Kunduz Airlift ("Airlift of Evil")

Part of the War in Afghanistan (2001–present)

Date: November 2001

Location: Kunduz, Afghanistan

Result: about 5000 Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence and military
personnel evacuated by Pakistan Air Force to northern Pakistan

Belligerents

Pakistan

Afghanistan Taliban

Al-Qaeda

Afghanistan United Front of Afghanistan (Northern Alliance)

NATO

Kunduz airlift

The Kunduz airlift, also known as the Airlift of Evil, refers to the evacuation of thousands of top
commanders and members of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, their Pakistani advisers including
Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence agents and army personnel, and other Jihadi volunteers and
sympathizers, from the city of Kunduz, Afghanistan, in November 2001 just before its capture by
U.S. and United Front of Afghanistan (Northern Alliance) forces during the War in Afghanistan. As
described in several reports, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda combatants were safely evacuated from
Kunduz and airlifted by Pakistan Army cargo aircraft to Pakistan Air Force bases in Chitral and
Gilgit in Pakistan Administered Kashmir's Northern Areas.

According to the Los Angeles Times, during the siege of Kunduz, U.S. and Northern Alliance
forces (led by Mohammad Daud Daud and Abdul Rashid Dostum) had declared that they would
treat foreign fighters of the Taliban (including Pakistani military advisers as well as Pakistani and
Arab volunteers) more severely than their Afghan counterparts. The Northern Alliance had
earlier witnessed Pakistani and Arab involvement in several massacres perpetrated by the
Taliban in Afghanistan. Pakistani leaders feared that revenge killings of Pakistanis in Kunduz could
lead to unrest and instability in their country and therefore decided to evacuate their forces
before the US and Northern Alliance ground forces moved into Kunduz.

Revelation
The revelation that the U.S. had acquiesced to the escape of potentially dangerous individuals
including the top leadership of the Taliban and Al Qaeda was a controversial and politically
contentious topic that sparked off a debate in the western media and elicited denials of
knowledge of this event from top Bush administration officials including Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld. Although numerous articles mentioning such an ongoing airlift of Pakistani
and other anti-U.S. combatants from Kunduz appeared around that time in several international
newspapers (such as the New York Times, The Independentand The Guardian), the first
reference to the specific term Airlift of Evil appeared in a column on the website of the MSNBC
news network. It is generally thought that the U.S. administration agreed to the airlift in an
attempt to appease Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and avoid destabilizing the Pakistani
government, who, although overtly an ally of the U.S. in the War on Terror, had always
supported the Taliban. This Pakistani evacuation of anti-U.S. fighters belonging to the Taliban, Al
Qaeda and the ISI is also detailed in the BBC documentary Secret Pakistan: Double Cross and
Backlash.

More details of the event finally emerged in the 2008 book Descent into Chaos by the
investigative journalist Ahmed Rashid:

One senior (U.S.) intelligence analyst told me, "The request was made by Musharraf to Bush, but
Cheney took charge — a token of who was handling Musharraf at the time. The approval was
not shared with anyone at State, including Colin Powell, until well after the event. Musharraf said
Pakistan needed to save its dignity and its valued people. Two planes were involved, which made
several sorties a night over several nights. They took off from air bases in Chitral and Gilgit in
Pakistan Administered Kashmir's Northern Areas, and landed in Kunduz, where the evacuees
were waiting on the tarmac. Certainly hundreds and perhaps as many as one thousand people
escaped. Hundreds of ISI officers, Taliban commanders, and foot soldiers belonging to the Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan and Al Qaeda personnel boarded the planes. What was sold as a minor
extraction turned into a major air bridge. The frustrated U.S. SOF who watched it from the
surrounding high ground dubbed it "Operation Evil Airlift."

Another senior U.S. diplomat told me afterward, "Musharraf fooled us because after we gave
approval, the ISI may have run a much bigger operation and got out more people. We just don't
know. At the time nobody wanted to hurt Musharraf, and his prestige with the army was at
stake. The real question is why Musharraf did not get his men out before. Clearly the ISI was
running its own war against the Americans and did not want to leave Afghanistan until the last
moment."