Abdul Rashid Dostum (born 1954) is an Afghan exiled politician, former military officer and warlord. He is the founder and leader of the Junbish-e Milli political party, and was a senior army officer in the military of the former Afghan socialist government during the Soviet–Afghan War, initially part of the Afghan Commando Forces. In 2001, Dostum became a key indigenous ally to the U.S. Special Forces and the CIA during the campaign to topple the Taliban government. He is one of the most powerful warlords since the beginning of the Afghan conflict, infamous for being an opportunist and siding with winners during Afghanistan's several civil wars. Dostum was also referred to as a kingmaker due to his significant role in Afghan politics.
An ethnic Uzbek from a peasant family in Jawzjan province, Dostum joined the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) as a teenager before enlisting in the Afghan Army and training as a paratrooper, serving in his native region around Sheberghan. Following the outbreak of the Soviet–Afghan War, Dostum commanded a KHAD paramilitary unit and eventually gained a reputation for defeating mujahideen commanders in northern Afghanistan and even persuading some to defect to the communist cause. As a result, the communist government gained effective control over the country's north. He achieved several promotions in the army and was honored as a "Hero of Afghanistan" by President Mohammed Najibullah in 1988. By this time he was commanding up to 45,000 troops in the region under his responsibility.
Service Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Dostum played a central role in the collapse of Najibullah's government by "defecting" to the mujahideen; the division-sized loyal forces he commanded in the north became an independent paramilitary of his newly founded party called Junbish-e Milli. He allied with Ahmad Shah Massoud and together they captured Kabul, before another civil war loomed. Initially supporting the new government of Burhanuddin Rabbani, he switched sides in 1994 by allying with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, but he backed Rabbani again by 1996. During this time he remained in control of the country's north which functioned as a relatively stable proto-state, but remained a loose partner of Massoud in the Northern Alliance. A year later, Mazar-i-Sharif was overrun by his former aide Abdul Malik Pahlawan, resulting in a battle in which he regained control. In 1998, the city was overrun by the Taliban and Dostum fled the country until returning to Afghanistan in 2001, joining the Northern Alliance forces after the US invasion and leading his loyal faction in the Fall of Mazar-i-Sharif.
After the fall of the Taliban-led government, he joined interim president Hamid Karzai's administration as Deputy Defense Minister and later served as chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Afghan Army, a role often viewed as ceremonial. His militia feuded with forces loyal to general Atta Muhammad Nur. Dostum was a candidate in the 2004 elections, and was an ally of victorious Karzai in the 2009 elections. From 2011, he was part of the leadership council of the National Front of Afghanistan along with Ahmad Zia Massoud and Mohammad Mohaqiq. He served as Vice President of Afghanistan in Ashraf Ghani's administration from 2014 to 2020. In 2020, he was promoted to the rank of marshal after a political agreement between Ghani and former Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah. On 11 August 2021 during the Taliban's nationwide offensive, Dostum fled across Hairatan to Uzbekistan. In 2021 he pledged allegiance to the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, and formed the Supreme Council of National Resistance of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in opposition to the new Taliban government. Dostum now resides in exile in Turkey, and on 15 September 2024 urged groups opposed to Taliban rule to form a government-in-exile.
Dostum is a controversial figure in Afghanistan. He is seen as a capable and fierce military leader and remains wildly popular among the Uzbek community in the country. Many of his supporters call him "Pasha" (پاشا), an honorable Uzbek/Turkic term. However, he has also been widely accused of committing atrocities and war crimes, most notoriously the suffocation of up to 1,000 Taliban fighters in the Dasht-i-Leili massacre, and he was widely feared among the populace. In 2018, the International Criminal Court (ICC) was reported to be considering launching an inquiry into whether Dostum had engaged in war crimes in Afghanistan.
Early life
Dostum was born in 1954 in Khwaja Du Koh near Sheberghan in Jowzjan province, Afghanistan. Coming from an impoverished ethnic Uzbek family, he received a very basic traditional education as he was forced to drop out of school at a young age. From there, he took up work in the village's major gas fields.
Career Dostum began working in 1970 in a state-owned gas refinery in Sheberghan. He began participating in union politics when the republican government led by Daoud Khan started to arm the staff of the workers in the oil and gas refineries. The reason for this was to create "groups for the Defense of the Revolution". As a result of the new communist ideas entering Afghanistan in the 1970s, Dostum enlisted in the Afghan Army in 1976. He received his basic military training in Jalalabad and his squadron was deployed in the rural areas around Sheberghan, under the auspices of the Ministry of National Security. According to photographic evidence, Dostum additionally received airborne training and still chooses to wear two first-class "Master Paratrooper" Afghan jump wings.
As a Parcham faction member of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), he was exiled after the purge of Parcham by the party's Khalqist faction leaders, living in Peshawar, Pakistan for a while. After the Soviet invasion (Operation Storm-333) and installation of Babrak Karmal as head of state, Dostum returned to Afghanistan, where he started commanding a local pro-government militia in his native Jawzjan Province.
