Rahmatullah Safi | |
|---|---|
 General Rahmatullah Safi posing for camera | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1948 (age 77–78) |
| Occupation | Military general |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Kingdom of Afghanistan National Islamic Front of Afghanistan |
| Branch/service | |
| Rank | .png) Brigadier general |
| Commands | 444th Commando Battalion |
| Battles/wars | 1970 Pul-e Khishti Mosque protest Soviet-Afghan war |
Brigadier GeneralRahmatullah Safi (born 1948) is an Afghan former army officer, former commander of the 444th Commando Battalion under theKingdom of Afghanistan andmujahideen commander who fought during theSoviet–Afghan War. He was later claimed to have been the representative of theTaliban movement in Europe.[1]
Formerly acolonel in theRoyal Afghan Army, he trained an elitecommando force of 1,600 men during the reign of kingZahir Shah, known as the444th Commando Battalion. On 24 May 1970, he led the battalion during an anti-government protest by theIslamic clergy inPul-e Khishti Mosque,Kabul. The commandos under his command deported the protestors from the capital with supplementary buses parked on Maiwand Road. He was additionally part of Sardar Abdul Wali’s espionage and secret intelligence network, being described as an "admirer" and a "devotee". The specific duties of the agents in Wali’s network included identifying leftist elements and activity, detecting suspicious movements and monitoring the activities of the leftist political organisations within theRoyal Afghan Army, such asPeople's Democratic Party of Afghanistan.[2]
WhenMohammed Daoud Khan took power, he left Afghanistan for England where he was trained by Britain'sMI6. Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, he joined theNational Islamic Front of Afghanistan, a mujahideen party led byPir SayyedAhmed Gailani.[3] He and his officers were trained by Britain'sMI6 as a pledge tosupport the resistance against the Soviet Union. He and his men would return a year later and set up his base inPeshawar.[4]
As a mujahideen commander, Rahmatullah Safi operated inPaktia andKunar provinces, taking part in the 1986Zhawar fighting.[5] He was in charge of NIFA's training facilities, where he claimed to have trained some 8,000 mujahideen, possibly with British assistance.[3] In 1985 Safi led a delegation of mujaheddin to the United States, where the general spoke at colleges and universities in more than a dozen US cities.[6] Safi was hospitalized in Pittsburgh in 1986 for cardiac evaluation tests; his medical bills were paid by donations and the Committee for a Free Afghanistan.[7]
In 1998, Safi was living in London, England, but departed to Afghanistan along withNabi Misdak to convinceMullah Omar to hand overOsama bin Laden to foreign authorities;[8] and he was considered the representative of the Taliban in Europe according to aUnited Nations Security Council press release.[1]
In 2004, Safi resigned his military commission and announced his intention to run in the2004 Afghan presidential election.[9]
.svg)
