Hajji Hajji (; sometimes spelled Hajjeh, Hadji, Haji, Alhaji, Al-Hadj, Al-Haj or El-Hajj) is an honorific title which is given to a Muslim who has successfully completed the Hajj to Mecca. Etymology ''Hajji'' is derived from the Arabic ' (), which i ...

Mohammed Zaman (29 April 1965 – 22 February 2010), also known as ''Zaman Ghamsharik'', was a

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ;), also known as Pakhtuns, or Pathans, are an Iranic ethnic group primarily residing in southern and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. They were historically also referred to as Afghans until 1964 after the ...

Afghan Afghan or Afgan may refer to: Related to Afghanistan *Afghans, historically refers to the Pashtun people. It is both an ethnicity and nationality. Ethnicity wise, it refers to the Pashtuns. In modern terms, it means both the citizens of Afghanist ...

military leader and politician. He was an ethnic Pashtun from the Khogyani tribe. According to Maj. Dalton Fury,Fury, Dalton, ''Kill Bin Laden'', (St Martin's Press, NY: 2008) p 129 who fought together with Ghamsharik in November/December 2001 in the Tora Bora campaign against the Taliban, Haji Zaman had been "one of the more infamous mujahideen junior commanders during the Soviet–Afghan War. When the Taliban took over, Zaman departed Afghanistan for France. When the Taliban fell from grace after 9/11, he returned to his homeland to reclaim his former VIP status. He was said to have had influential friends in neighboring Pakistan, including members of the Pakistan intelligence service. He reportedly led a force of 4,000 men during the campaign to oust Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers. During the initial years of the

Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...

's administration of Afghanistan, some sources claim Zaman led resistance fighters from bases in Pakistan against Taliban rule. In 1997, the government of Pakistan forced him to leave Pakistan. Haji Zaman spent the remaining years of the Taliban's rule of Afghanistan, (i.e., until shortly after the 9/11/01 WTC attack), in Dijon,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. Following the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, and subsequent confirmation that Osama Bin Laden was behind the attack, the US demanded Taliban leader Mullah Omar to turn over Bin Laden or face US invasion. Mullah Omar refused to surrender Bin Laden, so the US planned military action as described in CIA officers Gary Berntsen's ''Jawbreaker'', and Gary Schroen's ''First In''. Haji Zaman returned from France to Afghanistan (reportedly at the invitation of the US CIA, as a counterbalance to another Afghan warlord/partner Hazret Ali) and joined with other regional and tribal leaders from the Nangarhar and Khowst provinces to form the Eastern Shura.In CIA officer Gary Berntsen's book, he describes Haji Zamar Ghamsharik by a cover name "Nuruddin" but it is clear he is describing Haji Zamar from Maj. Dalton's cross references. Berntsen states p. 280: "Most of Nuruddin's men were from the local Khungani tribe and many of them had been on bin Laden's payroll in recent months, hired to dig caves. One of them, Haji Nazir, later claimed to reporters that he was sent by Nuruddin into the mountains to warn al-Qaeda forces about what was coming..." This suggests that Haji Zamar was at least not keen on capturing or killing Bin Laden, while opening the possibility that he secretly supported al-Qaeda. Afghan warlords, per Schrone and Berntsen, were shifting loyalty frequently (depending on who was winning and/or paying out bigger bribes). Berntsen commented, pg. 290 "I also knew that as far as our Eastern Alliance allies were concerned, they would be happy to take our money and let al-Qaeda slip away". Many of these foot soldiers of Haji Zamar, per Berntsen, pg 275, were "followers of local religious leader Maulawi Mohammad Younus Khalis, who had instructed them to allow al-Qaeda to escape". (It is no surprise Khalis took such a position, since he was the one who in 1996 originally hosted Osama Bin Laden when Bin Laden arrived from Sudan, ie prior to Bin Laden's moving to Mullah Omar's Taliban protection). The Eastern Shura, of which Haji Zaman was a key member, were early backers of the first post-Taliban President

Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan politician who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from 2002 to 2014, including as the first president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from 2004 to 2014. He previously served a ...

. Karzai later appointed Haji Mohammad Zaman Ghamsharik as deputy Chief of Police for

Nangarhar Province Nangarhār (Pashto: ; Dari: ), also called Nangrahar or Ningrahar, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country and Border, bordering Logar Province, Logar, Kabul Province, Kabul, Laghman Province, Laghm ...

. Haji Mohammed Zaman Ghamsharik was killed on 22 February 2010 in a suicide bombing, while addressing refugees in

Khogyani District Khogyani (, ) is a Districts of Afghanistan, district in the south of Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, bordering Pakistan. Its population is entirely Pashtun people, Pashtun, and was estimated at 146,852 in 2002. The district is within the heartl ...

, Nangarhar Province.

References

Further reading