Soviet–Afghan War
By the mid-1980s, he commanded a force of around 20,000 paramilitaries and controlled the northern provinces of Afghanistan. While the unit recruited throughout Jowzjan and had a relatively broad base, many of its early troops and commanders came from Dostum's home village. He left the army after the purge of Parchamites, but returned after the Soviet occupation began.
During the Soviet–Afghan War, Dostum was commanding a paramilitary battalion to fight and route mujahideen forces; he had been appointed an officer due to prior military experience. This eventually became a regiment and later became incorporated into the defense forces as the 53rd Infantry Division. Dostum and his new division reported directly to President Mohammad Najibullah.Marshall, p. 3 Later on, he became the commander of the military unit 374 in Jowzjan. He defended the Soviet-backed Afghan government against the mujahideen forces throughout the 1980s. While he was only a regional commander, he had largely raised his forces by himself. The Jowzjani militia Dostum controlled was one of the few in the country that was able to be deployed outside its own region. They were deployed in Kandahar in 1988 when Soviet forces were withdrawing from Afghanistan.
Due to his efforts in the army, Dostum was awarded the title "Hero of the Republic of Afghanistan" by President Najibullah.
Civil war and northern Afghanistan autonomous state
Dostum's men would become an important force in the fall of Kabul in 1992, with Dostum deciding to defect from Najibullah and allying himself with opposition commanders Ahmad Shah Massoud and Sayed Jafar Naderi, the head of the Isma'ili community, and together they captured the capital city. With the help of fellow defectors Mohammad Nabi Azimi and Abdul Wakil, his forces entered Kabul by air in the afternoon of 14 April. He and Massoud fought in a coalition against Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Massoud and Dostum's forces joined to defend Kabul against Hekmatyar. Some 4,000–5,000 of his troops, units of his Sheberghan-based 53rd Division and Balkh-based Guards Division, garrisoning Bala Hissar fort, Maranjan Hill and Khwaja Rawash Airport, where they stopped Najibullah from entering to flee.Anthony Davis, 'The Battlegrounds of Northern Afghanistan,' Jane's Intelligence Review, July 1994, p.323-4
Dostum then left Kabul for his northern stronghold Mazar-i-Sharif, where he ruled, in effect, an independent region (or 'proto-state'), often referred as the Northern Autonomous Zone. He printed his own Afghan currency, ran a small airline named Balkh Air, and formed relations with countries like Uzbekistan effectively creating his own proto-state with an army of up to 40,000 men, and with tanks supplied by Uzbekistan and Russia. While the rest of the country was in chaos, his region remained prosperous and functional, and it won him the support from people of all ethnic groups. Many people fled to his territory to escape the violence and fundamentalism imposed by the Taliban later on.The Last Warlord: The Life and Legend of Dostum, the Afghan Warrior Who Led US Special Forces to Topple the Taliban Regime by Brian Glyn Williams, 2013 In 1994, Dostum allied himself with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar against the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani and Ahmad Shah Massoud, but in 1995 sided with the government again.
Taliban era
Following the rise of the Taliban and their capture of Kabul, Dostum aligned himself with the Northern Alliance (United Front) against the Taliban. The Northern Alliance was assembled in late 1996 by Dostum, Massoud and Karim Khalili against the Taliban. At this point, he is said to have had a force of some 50,000 men supported by both aircraft and tanks.
Much like other Northern Alliance leaders, Dostum also faced infighting within his group and was later forced to surrender his power to General Abdul Malik Pahlawan. Malik entered into secret negotiations with the Taliban, who promised to respect his authority over much of northern Afghanistan, in exchange for the apprehension of Ismail Khan, one of their enemies.De Ponfilly, Christophe(2001); Massoud l'Afghan; Gallimard; ; p. 75 Accordingly, on 25 May 1997, Malik arrested Khan, handed him over and let the Taliban enter Mazar-e-Sharif, giving them control over most of northern Afghanistan. Because of this, Dostum was forced to flee to Turkey.page 6-8 – However, Malik soon realized that the Taliban were not sincere with their promises as he saw his men being disarmed. He then rejoined the Northern Alliance and turned against his erstwhile allies, driving them from Mazar-e-Sharif. In October 1997, Dostum returned from exile and retook charge. After Dostum briefly regained control of Mazar-e-Sharif, the Taliban returned in 1998, and he again fled to Turkey.
Operation Enduring Freedom
Dostum returned to Afghanistan in May 2001 to open up a new front before the U.S.-led campaign against the Taliban joined him, along with Commander Massoud, Ismail Khan and Mohammad Mohaqiq. On 17 October 2001, the CIA's eight-man Team Alpha, including Johnny Micheal Spann landed in the Dar-e-Suf to link up with Dostum. Three days later, the 12 members of Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 595 landed to join forces with Dostum and Team Alpha. Dostum, the Tajik commander Atta Muhammad Nur and their American allies defeated Taliban forces and recaptured Mazar-i-Sharif on 10 November 2001.