Afghan Biographies

Yahya, Ghulam Akbari


Name Yahya, Ghulam Akbari
Ethnic backgr. Tajik
Date of birth
Function/Grade killed Herat warlord
History and Biodata

2.Previous Functions in Herat:
Mayor of Herat,

Afghan Bios Insider view:
A joint operation by foreign forces and Afghan army has killed Ghulam Yahya Akbari on 10.Oct .2008 in the western province of Herat. But that will be not the end of insurgency and lawlessness in Herat province.

3. Biodata:
Yahya_akbariAn ethnic Tajik, Yahya was perhaps the most prominent non-Pashtun Afghan insurgent chieftain working with the Taliban. It isn't a natural union: When the Taliban conquered Herat in 1995, Yahya, then the city's mayor, had to flee to exile in Iran. He later took part in the anti-Taliban militias that fought the radical Islamist movement. After the Taliban regime's demise in 2001, Yahya returned to Herat to supervise public works in the provincial administration. It's only in the last year or so that Yahya, who fell out with Kabul, joined his former enemies. An illiterate but cunning mujahedeen commander, the bearded Mr. Yahya was a scourge of Soviet occupation forces here in the 1980s. Now in his 60s Yahya appeared to be equally determined to fight the American and NATO coalition troops. As mayor and then provincial public works chief under Ismael Khan, Yahya is remembered -- fondly by some Heratis -- for executing thieves and nailing dishonest merchants by their ears to lampposts.

Once Ismael Khan left for Kabul, Yahya had to work with the new provincial authorities, who proved deeply unpopular as crime and corruption spiked, stifling Herat's post-Taliban economic boom. Criminal gangs, some allied with newly arrived police officials, went on a kidnapping spree, terrorizing prominent Heratis.

So, in 2006, the new provincial government fired Yahya. Herat's governor at the time, Syed Hossein Anwari, said he had to make this decision because of Kabul's anti-warlord policy, and that he unsuccessfully tried to argue against Yahya's removal. The insurgent leader, he adds, was in those days "a decent, hard-working man with a good reputation because he never misused his office." Unlike Mr. Khan, the water and power minister, Mr. Yahya failed to secure another government job.

He retreated to his ancestral stronghold in the Gozara district, a densely populated expanse of mudbrick villages that straddles the road between Herat's airport and the city itself. There, he quietly built up a militia that now numbers hundreds of men. "He was forced to go and take up arms," said Mr. Khan, who said he still maintains contacts with his former protégé. According to area residents, Yahya hasn't enforced in Gozara the kind of harsh Islamic restrictions that are implemented by the Pashtun Taliban elsewhere in the country: Girls' schools remain open and youths in the villages are allowed to listen to music and watch television and pirated DVDs. But, like the Taliban -- whose ascent in the 1990s was welcomed by many Afghans tired of lawlessness -- Yahya has been ruthless in cracking down on crime. Initially, Yahya shied away from attacking Afghan troops or the Italian-led international forces in the area. But, 2008 as he gave up hopes of rejoining the government, he repeatedly fired rockets at coalition bases and United Nations offices. He also launched lucrative kidnapping operations, holding anyone associated with foreign reconstruction efforts for ransom. An Indian contractor for international forces, seized by Yahya's men on the Herat airport road, died in captivity earlier 2009.

Last Modified 2011-04-16
Established 2009-10-11