern provinces handling civil and commercial cases and collects taxes on harvests in farming areas.