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WARRIOR:
THE LIFE
& DEATH
OF ABDUL
HAQ
The remarkable story of Abdul Haq, warrior, peacemaker,
visionary and martyr, whose fight to bring Afghanistan freedom
and peace brought about his death.
BBC Four: For people who've never heard of Abdul Haq, why
was he an important figure?
Malcolm Brinkworth: First, he was probably one of the most
successful and respected commanders during the Soviet-
Afghanistan War. Secondly, he was a man of principal. He
espoused all the kinds of banners we think we stand for in the
West, like truth, honesty and integrity. All the people who
worked with him during that war said he had no anger or
division over ethnicity, over which tribe or part of Afghanistan
you came from. Thirdly, he was also the man who got things
done. He was a highly effective commander and organiser.
Everywhere we went in our research, most people agreed that
Abdul Haq was one of the most important figures in
Afghanistan. That's why the Pakistan officials and the ISI didn't
really like him. Haq wouldn't tow the line. When I was looking at
the whole history of the last 25 years it became clear that you
can see the whole conflict through Haq's eyes. You can
understand what happened in the Soviet-Afghan War, you can
understand the way the Pakistan Government and the CIA
played things out, and you can also understand what then led
to the kind of climate that made Afghanistan turn itself into a
terrorist state.
Abdul Haq is the one man who said, "I won't be your puppet but
you actually need to join with us to make this work, otherwise
the US policy is going to backfire in the longer term". Many
former officials tried to persuade people to act before the
horrific events of 9/11 - but the CIA made it clear that it had no
intention of doing so. There was no interest. But to make
matters worse, after 9/11 they played a double game. The
Americans actually went on record saying that Abdul Haq was
one of the chosen people they were going to back in their
efforts to topple the Taleban.
However, the reality is that Haq got nothing. The CIA refused to
back him, despite clear evidence that senior members of the
Taleban were in discussions about switching sides under his
leadership. While they dished out hundreds of thousands of
dollars to others, the only help Haq received was the offer of
two satellite telephones, which had to be a calculated insult.