NOTE: To view issue number sixty-one of the Ṭālibān’s magazine al-Ṣamūd see here.
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Biography
The General Official of the Mujahideen in Nuristan Province is Sheikh Dost Muhammad, son of al-Hajj Safar Muhammad, and one of the sons of Nuristan in east Afghanistan. He conducted his elementary studies in this region, then traveled to continue his Shari’ah studies in Pakistan. After graduating, he became occupied
with teaching in a number of schools and has long experience in the fields of tafseer, Hadith and Islamic jurisprudence. He has authored a number of books on Jihad and other Shari’ah matters, and is renowned as a professor on both sides of the border. The Sheikh has dedicated a large part of his life to Jihad and educating the Mujahideen in addition to teaching and writing. He has lived the life of the Mujahideen in the mountains, caves and forests, away from the pleasures of life. Although the Sheikh’s beard has whitened, his soul is still as strong as if he was in his twenties. Now the Sheikh continues to work in the general leadership of the Mujahideen in Nuristan province under the command of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Recently, al-Somood magazine met with him and conducted this interview, which we invite you to read.
Question: Your Excellency, to start we thank you for allowing us the opportunity to met you to learn the situation in Nuristan. We wish for you to give us a general overview of this province.
Answer: We praise Allah and we pray upon His kind messenger. Thereafter, we thank you also for bearing the hardship of coming here, and we ask Allah to reward you. To answer your question, Nuristan province is located in eastern Afghanistan and includes seven districts in addition to the center Parun. This province is divided into three main regions: eastern Nuristan, central Nuristan and western Nuristan. East Nuristan includes Barg-e-Matal and Kamdesh districts. Central Nuristan includes the Wanat and Wama districts as well as the province capital Parun. Western Nuristan includes three districts including Nur Karam, Dawab and Mandol. Nuristan province has a rocky, mountainous nature and the plains are few. Mountains, forests and rivers form the majority of the province’s landscape. Therefore the lands of this province are considered among the most suitable for Jihadist operations and guerrilla warfare. And so this province was among the most dangerous and damaging to the Russians during their occupation of this country and has now becomes one of the most dangerous for the Americans and their allies.
Question: What are the details of the situation in the various regions in this province, and which areas are under the control of the Mujahideen and which are under the control of the enemy? Are there bases for the invading foreign forces in the land of Nuristan?
Answer: Like in the rest of Afghanistan’s provinces, the Americans established their military bases in Nuristan. One of the strongest bases was in Nuristan in different areas of Kamdesh district. Through the grace of Allah and the sacrifices of the Mujahideen, the province of Nuristan has been cleansed of the presence of American forces and they now have no bases in all of Nuristan province with the exception of Nur Karam base in extreme western Nuristan adjacent to the village of Kalagush in Laghman province. They have no other presence in the rest of Nuristan. As for the districts of the province, the Mujahideen, through the grace of Allah, control three districts: Kamdesh, Mandol and Waygal are all under the complete control of the Mujahideen.
As for the districts of Wama and Barg-e-Matal, lackey forces are present in the district centers and cannot leave them because there are Mujahideen bases located no farther than 1 kilometer away. As for the center of Barun district, it is completed surrounded by the Mujahideen. The center is tantamount to a few square kilometers of land surrounded by a fence of security barracks. The rest of the district area and the roads leading to it are under the control of the Mujahideen. In general, American forces are only present in Noorgaram near Laghman province. The Lackey forces are besieged in the centers of Parun, Wama and Barg-e-Matal and supplies are delivered via air only. Allah Almighty willing, the Mujahideen will be successful through His aid to them, and they will conquer the remaining besieged centers and the lackey soldiers will surrender to the Mujahideen or they will flee on helicopters, Allah Almighty permitting.
Question: You spoke about the province center Parun. The lackey government has recently displayed great concern over it and said that the city is in danger of falling into the hands of the Mujahideen. Is there a plan for a comprehensive assault on it?
Answer: Yes,. The Mujahideen in Nuristan have reached the final stages of the plan drawn up to cleanse the center of the enemy, as they did in Kamdesh and Wanat. This year we intend to focus our operations upon the province center. If Allah Almighty grants it to us to conquer the province center, this will mean that Nuristan has been liberated in its entirety, Allah willing, because the rest of the province has already been conquered by the Mujahideen. In the remaining area where the enemy is present, this presence is weak and incapable of mounting resistance. All roads leading to the center have been closed and are under the control of the Mujahideen. The Mujahideen have attacked some of the enemy’s defensive positions as a prelude to the final assault, Allah Almighty willing. They have conquered three of these points and have also shot down a helicopter bringing supplies to the province from Kabul. But the final assault has not yet begun.
Question: If Allah wills success for the operation to liberate the province, what will your future plans be?
Answer: As we mentioned to you previously, some enemy forces remain, even if only in a token fashion, in the Barg-e-Matal and Wama districts, which have been under siege by the Mujahideen for a long time. We will seek to purify these districts also of their presence. With that, the presence of the enemy will be limited to the Nur Karam districts in west Nuristan only. As for the rest of the Nuristan, it will be purified of the ungodliness of the enemy entirely, Allah willing.
Question: The past years in Nuristan have witnessed, through the grace of Allah, great achievements for the Mujahideen. More than once, they liberated the Barg-e-Matal district, and they destroyed 5 strong American bases in Kamdesh. Lastly, they completely liberated Wanat Waygal district. So, what do you see as the secret of the Mujahideen’s victories?
Answer: We believe that our victories are derived entirely from the grace of Allah and the special mercy that he has granted to our unarmed Mujahideen to destroy the strongest American bases in the area. After that, we do not forget sacrifices of the Mujahideen and the general populace, because the people of Nuristan stand loyally and entirely by the side of the Mujahideen, and cooperate with them in carrying out the duty of fighting. Eliminating the enemy from this region is the best proof of the cooperation of the people with the Mujahideen. And now, throughout the entire province, there is no one who opposes the Mujahideen except some puppets in the province center. This because all of those who had allied themselves with the enemy has run away to Jalalabad or to the capital Kabul. The rest of the people are standing alongside the Mujahideen and praise Allah for that.
Question: Nuristan province is a mountainous, rocky region, and far removed from media coverage. Any time a battle takes place, the enemy claims they have inflicted big losses on the Mujahideen. It is hard to confirm some of these claims. So, are the losses of the Mujahideen indeed as the enemy claims?
Answer: Making such claims is the enemy’s last ditch effort to raise the morale of their defeated soldiers. The truth is that the Mujahideen’s losses are very few because the Mujahideen have now understood through their experiences of the past few years how to deal with enemy air raids and have to come to know ways of preventing them. Additionally, the terrain of Nuristan are mostly mountainous in nature and covered with vast forests, so the air raids do not have much of an impact. So if the enemy’s air raids have lost their impact due to natural factors and the enemy’s forces on the ground have become minimal or non-existent, then how could the Mujahideen face bog losses? Throughout recent years we haven’t witnessed any big blows inflicted on the Mujahideen. As for the enemy’s attacks on villages and homes, this has happened numerous times and many among the general public have been killed.
Question: You mentioned the enemy’s attacks on villages and homes and perpetrating massacres against civilians. Would you please give us some examples?
Answer: Years ago, American forces raided the village of Batikhel in Kamdesh district and killed 20 civilians, most of whom were women and children. Also, American aircraft bombed a passenger bus in Kordish village in the same district, killing 8 civilians. Additionally, they bombed a village in Barg-e-Matal killing 40 civilians, and killed more 30 civilians in an attack on a village in Dawab district. The story of heinous crimes committed by the
