The USA offer of military hardware, economic assistance and financial handouts was enormous. However, the task we were entrusted with was also horrendous and clearly portended long term consequences for the country. We agreed to recruit Mujahidin out of the Afghan and Pakistani populations and other Arab countries, train them in guerilla warfare and launch them in Afghanistan. There was enormous disbursal of cash if we believe the claim of Steve Coll, the author of ‘Ghost Wars’. The Mujahidin were also sourced from many Arab and Muslim countries. They were trained to handle modern fire weapons, indoctrinated, radicalized and launched in Afghanistan for guerilla warfare. Within four years from 1982 to 1985, a force of over 85,000 Jihadists was trained in these camps. The credit of this spectacular feat was claimed by General Zia and his confidante, General Akhtar Abdur Rehman. There were many young Pakistanis fighting this holy war along with the Arab Mujahidin. The Jamaat Islami along with Nifaz-e-Sharia Mohammadi of Sufi Muhammad, Dar-ul-Uloom Haqqania of Samiul Haq and Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) of Islamabad of Moulana Abdullah,were busy in helping recruit Mujahidin from Pakistan. Many young members of the Islami Jamiat-e-Tulba including Najamuddin Abbassi, the youngest son of Moulana Jan Muhammad Abbassi, Amir Jamaat Islami Sindh lost their lives in this war. Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Amir Jamaat Islami, had emerged as the ardent supporter of the Afghan Jihad and the patron of the Hizb-e-Islami and its ferocious leader, Gulbadin Hikmatyar. The 5 million Afghan refugees were supposed to live in refugee camps. We failed to manage their movement. Gradually, they spread to every nook and corner of the country creating demographic imbalance in many regions of the country. Among them, there might have been spies, saboteurs and subversive activists. They were adherents of the ultra-conservative and dogmatic variant of Islam and bound to affect the flexible and liberal religious beliefs of the local populace. Madressahs began springing up and replenishing the supply of Mujahidin. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States loosened their purse strings and started doling out huge amounts to these Madressahs to promote Salafi political Islam. Thus, the Sufism was gradually giving way to dogmatism. The liberal and secular political organizations had fallen flat under the stifling weight of the assertive political Islam and the sudden onslaught of the spirit of Jihad sanctioned by the state. The neighboring Iran also took a huge population of Afghan refugees. They were smart enough to restrict the refugees within specified camps, managing their registration and closely monitoring their movement. They saved their country from the adverse consequences of jihad. The Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in 1988 as a result of the Geneva Accords signed in June that year, leaving behind the shaky administration of Najibullah. The Soviet withdrawal left the radicalized Mujahidin from many Muslim and Arab countries without a work or purpose. Their parent countries were quick in disowning them. They feared that these crusaders – radicalized and trained in guerilla warfare as they were – would be a potential threat to their shaky administrations back at home. We could not push them out. They settled down in the North Waziristan and the surrounding tribal agencies. However, their mercenary spirit never died down. The USA and the Western countries washed their hands off Afghanistan leaving Pakistan to deal with the post-war consequences. General Zia had already perished in a plane crash. The two successive civilian administrations of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif were caught in the Afghan mess listening to Jihadi Generals. The Afghan political leaders could not come together to give Afghanistan a stable interim administration. The bloodshed continued unabated and gave rise to a new Taliban militia The Afghan political leaders could not come together to give Afghanistan a stable interim administration. The bloodshed continued unabated and gave rise to a new Taliban militia. They sprang from the southern Afghanistan and, with our help, expanded their ranks, amassed weapons and began moving to Kabul under Mulla Omar. Finally, they took over Kabul. They retrieved Najibullah from the UN Mission and killed him. The Taliban administration restored peace in Afghanistan. They were radicalized Islamists and believed in the expansion of their Islamic Emirate. They established contacts with the Islamists in the neighboring States – Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Later, Osama Bin Laden and senior leaders of Al-Qaida were allowed to enter into Afghanistan and set up the Al-Qaeda training camps. These camps attracted Islamists from the above countries and Dagestan and Xinjiang. Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda had declared the USA as the biggest enemy of the Muslims. The Al-Qaeda had bombed many USA military and diplomatic facilities in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Tanzania and Kenya causing huge loss of life and property. He survived one USA missile attack in Khartoum. His training camps in Afghanistan were now freely disseminating the ideology of Al-Qaeda. Al Qaeda considered all the Muslim rulers toeing the policies of USA and hampering Sharia-based governance as liable to removal from power. This was an additional stimulus for the Jihadists of foreign and local origin. Thus, keg powder of jihad was substantially and firmly planted in our soil and what it needed was a small spark to explode. This spark was provided by the second Afghan war triggered by the attacks on the World Towers and parts of Pentagon on September 9, 2001. The 9/11 attacks turned the USA into a mad elephant. The Al-Qaeda leadership was suspected to have sponsored the attacks. Rather, Al-Qaeda leaders owned the horrendous attacks. The Taliban failed to gauge the American shock and anger. They refused to listen to every sane and wise counsel to expel Bin Laden from their country. The USA hurriedly put in place a coalition force of NATO to attack Afghanistan. The military ruler of Pakistan was coerced by barefaced threats of use of force against the country to become unwilling partner of the impending NATO war. The NATO air attacks on Kabul upended the Taliban rule. The Taliban and the Al-Qaeda members fled Afghanistan and crossed over into Pakistan to dissolve into the Pashtun population. To be concluded The writer was a member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and he has authored two books