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57-508: The movement was one of the seven Peshawar parties. As a mujahideen group, it operated in the southern and eastern Afghan provinces of Kandahar , Helmand , Uruzgan , Ghazni , Paktika , and Wardak . However, it was not as strong or influential a group as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar 's Hezb-i-Islami or Ahmad Shah Massoud 's forces. It became recognized as the second most important of the seven parties in 1981 (after Jamiat-i Islami ), but support

114-536: A diploma . Almost 150 educational institutes were closed in the past, according to the education ministry. Some of the well known public schools in Kandahar are Ahmad Shah Baba High School, Mahmud Tarzi High School, Mirwais Hotak High School, Nazo Ana High School, Shah Mahmud Hotak High School, and Zarghuna Ana High School. Private schools include Afghan Turk High Schools . Gandh%C4%81ra (kingdom) Gandhāra ( Sanskrit : Gandhāra ; Pali : Gandhāra )

171-472: A Taliban-claimed shooting. The vote eventually took place, peacefully. In 2021, as the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan , a Taliban offensive started taking over Afghanistan. On May 1, the U.S. withdrew from Kandahar, and the Taliban started taking nearby districts to Kandahar city. The fighting displaced 150,000 people living nearby. They took the city on August 12. Following this, women and girls in

228-528: A city bus service that took commuters on daily routes to different destinations throughout the city. There are taxicabs that provide transportation service inside the city as well as throughout the province. Other traditional methods of ground transportation are also used. Private vehicles are on the rise in the country, with large showrooms selling new or second-hand vehicles imported from the United Arab Emirates . More people are buying new cars as

285-562: A gathering to commemorate the late Taliban founder, Mullah Omar (who was a Harakat member during the Soviet-Afghan War), provoking a wave of outrage. The party has been relaunched a few times, and in its latest interviews emphasised "peace" as the party's priority. A member of Harakat's ulema council asked the Taliban to leave the traitorous and hypocrit[ic]al country of Pakistan." Kandahar Province Kandahār ( Pashto : کندهار ; Kandahār , Dari : قندهار ; Qandahār )

342-649: A new Taliban insurgency fought against the U.S. and NATO, mostly in Kandahar and Helmand Province. At the same time, the U.S. was searching for Osama bin Laden . Arrested terrorists or suspected terrorists were sent from the Kandahar detention center to the Guantanamo Bay naval base . Afghans detained by Canadian troops were handed over to Afghan's intelligence police, the National Directorate of Security , who (without Canadian knowledge) tortured

399-597: A powerful king who maintained his rule over the rest of Gandhāra and the western Punjab. However, according to the scholar Buddha Prakash , Pukkusāti might have acted as a bulwark against the expansion of the Persian Achaemenid Empire into north-west South Asia. This hypothesis posits that the army which Nearchus claimed Cyrus had lost in Gedrosia had in fact been defeated by Pukkusāti's Gāndhārī kingdom. Therefore, following Prakash's position,

456-646: A response to the September 11 attacks , the United States and NATO (aided by the Northern Alliance ) invaded Afghanistan to depose the Taliban. This began the War on Terror . Initially, it was an air war, and included the bombing of multiple targets near Kandahar city's airport . On the 20th, the war's first ground operation began with a U.S. commando raid near the airport, which the Taliban claimed

513-551: A second language is promoted in public schools. The main tribes in the province are as follows: In 1914 Kandahar was divided into the following districts: Today the province is divided into the following administrative divisions: The Ahmad Shah Baba International Airport is located east of the city of Kandahar. It is for civilian and military use. It serves the population of southern Afghanistan by providing domestic flights to other cities and international flights to Dubai, Pakistan, Iran and other regional countries. The airport

570-594: A short-lived subah (imperial province) from the 1638 conquest until its loss in 1648 to one of the Safavids' rivals. Starting in 1709, Mir Wais Hotak rebelled against the Safavids and established the Hotaki dynasty , which became a powerful empire. In 1729, Nader Shah declared war on the Ghilzai rulers. By 1738, the last Hotaki ruler Shah Hussain was defeated in what is now Old Kandahar . Ahmad Shah Durrani ,

627-671: Is attested once in the Ṛgveda as a tribe that has sheep with good wool. In the Atharvaveda , the Gandhārīs are mentioned alongside the Mūjavants, the Āṅgeyas . and the Māgadhīs in a hymn asking fever to leave the body of the sick man and instead go those aforementioned tribes. The tribes listed were the furthermost border tribes known to those in Madhyadeśa , the Āṅgeyas and Māgadhīs in

