Taliban

Afghan militant Islamist and jihadist political movement the Taliban, also known as the Taliban Islamic Movement or the Islamic Movement of Taliban, is a Deobandi-Pashtun Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, and jihadist political movement that has been designated as a terrorist organisation by some countries. As the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, it refers to the area under their rule. The Taliban, who are now one of two groups claiming to be the official government of Afghanistan, the other being the internationally recognised Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, have de facto power over the country. A "novel" type of Islamic law based on Deobandi fundamentalism and militant Islamism, blended with Pashtun social and cultural standards known as Pashtunwali, has been defined as the Taliban's philosophy, which is appropriate given that the vast majority of Taliban are Pashtun tribespeople. The gang's participation in the illicit drug trade, which it funds internally via the production and trafficking of drugs such as heroin, as well as extortion and abduction for ransom, provides the group with its primary source of income. Also in the mid-2010s, they took control of mining businesses that had been operating illegally under the previous administration.

For their draconian execution of their version of Islamic Sharia law, which has led in the inhumane treatment of a large number of Afghans, the Taliban have been widely denounced on the world stage. During their rule in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban and their allies carried out massacres against Afghan civilians, withheld UN food supplies from 160,000 starving civilians, and implemented a policy of scorched earth, destroying vast tracts of fertile land and tens of thousands of homes. In Afghanistan, when the Taliban was in authority, they prohibited activities and media such as paintings, photographs, and films that represented humans or other living things. They also forbade the use of instruments in music, with the exception of the daf, which is a form of frame drum that was allowed. In addition, the Taliban forbade girls and young women from attending school, barred them from working in fields other than healthcare (male doctors were forbidden from treating women), and required that women always be accompanied by a male relative and wear a burqa whenever they were out in public places. Those who disobeyed specific regulations were either publicly beaten or killed. As part of their reign of terror, the Taliban practised harsh discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities, and they also perpetrated a cultural genocide against the Afghan people by demolishing numerous monuments, including the world-famous Bamiyan Buddhas, which date back more than 1500 years. As reported by the United Nations, the Taliban and its supporters were responsible for 76 percent of Afghan civilian deaths in 2010, and 80 percent of Afghan civilian casualties in 2011.

In addition to the Haqqani network, Al-Qaeda, and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the Taliban get backing from a number of other terrorist organisations. Taliban supporters are said to be based in a number of countries including China, Iran, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. All of their governments, on the other hand, have categorically denied giving any assistance to the Taliban. Additionally, the Taliban denies receiving any kind of foreign assistance from any government. According to previous reports, the Taliban received backing from the United Arab Emirates and Turkmenistan as well.