Muhammad Ismāʿil

Muhammed Ismāʿil

Muhammed Ismāʿil ( Persian محمد اسماعیل; better known by the title Khan as Ismail Khan , * 1946 ) is an Afghan politician . He is an ethnic Tajik and currently the Afghan Minister of Energy. Ismāʿil was also an influential member of the Jamiat-i Islāmi .

Since 1979, as mujahideen commander , he fought first the central government and then the invaded Soviets . His strategies were considered highly effective. In 1992 he became governor of Herat after the Soviet withdrawal under the government of President Burhānuddin Rabbāni until he was demoted on September 3, 1995, when troops were flown to Herat to fight the Taliban . On September 5, Muhammad Ismāʿil fled to Iran without a fight . He then worked partly with the frequently changing sides Abdul Raschid Dostum . In 1997 he was betrayed to the Taliban and taken prisoner, but was able to escape to Iran in 1999.

After the fall of the Taliban in the fall of 2001, he returned and took the post of governor of Herat again. He was long considered the most influential man in the west of the country.

His behavior towards women was particularly controversial during his governorship: on the one hand, they were trained under his aegis , and on the other , they were subjected to a moral code reminiscent of the Taliban, which was heavily criticized and denounced by Human Rights Watch in 2002 .

In 2004 he became Minister of Energy under President Hamid Karzai .

Web links

• Ismail Khan in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)