One man's defiance inspires a region to stand up to the Taliban
By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times, June 1, 2013
ZANGABAD, Afghanistan--The uprising began in early February with a Taliban commander's knock on the door of Hajji Abdul Wudood.
The militant leader demanded that Wudood, a stout, weathered man of 60, surrender one of his eight sons, who was accused of spying on the Taliban for the Afghan government.
What Wudood did next triggered a revolt against the Taliban that has spread to a dozen villages in a region that has been among the nation's most formidable Taliban strongholds.
Fed up with beheadings and homemade bombs that killed 60 people in two villages the previous year, Wudood refused to hand over 25-year-old Abdul Hanan.
"I knew if I let them take my son, they would kill him," Wudood recalled.
Inspired by the actions of the former mujahedin fighter, Wudood's fellow villagers began ripping down Taliban flags and raising the black-red-and-green Afghan national colors. They have offered up their own sons and brothers to serve in a U.S.-trained local militia. And they have pointed out Taliban hide-outs and homemade bombs.
Many Afghans seethed under the Taliban's brutal eight-year domination of Kandahar province's Panjwayi district in southern Afghanistan. Their sudden defiance has helped embolden Afghan security forces who themselves have long been intimidated by the insurgents.
"It's a great thing," Haji Faizal Mohammad, the white-bearded Panjwayi district governor, said of the uprising's galvanizing effects. "Before, the enemy was chasing us. Now we're chasing the enemy."
The insurgents here are hardly vanquished. But the Panjwayi revolt is perhaps the most significant of such local rebellions in Afghanistan.
"I swear to you, the Taliban will never return. It's my village, and I'm not afraid," Wudood said, squatting on the floor of the district governor's office. He pulled back his vest to reveal a pistol on his hip and an ammunition clip in his pocket.
After the uprising, U.S. commanders provided beans, rice, cooking oil and clothing for Panjwayi residents--delivered by Afghan security forces. U.S. Army engineers helped Afghan soldiers build a short road to three rocky hills nicknamed Dragon's Back, where the Afghan army and police established observation posts for the first time. Emboldened, the forces pushed into former Taliban strongholds.
It was easy to see the advantage provided by the new outposts. Never before had the soldiers or police dared to seize this high ground in Taliban country. "This is a big advantage for us; now we can see the enemy coming," said an outpost commander, Sgt. Maj. Saeyd Faryadi.
Lt. Col. Aga Khan, who commands a 700-man Afghan battalion in western Panjwayi, said the army enjoys local support here for the first time. "Before, they didn't know if they could trust us," he said. "Now they beg us to come to their villages."
In nearby Peshingan, Hajji Wudood is a beloved figure. People pray for him, he said. They thank him for their liberation.
Wudood totes an AK-47 assault rifle along with his pistol. Soon, district authorities promise, the man who stood up to the Taliban will be given his own Humvee.
He smiled beneath his ragged beard. "Everyone has the responsibility to stand up to anyone who treats us so badly," he said.
Wudood now commands a 30-man Afghan local police militia made up of villagers. Among them is Abdul Hanan, the son demanded by the Taliban.
