Dostum was born in northern Afghanistan from a Kazakh father and an Aimak mother. Due to the invasions of Tsarist Russia in Central Asia, the Muslim population there was forced to seek refuge in neighboring Afghanistan. This migration continued from the 19th century into the 20th century, and in the second decade of the 20th century, the Turdi family also moved towards Afghanistan and settled in the Khwaja Du Koh region.
By 1930, this family managed to acquire a piece of land along with a mud house; the Uzbek immigrant Tordy, “Dostum’s grandfather,” passed away in the late 1930s, leaving 20 family members behind in Afghan territory at the time of his death.
Abdul Rashid, son of Abdul Rahim, was born in the Khwaja Du Koh district of Jowzjan province. He studied up to the sixth grade and initially worked with his father in the fields. However, in the year 1358 in the Solar Hijri calendar, he got a job as a laborer in the gas and oil mine in the Shiberghan province.
His friends used to call him Dostum, meaning “friend,” because he became famous by that name, and later, he chose “Dostum” as his nickname. After three years of being a mercenary, he joined the ranks of the Parchamis. His cruelty and brutality made him famous, leading him to be promoted from a soldier to a group commander, then to a provincial secretary, and finally to a division general. This is because the communists needed such hired killers and savages to murder the Afghan people and make them bow down to the Soviet Union for money.
Dostum and his group have committed so many atrocities throughout history that the pen is unable to write them all, but we will mention a few of their crimes; in the year 1372 of the solar calendar, Dostum’s group “Jombesh” fought with the Jamiat party over the capture of Mazar-i-Sharif, massacring hundreds of innocent people, looting properties and homes, and committing sexual assault against fifty women.
On the 22st of Sanbula in the year 1374, residents of the Shulgari area in Balkh province, who were fed up with Dostum’s oppression and wanted to punish Dostum’s local commander, were attacked by Dostum’s group. After killing the men, they sexually assaulted nineteen women and then killed them. Among the other victims were infants.
On the 9th of Sawr in the year 1375, on the first day of Eid al-Fitr, a battle broke out between Dostum’s group and the Islamic Party in the city of Khulm, Tashqurghan. As a result of the conflict, shops were set on fire, and hundreds of innocent people were killed.
On the 14th of Hamal 1376 in the solar calendar, Dostum and his group abducted twenty-five girls from the Gul Sorkh festival, and after sexual assault, they killed all the girls.
The greatest atrocity was committed in the year 1380 of the solar calendar in the Dasht-e-Leili, where three thousand prisoners were buried alive by Dostum and his group, and their bodies were covered with bulldozers.
On the 4th of Mizan 1382 in the solar calendar, an eight-year-old girl was abducted from a school by Mahiuddin, the commander of Dostum’s guards, and after being sexually assaulted, she was killed in the Jungle Park of Shaberghan.
On the 10th of Qaws, 1386 in the solar calendar, Dostum and his group forcibly expelled fifty families of the Ishaqzai tribe from the Sidabad district of Sar-e Pol province, looted their belongings, and seized thousands of acres of land; they killed people and later fed them to dogs.
Apart from the aforementioned atrocities, Dostum was involved in thousands of murders, extortions, thefts, looting, sexual assaults, and other crimes. Dostum also has a significant background in drug and alcohol abuse, and his militias possess special skills and status in murder, theft, looting, sexual assaults, and other criminal activities.
The Atrocities of Piram Qul: Piram Qul, who belongs to the Uzbek ethnic group, was previously with the Jamiat party, but a year before the electoral campaigns, when Dostum weakened, Dostum convinced him to join him. He started targeted killings, armed robberies, sexual assaults, and forcibly marrying off the daughters of others in the Rustaq district of Takhar, where most residents were Tajiks. When the formation of local police units was approved in many provinces, Piram Qul’s men deliberately disrupted security in the Rustaq district and, ahead of others, proposed a 500-member local police unit to the Ministry of Interior, which was accepted. However, Piram Qul did not approve this unit for the sake of the local people’s security but rather to legitimize his atrocities, robberies, drug trafficking, and the killing of civilians in Takhar. Until the fall of the Republic, about one and a half thousand illegal armed individuals operated in Rustaq and some nearby areas of Takhar under this name.
The local people say that not only Piram Qul but also several of his sons were involved in criminal activities in that area. Piram Qul, who had attempted to be disarmed several times, was never successful because Dostum supported him, and there were ongoing issues between Jamiat and Junbish in the north. No one succeeded in disarming this savage man. There were also images that emerged at that time showing Piram Qul and two of his sons indulging in immoral acts.
Dostum became most famous when he committed the atrocities of the Dashte-Laili and Jangal-i Qala, although he was already ahead of other fascists and ethnicists in the north in the massacre of Pashtuns. However, after carrying out the historical crimes of Jangal-i Qala and Dasht-e-Laili, his fame increased, and it was mainly the American media that contributed to this fame, as he had allied with the CIA after the collapse of the Soviet bloc, and he is still dancing to the tune of the West.
It’s strange that he was a communist, but when the Russians were defeated and Najib’s regime was toppled, he allied with the Northern Alliance and fought against the Islamic Party. Remember that this savage, cruel, and illiterate general was raised by Dr. Najib, appointed the secretary of Jowzjan, but look at the fate’s decisions, when the Russians were defeated and faced a humiliating defeat, Najib’s regime was toppled, and he wanted to flee to India because his family had all been sent there. But Dostum’s militia, on Dostum’s orders, expelled him from the airport, telling him, “You are leaving, but who will we leave you to? If we don’t leave, you can’t leave either.”
The atrocities of Jange-e-Kala and Dasht-e-Laili were again done to please the CIA’s new friendship and to make them happy, so that they would trust him completely and bring him closer, to once again give the green light for the massacre of Afghans and to assist in this massacre, which still dances to the same American tune.
During the terms of Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani, all Western media lobbied for him, calling him heroes and champion and using various colorful titles. Once, when there was a conflict in Torkham, the media spread rumors that Dostum was going to fight against the Pakistani army, but it was all lies because he is only strong against the oppressed, not against foreigners!
There is a huge difference between a proud person and a savage. A savage is strong against the oppressed, committing atrocities and acts of savagery, but when faced with power, they abandon the battlefield. Like Dostum, who has always left the battlefield against the Taliban and has now fled abroad. A proud person defends the oppressed but fights fiercely against the oppressor, sacrificing their life but never abandoning the battlefield.
Dostum is a mercenary warlord, a killer of Afghans, a spy for every foreign invader, and someone who does anything for money, sacrificing everything for it—faith, humanity, and everything else. However, in the past, this fake hero rose from ordinary soldiering to generalship through Dr. Najib, was given the title of Khalid ibn al-Walid by Sibghatullah Mujaddidi, was called “son” by Burhanuddin Rabbani, was honored with the title of Grand General by Hamid Karzai, and was first made the First Vice President and then honored with the rank of Marshal by Ashraf Ghani.
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