Mohammed Zaman

This article is about the Afghan leader. For the Persian calligrapher and painter, see Muhammad Zaman. For other people, see Zaman.

Hajji Mohammed Zaman (29 April 1965 – 22 February 2010), also known as Zaman Ghamsharik, was a Pashtun Afghan military leader and politician.[1] He was an ethnic Pashtun from the Khogyani tribe. According to Maj. Dalton Fury,[2] who fought together with Ghamsharik in November/December 2001 in the Tora Bora campaign against the Taliban, Haji Zaman had been "one of the more infamous mujahideen junior commanders during the Soviet–Afghan War. When the Taliban took over, Zaman departed Afghanistan for France. When the Taliban fell from grace after 9/11, he returned to his homeland to reclaim his former VIP status. He was said to have had influential friends in neighboring Pakistan, including members of the Pakistan intelligence service. He reportedly led a force of 4,000 men during the campaign to oust Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers.[1]

During the initial years of the Taliban's administration of Afghanistan, some sources claim Zaman led resistance fighters from bases in Pakistan against Taliban rule.[1]

In 1997, the government of Pakistan forced him to leave Pakistan. Haji Zaman spent the remaining years of the Taliban's rule of Afghanistan, (i.e., until shortly after the 9/11/01 WTC attack), in Dijon, France.

Following the September 11 attacks, and subsequent confirmation that Osama Bin Laden was behind the attack, the US demanded Taliban leader Mullah Omar to turn over Bin Laden or face US invasion. Mullah Omar refused to surrender Bin Laden, so the US planned military action as described in CIA officers Gary Berntsen's Jawbreaker, and Gary Schroen's First In. Haji Zaman returned from France to Afghanistan (reportedly at the invitation of the US CIA, as a counterbalance to another Afghan warlord/partner Hazret Ali) and joined with other regional and tribal leaders from the Nangarhar and Khowst provinces to form the Eastern Shura.[1][3]

The Eastern Shura, of which Haji Zaman was a key member, were early backers of the first post-Taliban President Hamid Karzai.

Karzai later appointed Haji Mohammad Zaman Ghamsharik as deputy Chief of Police for Nangarhar Province.[4]

Haji Mohammed Zaman Ghamsharik was killed on 22 February 2010 in a suicide bombing, while addressing refugees in Khogyani District, Nangarhar Province.[5]

  1. ^ a b c d Rone Tempest (19 October 2001). "Pashtun leaders meet in Pakistan: Exiled commander urges fight against Taliban". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 17 May 2008.
  2. ^ Fury, Dalton, Kill Bin Laden, (St Martin's Press, NY: 2008) ISBN 0-312-38439-4 OCLC 213300987 p 129
  3. ^ In CIA officer Gary Berntsen's book, he describes Haji Zamar Ghamsharik by a cover name "Nuruddin" but it is clear he is describing Haji Zamar from Maj. Dalton's cross references. Berntsen states p. 280: "Most of Nuruddin's men were from the local Khungani tribe and many of them had been on bin Laden's payroll in recent months, hired to dig caves. One of them, Haji Nazir, later claimed to reporters that he was sent by Nuruddin into the mountains to warn al-Qaeda forces about what was coming..." This suggests that Haji Zamar was at least not keen on capturing or killing Bin Laden, while opening the possibility that he secretly supported al-Qaeda. Afghan warlords, per Schrone and Berntsen, were shifting loyalty frequently (depending on who was winning and/or paying out bigger bribes). Berntsen commented, pg. 290 "I also knew that as far as our Eastern Alliance allies were concerned, they would be happy to take our money and let al-Qaeda slip away". Many of these foot soldiers of Haji Zamar, per Berntsen, pg 275, were "followers of local religious leader Maulawi Mohammad Younus Khalis, who had instructed them to allow al-Qaeda to escape". (It is no surprise Khalis took such a position, since he was the one who in 1996 originally hosted Osama Bin Laden when Bin Laden arrived from Sudan, ie prior to Bin Laden's moving to Mullah Omar's Taliban protection). "Bin Laden Believed to be in Tora Bora". CNN. 2001-11-29.
  4. ^ Amir Shah (6 June 2006). "2 Soldiers Killed by Afghan Roadside Bomb". Washington Post. Retrieved 20 May 2008.
  5. ^ Andres arg (22 February 2010). "Afghan Tribal Leader Who Had Worked With U.S. Killed In Suicide Bombing". NPR. Retrieved 22 February 2010.