SUMMARY
Harakat-i Inqilab-i Islami-yi Afghanistan (Movement of the Islamic Revolution) was an Afghan rebel group and political party. Harakat-i Inqilab was one of the seven main insurgency groups based in Pakistan during the 1980s and 1990s, commonly referred to as the Mujahideen. The groups made several attempts to unite in an alliance during this time period, both in order to increase their combat strength but also because the external donors, primarily the US, preferred to support one cohesive organisation rather than numerous dispersed groups. During the second half of the 1980s and in the early 1990s, Harakat-i Inqilab was part of a loose alliance, the Islamic Unity of the Afghan Mujahideen, together with Mahaz-i Milli-yi Islami-yi Afghanistan, Jabha-yi Nijat-i Milli-yi Afghanistan, Jam’iyyat-i Islami-yi Afghanistan, Hizb-i Islami-yi Afghanistan, Ittihad-i Islami Bara-yi Azadi-yi Afghanistan, and Hizb-i Islami-yi Afghanistan - Khalis faction. When the Mujahideen finally took control of Kabul in 1992, Harakat-i Inqilab took part in the new government which ruled Afghanistan for four years until the Taleban ousted it in 1996.
The Islamist movements in Afghanistan derive from a cell of intellectuals at Kabul University. In the 1950s, the theology faculty opened, and graduates could travel to other Muslim universities. Inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the Muslim Youth was formed in the mid-1960s. As a reaction to a communist-backed coup in 1973, Jam’iyyat-i Islami-yi Afghanistan was created by members of this network. In late 1973 or early 1974 a meeting was held at which the Islamists formed the group and agreed that armed struggle was necessary to topple the government. The leader of Harakat-i Inqilab, Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi, was not part of the movement at that time. On the contrary, he was elected member of the parliament from Logar province and became a spokesperson for the traditionalists. After the communist coup in 1978 Mohammedi fled to Pakistan, where he met the other Islamists who had fled the country after the communist takeover. In one of many attempts to unite the different groups who had fled to Pakistan, Mohammedi together with the leaders of Jam’iyyat-i Islami and Hizb-i Islami-yi Afghanistan created the alliance Harakat-i Inqilab-i Islami-yi Afghanistan. The alliance soon fell apart, but Mohammedi kept the name for his organisation.
Harakat-i Inqilab’s members were primarily from the Pashtun ethnic group, although there was a substantial proportion of Uzbeks among the commanders. The group was especially strong in Logar province in the eastern parts of Afghanistan and in Helmand province in the south. One of the most important commanders of the organization was Mullah Nasim Akhundzada, an opium trader from Helmand who took control of most parts of the province during the 1980s before he was assassinated in 1990, reportedly by a rival Mujahideen group. When the Mujahideen groups ousted the communist President Mohammad Najibullah in 1992, Harakat-i Inqilab became part of the new government under President Burhanuddin Rabbani and the leader Mohammedi was appointed Vice President.
During the early 1990s Harakat-i Inqilab lost much of its support and many fighters joined other Mujahideen groups, or the Taleban movement that was formed in 1994. Many of the prominent Taleban commanders had previously been involved in Harakat-i Inqilab and the majority of the group’s fighters joined the Taleban when they ousted the Mujahideen government in 1996.
Harakat-i Inqilab remained a political party, but after the leader Mohammedi was killed in 2001, they lost even more influence in Afghan politics. Mohammad Nabi Mohammedi’s son Ahmad Nabi Mohammadi took over and changed the name slightly to Harakat-i Inqilab-i Islami wa Milli-yi Afghanistan (Islamic and National Revolution Movement of Afghanistan). In the mid-2000s they were part of a political alliance of 11 parties called the Jabha-yi Tafahom-i Milli-yi Afghanistan (National Understanding Front of Afghanistan). After the parliamentary elections in 2006, the Front practically ceased to exist.
Harakat-i Inqilab has received large-scale military and financial support from various countries. During the 1980s and early 1990s, countries such as United States, France and United Kingdom supported the Islamist insurgents in an attempt to counter-balance the Soviet influence in Afghanistan. Several Arab countries, for example Saudi Arabia and Egypt, also supplied funds and arms. Almost all of the military aid was handled by the Pakistani ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence). In 1979, the US President Jimmy Carter authorized a program of covert military assistance to the Mujahideen groups. Until 1992, when military aid ceased, the US gave $2-3 billion to the Islamist insurgents, a sum which was matched by Saudi Arabia. Of this aid, Harakat-i Inqilab received around 13-15%.
Harakat-i Inqilab-i Islami-yi Afghanistan has been involved in the intrastate and non-state categories of UCDP organised violence.