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684-461: Is mostly tribal and a rural society. The main inhabitants of Kandahar province are the ethnic Pashtuns . They are followed by the Baloch people , Tajiks , Uzbeks , Turkmens and Hazaras . There is speculation revolving around the origin of the name "Kandahar". The name Kandahar ( Sanskrit : कंधार ) is believed to be linguistically corrupted form of a word Gandhāra ( Sanskrit : गंधार ), which

741-524: Is one of the largest educational institutions in the province. It has over 5,000 students, about 300 of which are female students. In partnership with the Asia Foundation , Kandahar University conducted a pilot project that provided female high school graduates with a four-month refresher course to prepare for the college entrance examination. The university is one of two universities in Kandahar that serve all of southern Afghanistan. The conditions in

798-467: Is one of the thirty four provinces of Afghanistan , located in the southern part of the country, sharing a border with Pakistan , to the south. It is surrounded by Helmand in the west, Uruzgan in the north and Zabul Province in the east. Its capital is the city of Kandahar , which is Afghanistan's second largest city, which is located on the Arghandab River . The greater region surrounding

855-600: Is unknown whether Pukkusāti remained in power after the Achaemenid conquest as a Persian vassal or if he was replaced by a Persian satrap (governor), although Buddhist sources claim that he renounced his throne and became a monk after becoming a disciple of the Buddha . The annexation under Cyrus was limited to Gandhāra proper, after which the peoples of the Punjab region previously under Gāndhārī authority took advantage of

912-583: The Gulf War . The movement was also weakened by the founding of the breakaway National and Islamic Prosperity Party of Afghanistan , formed by Maulawi Muhammad Osman Salekzada, which captured much of the HIIs following in northern Afghanistan. After the death of its leader, Mohammed Nabi Mohamadi, in Pakistan , the leadership of the movement was taken over by his son Ahmad Nabi Muhammadi. Under its new leadership

969-758: The Iranian Plateau and in Central Asia, indicating cultural contacts during this very early age... The area was called Arachosia and was a frequent target for conquest because of its strategic location in Asia , which connects Southern , Central and Southwest Asia . It was part of the Medes territory before falling to the Achaemenids . In 330 BC it was invaded by Alexander the Great and became part of

1026-468: The Mujahideen . The groups were usually made up of fellow members of local tribes, and were led by a chief who inherited the title. In 1985, a major guerrilla commander, Esmatullah Muslim, joined the forces of the pro-Soviet Afghan government in Kandahar. A leading official of Afghanistan's Communist Party, Hayat Khan, was killed by guerrillas in the province August 1985. The Soviets carpet-bombed

1083-712: The Seleucid Empire following his death. The city then became a center of trade. Later Kandahar came under the influence of the Indian emperor Ashoka , who erected a pillar there with a bilingual inscription in Greek and Aramaic . The territory was ruled by the Zunbils before Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate arrived in the 7th century CE. The Arabs advanced through Sistan and conquered Sindh early in

1140-567: The Vaideha king Janaka . During the 6th century BCE, Gandhāra was an important imperial power in north-west Iron Age South Asia, with the valley of Kaśmīra being part of the kingdom, while the other states of the Punjab region, such as the Kekayas , Madrakas , Uśīnaras , and Shivis being under Gāndhārī suzerainty. The Gāndhārī king Pukkusāti , who reigned around 550 BCE, engaged in expansionist ventures which brought him into conflict with

1197-598: The 13th century, the Timurids established rule and began rebuilding cities. From about 1383 until his death in 1407, Kandahar was governed by Pir Muhammad , a grandson of Timur . In the early 16th century, Kandahar briefly fell to Babur . From then on the province was controlled by the Shia Safavids , as their easternmost territories. They regularly had wars with the Sunni Mughals , who ruled Kandahar as

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1254-399: The 6th century BCE, Gandhāra had expanded to include the valley of Kaśmīra . The capitals of Gandhāra were Takṣaśila ( Pāli : Takkasilā ; Ancient Greek : Ταξιλα Taxila ), and Puṣkalāvatī ( Prakrit languages : Pukkalāoti ; Ancient Greek : Πευκελαωτις , romanized :  Peukelaōtis ) or Puṣkarāvatī ( Pali : Pokkharavatī ). The first mention of the Gandhārīs

