The unrelenting wave of globalization has by far become the most talked about issue in academia, the business world as well as among government agencies everywhere. The integration of economic, cultural and political systems in the world today has arguably given the United States of America an upper hand in the dominance of world affairs. Due to this influence the U. S. and its allies especially western nations have earned many foes in form of influential hostile elements in foreign states. These hostile states most often feel that the U.
S, its western allies and its vital interests have and continue to undermine their civil liberties and the sovereignty of their respective countries and people. This increased animosity is the basis of the ever increasing threat of terrorism. The cataclysmic potential of any such external attack has today emerged as a dominant security concern: the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their systems of delivery (David A. Cooper 1). Terrorism has been considered to be among the most dangerous activities that threatens stability and peace of people throughout the world.
It is conducted in various ways and in various parts of the world with a sole motive of expressing dissatisfaction, anger, political demands, grievances and many others. In most cases terrorism inflicts fear to the community and a sense of insecurity which is intended to convince or communicate the terrorist message globally and locally. The acts of terrorism are carried out in highly organized ways and are meant to cause great loss of life and huge damage to property.
Terrorism has mostly been facilitated by the existing networks which seem to have a centralized control points where instructions and commands are issued from to the individuals in the entire network. It also believed that secret training and teachings are involved in order to coordinate the movement. Being a criminal act, terrorism is considered a big enemy of development and governments throughout the world are putting a lot of effort in an attempt to curb acts of terrorism. Terrorism can also be carried out by individuals or even small organized groups which mostly takes place in suicidal missions.
Some governments are known for supporting terrorism and terrorist groups secretly both financially, politically as well as by providing a safe haven for terrorists in a secret way in order to attack established institutions. They also provide shelter and harbor the terrorists in their countries with a motive of empowering and assisting them to succeed with their mission. Jihad terrorism has had impact and publicity in the world. Initially, jihad under the Muslim concept was meant for the struggle an individual has against his/her own evil conscious which contributed to his evil deeds and immoral actions in the spiritual life.
The term was later defined to mean self-defense which includes physical means and strategies to protect the Islamic extremist that the term jihad was misused and misunderstood which led to the existence of the jihad terrorism. Violent acts and unregulated conflicts emerged against the so called enemies of the religion which resulted in loss of innocent lives. It is a fact that Islamic as a religion does not support the jihad terrorism but it is carried out by the extremists who exist in different parts of the world. During the 1979 Soviet war that took place in Afghanistan, jihad terrorism was found to be organized and evolved.
The war that lasted for around nine years in Afghanistan involved several powers in the world. The government of Afghanistan was supported by the soviet forces which triggered the United States and other Islamic nations to support the rebels who were found to be more persistence which saw the deployment of soviet troops in Afghanistan in efforts of supporting the government against the Islamic rebels. During the time the ruling party was the Marxist peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan which was in existence since 1933, under the leadership of King Mohammed Zahir Shar, but it was split into two groups on 1967.
Later the leadership of the country was taken over by Daoud Khan in 1973 who was the former Prime Minister. The economic status of the country was found to be deteriorating and the attempts to revive it was done by Daoud but was unsuccessful. In the year 1978, Daoud and his family members were then executed by the Afghanistan army, which overthrew the government under the claim of mysterious death of Akbat Khyber who was a member of PDPA. The monarchy was by then ended by Daoud and Mohammed Taraki became the president in the Afghanistan republic.
The conflicts and the differences in the PDPA continued to ravage the organization with the president and the deputy prime minister being in disagreement with the Parcham leaders. This did not go well since it led to executions of Parcham members. Being a Muslim country, some of the transformation that took part in the democratic republic of Afghanistan did not get any support from the citizens, since they were referred as being in contrary to the Islamic faith. Under these circumstances, majority of people ganged up triggering an incitement throughout the country resulting to civil war in the country in 1978.
With the cooperation on the basis of military training and the agreement between the USSR and the Afghanistan government under its request, soldiers and military equipment were supplied in effort to fight the rebels. It was at this juncture that the rebels on the other hand received the support externally from countries like Pakistan and United States of America. The war between the rebels and the government started when some organized Islamic militants made an attempt to remove president Daoud from the government by force.
They however, failed which saw most of them killed and others fleeing from the country to the neighboring countries. Later the Islamic rebels organized themselves against the regulations brought about by president Taraki. During this time the country went through an unstable period which saw death of many Afghanistans. A negative reaction followed throughout the country with the rebels managing to take control of several cities. The afghan army was almost incapable of defeating the rebels under the assistance of Soviet Union. The government bombed cities leading to death of thousands of dwellers.
The unusual thing was happening also because some soldiers were joining the rebels. A lot of concentration was directed in Kabul which is the capital city of Afghanistan. Security was destabilized which facilitated the addition of the Soviet Union troops. By this time president Amin who had taken over from Taraki after his death changed his office from the capital city Kabul to Tajbeg palace, but there was suspicion that president Amin was partial in the fight and that he was in secret union with the Pakistan and that he intended to gain support from United States.
Later with increased war and the increase of Soviet Union armies Tajbeg palace was attached and president Amin was killed. In a mixed up reaction soviet military made it public that now the country is not under the rule of president Amin any longer. Since the rebels were considered to be Muslims who were opposed to non-Islamic acts in the country, they later received a full support from other Muslims in the whole world who teamed up and prepared themselves to fight for the Islamic. This actually formed the basis of the fight to be referred as the jihad.
Jihad was now considered to be part of all the Muslims to contribute on the fight against the evils towards the Islamic as a religion (Burnett R. 20). Pakistan played an important role in support of the Afghanistan rebels. Saudi Arabia and the western countries also supported the rebels both financially and through training. This was mostly facilitated through Pakistan which is the neighborhood. As mentioned earlier through out the Muslim now started fighting against other communists who did not believed in Islamic.
This went hand in hand with the operation which were done be the rebels in the Afghanistan which led to a lot of destruction to property and lives of people. With the training received from the support of western countries, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan the destruction was not unstoppable and the damage continued. Some of the actions carried out by the rebels included bombing of the offices and bridges, causing the disruption in the radio stations and communication systems.
As they continued to gather more power the rebels started involving themselves with the destructive acts which targeted not only the soviet military and the government but also the inhabitants who lived next or near to the military operations and the cities. The attack on the police stations and the industries and other sectors of the government was drastically increased. With no sign of stopping they targeted the involvement of the local civilian without sparing the children. As a sign of further advancements they started assassinating the members of PDPA and also the killing of the government officials was initiated.
Under the continuous support from the soviet army, the Afghanistan government continually defended itself and having understood clearly the position of the Pakistan and the role it’s playing on the support of the rebels, Afghanistan government did an operation which was targeted against Pakistan. Despite the fact that the Soviet Union had fully supported the afghan government, the rebels seemed to be gaining while their opponents appeared to be loosing. More effective strategies were acquired by the rebels after they started forming small groups.
Each group would receive a special task to accomplish in the fight against the government. This was an effective method in the sense that they easily met their target like in killing of the government officials and the prominent targets secretly and successfully. Convoy attack was also accomplished through these groupings. In this context of struggle, clear acts of terrorism were also witnessed which resulted into the insensitive and intentional killing and causing suffering to innocent human beings with the motive of affecting and destabilizing the government which was in operation under the support of soviet union.
Later rebel groups managed to actively conduct heavy attacks inside the Kabul using bombs and heavy weapons which has a severe impact on the soviet army and the government. The operations were achieved through the formation of seven Party Mujahideen Alliance which was well and effectively organized. At this point the government which was in operation based on communist was seriously destabilized and affected seriously.