Editing Mullah Omar (section)

== Forming the Taliban (1994) ==
{{Main|Afghan Civil War (1992–1996)}}
After Najibullah's regime ended, the country fell into chaos as various mujahideen factions fought for control. According to one legend, Omar had a dream in 1994 in which a woman told him: "We need your help; you must rise. You must end the chaos. God will help you."<ref name="Dexter Filkins 2008 p. 30">Dexter Filkins, ''The Forever War'' (New York: Vintage Books/Random House, 2009; orig. ed. 2008), p.30.</ref> Omar started his movement with less than 50 armed [[Madrasa|madrassah]] students who were simply known as the Taliban (Pashtun for 'students'). His recruits came from madrassas located in Afghanistan and the [[Afghan refugees|Afghan refugee]] camps which were located across the border in Pakistan. They fought against the rampant corruption which had emerged during the [[Afghan Civil War (1992–1996)|civil war]] period and were initially welcomed by Afghans who were weary of [[warlord]] rule. Omar became sickened by the abusive raping of children by warlords (''[[Bacha bazi]]'') and turned against their authority in the mountainous country of Afghanistan from 1994 onwards.<ref name=Telegraph_obit>{{cite news |title=Mullah Mohammad Omar, Taliban leader{{snd}}obituary |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11773778/Mullah-Mohammad-Omar-Taliban-leader-obituary.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11773778/Mullah-Mohammad-Omar-Taliban-leader-obituary.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |date=31 July 2015 |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |page=35 |access-date=26 September 2021}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name="Princeton_Ency">{{cite book |last1=Zaman |first1=Muhammad Qasim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q1I0pcrFFSUC&q=%22Head+of+the+Supreme+Council%22+Afghanistan+Omar&pg=PA379 |title=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought |last2=Stewart |first2=Devin J. |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2019 |isbn=978-0-691-13484-0 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Capon |first=Felicity |date=2 August 2015 |title=Why the New Taliban Leader Could Be a Disaster for Peace in Afghanistan |website=Newsweek |url=https://www.newsweek.com/afgan-taliban-peace-talksmullah-omarmullah-akhtar-mansoortalibantaliban-peace-601700 |access-date=13 February 2016}}</ref><ref name="Gunaratna">{{cite book |last1=Gunaratna |first1=Rohan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DOk1CgAAQBAJ&q=%22Supreme+Council%22+Taliban+Afghanistan+1997&pg=PA117 |title=Afghanistan after the Western Drawdown |last2=Woodall |first2=Douglas |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-4422-4506-8 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

Two influential anti-Soviet political leaders who were connected with [[Peshawar]] during this era were [[Mohammad Yunus Khalis]] and [[Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi]]; both exerted a considerable influence over the [[Taliban]], particularly in the southern parts of the country, including [[Kandahar]]. Many of those who later formed the core of the Taliban, including Omar, fought under the command of factions that were loyal to Nabi Mohammadi. These factions had helped spread ''[[madrasa]]'', attended by many of the Kandahar Taliban, throughout the southern regions of Afghanistan.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Zellen |first1=Barry Scott |title=Culture, Conflict, and Counterinsurgency |date=2014 |publisher=Stanford University Press |page=145 |isbn=978-0-8047-8921-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B9ZZAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA145 |access-date=25 July 2019}}</ref>

The practice of ''bacha bazi'' by warlords was one of the key factors in Omar mobilizing the Taliban.<ref>{{cite web| title =Bacha Bazi: An Afghan Tragedy| url =https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/10/28/bacha-bazi-an-afghan-tragedy| date = October 2013}}</ref> In early 1994, Omar led 30 men armed with 16 rifles to free two young girls who had been kidnapped and raped by a warlord, hanging him from a tank gun barrel.<ref>{{cite AV media | people=National Geographic |year=2007 | title=Inside The Taliban | medium=Documentary | location=Afghanistan | work=National Geographic | url=http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/episodes/inside-the-taliban/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121007043712/http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/episodes/inside-the-taliban/ | url-status=dead | archive-date=7 October 2012 | df=dmy-all }}</ref> Another instance arose when in 1994, a few months before the Taliban took control of Kandahar, two militia commanders confronted each other over a young boy whom they both wanted to [[sodomy|sodomize]]. In the ensuing fight, Omar's group freed the boy; appeals soon flooded in for Omar to intercede in other disputes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Doğan |first=Salih |date=2015-10-20 |title=Afghanistan after the western drawdown |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/23340460.2015.1115610 |journal=Global Affairs |volume=1 |issue=4-5 |pages=480–482 |doi=10.1080/23340460.2015.1115610 |issn=2334-0460}}</ref> His movement gained momentum through the year and he quickly gathered recruits from Islamic schools totaling 12,000 by the year's end with some Pakistani volunteers. By November 1994, Omar's movement managed to capture the whole of the Kandahar Province and then captured the [[Herat Province]] in September 1995.<ref name="Goodson 2001 p. 107">Goodson (2001) p. 107</ref> Some accounts estimated that by the spring of 1995 he had already taken 12 of the 31 provinces in Afghanistan.<ref name=Telegraph_obit />