1311-644: The Achaemenids would have been able to conquer Gandhāra only after a period of decline of Gandhāra after the reign of Pukkusāti combined the growth of Achaemenid power under the kings Cambyses II and Darius I . However, the presence of Gandhāra, referred to as Gaⁿdāra in Old Persian , among the list of Achaemenid provinces in Darius's Behistun Inscription confirms that his empire had inherited this region from conquests carried out earlier by Cyrus. It

1368-473: The Mujadhideen. He would become Taliban's Supreme Leader. The Taliban would take over almost all of Afghanistan. Under a version of Sharia law , they oppressed women heavily, although there were some minor moves towards equality in 2000. In 1997, due to international pressure, they began a campaign to rid the province of opium and heroin production, but the campaign failed. In October 2001, as

1425-514: The National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA), the total population of the province was estimated at 1,431,876. Pashtuns make up the majority in province. There are also communities of Baloch people , Tajiks , Uzbeks , Turkmens , Hazaras and others. The main language spoken throughout the province is Pashto . Dari and Balochi is also understood by some, especially in the city of Kandahar where learning of Dari as

1482-610: The city during the Second Anglo-Afghan War from 1878 to 1880. It remained peaceful for about 100 years until the late 1970s. In the mid-20th century until 1979, Kandahar city was a major stop on a popular road to India used by hippies . In December 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan . This led to a war that lasted for years, between the Soviets and a rebellion by local guerrilla groups, known as

1539-599: The city of Kandahar and the border town of Spin Boldak in the south, which will then connect with Pakistan Railways . Ground transport of goods is carried by trucks and cars. A number of important roads run through the province and this helps the area's economy. The town of Spin Boldak serves as a major transporting, shipping, and receiving site. It is being developed so that trade with neighboring Pakistan increases. Kandahar province has bus services to major towns and village headquarters. Its capital, Kandahar, used to have

1596-410: The country. It had a lack of government workers, which caused an influx of insurgents. Four of its 17 districts were under Taliban control. Health services and education were "virtually absent" outside of certain towns. In March, a major provincial official, Abdul Majeed Babai, was shot and killed. In the spring, the U.S. experienced fighting before their operation could start. They attempted to attain

1653-508: The detainees during interrogation in jail. Despite a new focus on gender equality, a dysfunctional legal system allowed for the continuing sale of child brides in the province. This was especially common in its northeastern area, which was discovered to be a Taliban stronghold. By 2004, U.S. and Afghan forces had started a guerrilla war against them. There was a surge in Taliban attacks in May 2006, which caused an influx of villagers across

1710-562: The east, and the Mūjavants and Gandhārīs in the north. The Gāndhārī king Nagnajit and his son Svarajit are mentioned in the Brāhmaṇa s , according to which they received Brahmanic consecration, but their family's attitude towards ritual is mentioned negatively, with the royal family of Gandhāra during this period following non-Brahmanical religious traditions. According to the Jain Uttarādhyayana-sūtra , Nagnajit, or Naggaji,

1767-526: The eighth century. Elsewhere however their incursions were no more than temporary, and it was not until the rise of the Saffarid dynasty in the ninth century that the frontiers of Islam effectively reached Ghazni and Kabul. Even then a Hindu dynasty the Hindushahis , held Gandhara and eastern borders. From the tenth century onwards, as Persian language and culture continued to spread into Afghanistan,

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1824-459: The emperor Ashoka , who lived a few decades later, have been discovered in the old citadel. Excavations of prehistoric sites by archaeologists such as Louis Dupree and others suggest that the region around Kandahar is one of the oldest known human settlements so far. ...Early peasant farming villages came into existence in Afghanistan ca. 5000 B.C., or 7000 years ago. Deh Morasi Ghundai,

1881-401: The first prehistoric site to be excavated in Afghanistan, lies 27 km (17 mi.) southwest of Kandahar (Dupree, 1951). Another Bronze Age village mound site with multiroomed mud-brick buildings dating from the same period sits nearby at Said Qala (J. Shaffer, 1970). Second millennium B.C. Bronze Age pottery , copper and bronze horse trappings and stone seals were found in the lowermost levels in

1938-707: The focus of power shifted to Ghazni , where a Turkic dynasty (from the Samanid city of Bokhara ) proceeded to create an empire of their own. The greatest of the Ghaznavids was Mahmud , who ruled between 998 and 1030. He expelled the Hindus from Ghandhara. Mahmud of Ghazni made the area part of the Ghaznavids in the 10th century, who were replaced by the Ghurids . After the destructions caused by Genghis Khan in

