Ismail Khan

Ismail Khan
Ismail Khan at the 2010 National Conference on Water Resources, Development and Management of Afghanistan
Minister of Water and Energy
In office 2004 – October 2013
President	Hamid Karzai
Succeeded by	Mohammad Arif Noorzai
Governor of Herat Province
In office 2001 – 12 September 2004
President	Hamid Karzai
Preceded by	Mulla Yaar Mohammad
Succeeded by	Sayed Mohammad Khairkhah
In office 1992–1997
Succeeded by	Mullah Yaar Mohammad
Personal details
Born	1946 (age 70–71) Shindand, Herat Province, Afghanistan
Religion	Sunni Islam
Military service
Allegiance	Afghan Army (1979)
Rank	Captain
Battles/wars	War in Afghanistan 1979 Herat uprising Soviet–Afghan War United States invasion of Afghanistan

War in Afghanistan

Mohammad Ismail Khan (Persian: محمد اسماعیل خان) (born 1946) is a warlord and politician in Afghanistan, serving as Minister of Water and Energy since 2005. He was previously the Governor of Herat Province. He is widely known as a warlord because of his rise to power during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. He controlled a large sized mujahideen force, mainly his fellow Tajiks from western Afghanistan. He is a key member of the political party Jamiat-e Islami and was a member of the now defunct United National Front party.

Khan was born in or about 1946 in the Shindand District of Herat Province in Afghanistan. His family are Tajiks from the Chahar-Mahal neighbourhood of Shindand.

In early 1979 Ismail Khan was a Captain in the Afghan National Army based in the western city of Herat. In early March of that year, there was a protest in front of the Communist governor's palace against the arrests and assassinations being carried out in the countryside. The governor's troops opened fire on the demonstrators, who proceeded to storm the palace and hunt down Soviet advisers. The Herat garrison mutinied and joined the revolt, with Ismail Khan and other officers distributing all available weapons to the insurgents. Hundreds of civil workers and people not dressed in traditional Muslim clothes were murdered. A garrison of Soviet advisors was overtaken and all of its inhabitants: Soviet advisors along with their wives and children were massacred. The mob put severed heads of the victims on sticks and paraded them through the city of Herat. The government led by Nur Mohammed Taraki responded, pulverizing the city using Soviet supplied bombers and killing an estimated 24,000 citizens in less than a week. This event marked the opening salvo of the rebellion which led to the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan in December 1979. Ismail Khan escaped to the countryside where he began to assemble a local rebel force.