New Delhi, November 10

Commander Abdur Rashid Dostum is finally back where he belongs.

The relationship between Afghanistan's geostrategic township of Mazar-e-Sharif and Dostum has been one of huge vacillations between victory and defeat. The capture of Mazar-e-Sharif by the United Front (formerly the Northern Alliance) on Friday, November 9, with Dostum at the vanguard, has finally brought this frustrating cycle of victory and defeat to a conclusion that might spell the definitive change in the fortunes of the US war on Afghanistan.

Dostum is no stranger to hard falls; in fact, his tendency to change sides has made him probably the least trustworthy of the UF's many co-commanders. The problem is that his serial turncoat nature hasn't helped make lasting friends within the UF. According Nadeem Ashraf, UF spokesperson, Dostum has "no high moral ground" to establish his bonafides as a frontline leader of the anti-Taliban forces.

Nevertheless, the Pasha, as Dostum is known, popularly or otherwise, is a formidable force in North Afghanistan, where unconfirmed reports have put the strength of his troops at 10,000.

It was said that before the attacks on America, Dostum's soldiers went around barefoot, without command-provided food and water, and without salaries for nearly three years. But with the current unquestioning US support, he has in his cohort at least 20 US military strategists, and his army has been equipped with Russian Kalashnikov assault rifles and a vast variety of heavy and medium machineguns.

Dostum came into prominence in the late 1980s, when he commanded the Juzajani (the so-called Dostum Militia) with a total strength of 20,000 regular forces based in Northern Afghanistan. In those days, he supported the Russia-sponsored Dr Najibullah's ill-fated government in the fight against the mujahideen. After being awarded the medal of the "Hero of the Republic" in 1992, when the Najibullah government was on the verge of keeling over, he did what he does best - switched sides and became an ally of the mujahideen during the transition of power in Kabul. At one time, he even sided with the most extreme of the mujahideen forces, led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who has lately left Peshawar for Afghanistan after having decided to rally to the cause of the Taliban.

Thereafter, Dostum gradually distanced himself from Kabul and tried to consolidate his base in Northern Afghanistan. He established the Itehad Shamal (Northern Unity) organisation after making Mazar-e-Sharif his provincial capital in 1992. However, towards the end of 1996, the balance of power was dramatically altered to his detriment when suspicions were aroused that Dostum was involved in the assassinations of two former senior commanders of the Northern Alliance, led by General Ahmad Shah Masood.

In mid-May 1997, Dostum's deputy, General Abdul Malik, staged a coup in his army that forced Dostum to flee to Turkey. General Malik signed a peace deal with the Taliban on May 24 that year, which permitted the Taliban to take over the Mazar-e-Sharif.

However, within 24 hours of the deal, Taliban commander Mullah Ghaus broke the mutual promise of a peaceful transition of power in the township. The "radical" - read hyper-conservative - Taliban leaders demanded that the Pashtun language be made the official currency of powertalk, that all women quit school and cover themselves with chadors from head to toe, all men to grow beards longer than three inches - failing which the penalties would be severe. Furthermore, 5,000 of the Taliban's elite forces swept in and began a house-to-house search to confiscate weapons and money.

This led the Hazara (a fierce Shia Muslim tribe that traces its origin to Genghis Khan) to declare a war on the Taliban. By the following morning, more than 200 Taliban troops had been killed while another 2,000, including Mullah Ghaus taken prisoner.

Dostum returned from Turkey to Mazar-e-Sharif in October 1997. However, in 1998 with the help of Islamic students from Pakistan and Iran and army officers from Pakistan, the Taliban recaptured Mazar-e-Sharif. Dostum hightailed it to Turkey again.

Today, he is back in his headquarters after a span of three years. As an army officer, he had been known to be merciless and inventive in his bloodthirstiness, such as blowing up prisoners tied to tank cannons.

From 1992-1997, when Kabul was reeling under instability and anarchy, Mazar-e-Sharif and Northern Afghanistan prospered. Dostum began trading with the newly-formed Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. He opened schools and colleges for women, and allowed them to roam freely in the city without wearing burqas. Dostum-held territories became so affluent that he even ran a commercial airlines service to the Gulf nations.

Dostum is looked upon today as a serious contender to head a post-Taliban Afghan government. There are, of course, obstacles in his way in the shape of other UF commanders such as Mohammed Ustad Atta, another Tajik. Atta and Dostum's bitter rivalry dates back to the Russian takeover, when they fought on opposite sides. Dostum was one of the most trusted allies of the Soviets while Atta, a Mazerite (resident of Mazar-e-Sharif), fought against the Russians as a mujahideen.

As far as the US is concerned, however, Dostum holds the dice. The antiterrorist coalition is likely to push for him as a leader of the anti-Taliban opposition: in fact, the 20-odd US military advisors stuck by Dostum through the siege of Mazar-e-Sharif. And they are not giving him up now that he has got the coalition the best foothold in Afghanistan in the war so far.