1995-479: The founding father of Afghanistan, gained control of the province in 1747 and made the city of Kandahar the capital of his new Afghan Empire. In the 1770s, the capital of the empire was transferred to Kabul. Ahmad Shah Durrani's mausoleum is located in the center of the city. British-led Indian forces occupied the province during the First Anglo-Afghan War from 1832 to 1842. They also occupied

2052-574: The king Pradyota of the rising power of Avanti . Pukkusāti was successful in this struggle with Pradyota, but war broke out between him and the Pāṇḍava tribe located in the Punjab region, and who were threatened by his expansionist policy. Pukkusāti also engaged in friendly relations with the king Bimbisāra of Magadha . Due to this important position, Buddhist texts listed the Gandhāra kingdom as one of

2109-467: The military backing of two influential leaders in the region, the warlord Haji Ghani and tribal leader Haji Lala, but only Ghani was receptive. Later, there were two notable incidents of U.S. soldiers massacring Afghan civilians in Maiwand District and Panjwai District . The U.S. and NATO's combat mission in Afghanistan formally ended in 2014. By 2015, The Guardian wrote Kandahar city

2166-565: The name of the movement was changed to Islamic and National Revolution Movement of Afghanistan ( Harakat-e Inqilab-e Islami wa Melli-ye Afghanistan ). In April 2005, it joined the National Understanding Front of Afghanistan , a coalition of 12 opposition parties. The front did however not last long. In 2015, the party named a new leader: Mawlawi Qalam U Din Mohmand. Harakat members created public attention when it held

2223-510: The nearby cave called Shamshir Ghar (Dupree, 1950). In the Seistan , southwest of these Kandahar sites, two teams of American archaeologists discovered sites relating to the 2nd millennium B.C. (G. Dales, University Museum, University of Pennsylvania , 1969, 1971; W, Trousdale, Smithsonian Institution , 1971 – 76). Stylistically the finds from Deh Morasi and Said Qala tie in with those of pre- Indus Valley sites and with those of comparable age on

2280-540: The province is called Loy Kandahar . The Emir of Afghanistan sends orders to Kabul from Kandahar making it the de facto capital of Afghanistan, although the main government body operates in Kabul. All meetings with the Emir take place in Kandahar, meetings excluding the Emir are in Kabul. The province contains about 18 districts , over 1,000 villages, and approximately 1,431,876 people (the 6th most populous province), which

2337-594: The province to leave their homes for bigger cities. Also that month, a top Taliban commander, Mullah Dadullah , was arrested. In June, a car bomb almost killed the provincial governor. Meanwhile, the U.S. started transferring authority over the province to NATO, which the Taliban used as an opportunity to move in west of Kandahar city, likely to threaten it. The U.S. and NATO started Operation Medusa in September, which reportedly killed, captured, and expelled hundreds of insurgents. However, plenty of civilian property

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2394-418: The province were banned from multiple institutions. In 2023, the office of the Taliban's spokesman was moved from Kabul to Kandahar. Yousaf Wafa is the current governor of the province. His predecessor was Rohullah Khanzada. In early 2003, Hamid Karzai transferred Sherzai from Kandahar to Jalalabad as Governor of Nangarhar Province . Sherzai was replaced by Yousef Pashtun in Kandahar. I According to

2451-617: The province's southern districts in 1986. Kandahar city became "mostly ruins". Guerilla plans for taking the unoccupied city were thwarted when the Soviet and Afghan government forces returned there in 1988. The Soviets eventually withdrew from the country. In the early 1990s, the province's governor was Gul Agha Shirzai . The province under his reign was described as anarchic . The Taliban began in Kandahar in 1994, when Mullah Omar (previously an ally of Mujahideen warlord Rais Abdul Wahid ) started an Islamist movement against misrule by

2508-422: The province, north of the city of Kandahar. There are approximately 700 greenhouses in the entire province but farmers want the government to build more. There are a number of hospitals in the province, most of them in the city of Kandahar. These include Aino Mina Hospital, Al Farhad Hospital, Ayoubi Hospital, Mirwais Hospital , Mohmand Hospital, Sial Curative Hospital and Sidal Hospital. Kandahar University

2565-404: The province. Two of the commanders who fought in Kandahar prior to the surrender were Gul Agha Shirzai, who became the province's governor again, and Hamid Karzai , who became the president of Afghanistan. Kandahar city became a base of U.S. army forces (at Kandahar Airfield), new construction efforts, and was the site of an assassination attempt on Hamid Karzai . In the following years,

