(Arrahmah.com) – When Wali Khan returned to Afghanistan in 2008, having spent his entire life in an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan, his first order of business was to build a house on his late father’s patch of land in eastern Paktia province. But when he tried to reclaim the other 70 acres he believed to be his, he ran into big trouble. A powerful tribal family warned Khan and his four uncles not to touch the land that they claimed was theirs. “The whole village was threatening us with death,” Khan says, adding that the Ahmedzais are “strong, rich, and influential.”
The tension nearly ended in violence last year as Khan, his uncles, and the Ahmedzais took up arms and prepared for battle. “There was a real danger of bloodshed,” says the 33-year-old Khan, who runs a medical laboratory in the provincial capital, Gardez. Khan quickly ruled out taking his case to the official government courts, which he says are corrupt and plodding. But he didn’t want to risk a shootout, so instead he decided to take the land feud to the Taliban’s Islamic court. The Ahmedzais agreed, saying they had no objection to submitting their claim to the Taliban’s court. “Taliban courts are easier, more transparent, and quick, and stand on Islamic law,” says Khan. “If a Taliban judge is found to be corrupt, he will be beheaded.”
The Taliban courts seem to be popular. Even a senior adviser to Afghan President Hamid Karzai admits that many Afghans prefer Taliban courts to the government’s legal system. And a member of Parliament from Zabul province, Qadar Qalatwal, agrees, saying local government courts are simply hopeless. “The local government is drowning in corruption so no one trusts the justice system,” he says.
As a result, increasing numbers of Afghans are taking their legal woes to the Taliban justice system. “Afghans come from all over, from the cities and countryside, to resolve family and land disputes, loan problems, and even women’s issues,” says Taliban Upper Court judge Habibullah Haqqani.
Khan says finding a Taliban court proved to be easy. “The villagers know who the judges are and how to contact them,” Khan says. Following their instructions, Khan traveled to the Shahikot Mountains along the Pakistan border, the place where the U.S. launched Operation Anaconda in 2002, one of its biggest battles against the Taliban and al Qaeda. Khan thought that he’d find a proper courtroom in the local village. “I thought I’d see banners and a room full of clerks and people,” he says. But it was just a nearly vacant mud-walled hut. The judge arrived on a motorbike, not in a fancy car like most government judges drive. The judge then took Khan to a nearby mosque where he interviewed him and took notes. The judge said he would send a couple of Taliban fighters to contact the 10 Ahmedzais, who also claim the land, and invite them to a meeting.
Taliban Militiamen
Ten days later, according to the instructions sent by the judge, Khan, his uncles and the 10 Ahmadzais went back to Shahikot where the judge escorted them to the courtroom nearby. “It was a simple court, just a few books in a room, and two Taliban judges,” says Khan. During the three-hour meeting both sides laid out their claims to the land. One judge threw out some of the Ahmedzais’ supporting documents, saying they were fake. “I found the Taliban judge to be a real expert on documents,” says Khan. The judges then scheduled another meeting, this time to include eyewitness testimony. (jabhatalnusrah blog/arrahmah.com)
