Abdul Malik Pahlawan is an Uzbek warlord and politician based in

Faryab Province Faryab (Dari: ) is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, which is located in the north of the country bordering neighboring Turkmenistan. It has a population of about 1,109,223, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a tribal society. The pr ...

in northern

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. He is the head of the Afghanistan Liberation Party and was heavily involved in the factional fighting that consumed Afghanistan throughout the 1990s. His rival for the control of the Uzbek north is Rashid Dostum, and their militias have clashed several times since the fall of the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...

Capture of Mazar-i-Sharif

Initially, Abdul Malik was one of Dostum's subordinates, but in 1996 he blamed Dostum for the murder of his brother, General

Rasul Pahlawan General Rasul Pahlawan was an Uzbek military leader in Afghanistan, and the brother of Uzbek leader Abdul Malik Pahlawan. Rasul Pahlawan was born in Faryab Province in northern parts of Afghanistan. In June 1996, he was killed in an ambush in ...

. He then entered into secret negotiations with the Taliban, who promised to respect his authority over much of Northern Afghanistan, in exchange for the capture of

Ismail Khan Mohammad Ismail Khan (Dari/Pashto: محمد اسماعیل خان) (born 1946) is an Afghan former politician who served as Minister of Energy and Water from 2005 to 2013 and before that served as the governor of Herat Province. Originally a cap ...

, one of their most powerful enemies. Accordingly, on May 25, 1997, he arrested Khan and handed him over and let the Taliban enter

Mazar-i-Sharif , official_name = , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = , pushpin_map = Afghanistan#Bactria#West Asia , pushpin_label = Mazar-i-Sharif , pushpin ...

, giving them control over most of Northern Afghanistan. Because of this, Dostum was forced to flee to Turkey. However Malik quickly decided that the Taliban were not going to keep their promises as they started to disarm his men. He then rejoined forces with the

United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan The Northern Alliance, officially known as the United Islamic National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan ( prs, جبهه متحد اسلامی ملی برای نجات افغانستان ''Jabha-yi Muttahid-i Islāmi-yi Millī barāyi Nijāt ...

(the Northern Alliance), and turned against his erstwhile allies, helping to drive them from Mazar-i-Sharif. In September 1997, Dostum returned from exile and defeated Malik, briefly regaining control of Mazar-i-Sharif, and forcing him to escape to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

in December 1997. After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Malik organized his ''Hezb-e Azadi-ye Afghanistan'' political party, whose military wing has often clashed with members of Dostum's '' Junbish'' party.

References

External links

Pahlawan, Abdul Malik
- MIPT terrorism knowledge database
BBC profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Malik Pahlawan, Abdul Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Afghan warlords Freedom Party of Afghanistan politicians Afghan Uzbek politicians

Capture of Mazar-i-Sharif

See also

References

External links