2622-459: The roads and highways are being improved. Kandahar has been known for having well-irrigated gardens and orchards, and was famous for its grapes, melons, and pomegranates. The main source of trade is to Pakistan, Iran and other regional countries. Kandahar is an agricultural area and several of the districts are irrigated by the Helmand and Arghandab Valley Authority . The Dahla Dam is located in

2679-464: The sixteen Mahājanapada s ("great realms") of Iron Age South Asia. By the later 6th century BCE, the founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire , Cyrus , soon after his conquests of Media , Lydia , and Babylonia , marched into Gandhara and annexed it into his empire. The scholar Kaikhosru Danjibuoy Sethna advanced that Cyrus had conquered only the trans-Indus borderlands around Peshawar which had belonged to Gandhāra while Pukkusāti remained

2736-712: The three Vedas and the eighteen branches of knowledge, with the Kauśītaki Brāhmaṇa recording that brāhmaṇa s went north to study. According to the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa and the Uddālaka Jātaka , the famous Vedic philosopher Uddālaka Āruṇi was among the famous students of Takṣaśila, and the Setaketu Jātaka claims that his son Śvetaketu also studied there. In the Chāndogya Upaniṣad , Uddālaka Āruṇi himself favourably referred to Gāndhārī education to

2793-416: The university are poor but improving slowly. Kandahar University is far behind many of the other universities in the country because of insecurity and shortage of funding, There are approximately 377 public and private schools in Kandahar province. The total number of students is 362,000. Of this, 79,000 are female students. Due to insecurity and other issues, many female students drop out before obtaining

2850-477: Was a prominent king who had adopted Jainism and was comparable to Dvimukha of Pāñcāla , Nimi of Videha , Karakaṇḍu of Kaliṅga , and Bhīma of Vidarbha ; Buddhist sources instead claim that he had achieved paccekabuddhayāna . By the later Vedic period, the situation had changed, and the Gāndhārī capital of Takṣaśila had become an important centre of knowledge where the men of Madhya-deśa went to learn

2907-579: Was an ancient Indo-Aryan kingdom of northwestern Indian subcontinent whose existence is attested during the Iron Age . The inhabitants of Gandhāra were called the Gāndhārīs . The Gandhāra kingdom of the late Vedic period was located on both sides of the Indus river, and it corresponded to the modern Rawalpindi District of modern-day Pakistani Punjab and Peshawar District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa . By

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2964-577: Was built by the United States in the 1960s under the United States Agency for International Development program. It was later used by Soviet and Afghan forces during the 1980s and again during the 2001–2021 NATO-led war. The airport was upgraded and expanded during the last decade by the United States Army Corps of Engineers . There is currently no rail service but reports indicate that at least one will be built between

3021-656: Was considered "largely secure by Afghan standards". It had gained an extensive police force and blast walls , and commercial and domestic flights had restarted there. However, that year, the U.S. pulled funding from various development programs in the region, and there were fears it could lead to a strengthened Taliban; the Afghan national security forces were "strained" in the absence of international troops. In 2018, Afghanistan's election commission delayed elections in Kandahar after two senior provincial officials (its police commander and intelligence agency commander) were killed in

3078-461: Was destroyed. A reconstruction effort began, named Operation Baaz Tsuka . In 2009, the U.S. started planning for a new anti-Taliban operation in the province, building a presence around Kandahar city. Their Stryker Brigade was sent to the district of Spinboldak , on the Pakistan border, to shut down Taliban infiltration routes. In 2010, Kandahar was considered the most dangerous province in

3135-606: Was eroded by 1984. The group lacked a clear political aim other than Afghan traditionalism and Islamism. During the 1990s the group fell into decay. Initially it joined the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani , but in 1993 left and forbade its members from taking part in the ongoing battles. When the Taliban emerged, Mohammadi dissolved the group and urged its members to join it. Some of its members had international inspirations, going to Kuwait to fight against Ba'athist Iraq during

3192-412: Was unsuccessful. In December, Kandahar city fell to the invading forces , marking the end of Taliban government at that point. Mullah Omar's presidential palace was bombed by U.S. forces, later being rebuilt and used as a complex for U.S. Special Forces . Omar went into hiding, and pledged to keep fighting against the invasion. In a deal with the U.S., the surrendering Taliban agreed to give up in

3249-580: Was used between 2000-1700 BCE. It is also believed to have started as one of many cities named after the Hellenistic conqueror Alexander the Great throughout his vast (mainly ex-Achaemenid) empire, its present form deriving from the Pashto rendering of Arabic Iskandariya = Ancient Alexandria (in Arachosia) . A temple to the deified Alexander as well as an inscription in Greek and Aramaic by

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