Kandahar (The Eagle Looks to the Right)

Kandahar (or Qandahar) is the capital of the Kandahar Province in Afghanistan. The Taliban movement had notably grown in the city following the end of the Soviet-Afghan War at the end of the 1980s. It was one of the first cities to fall to the Taliban on the continuation of the Afghan Civil War of 1992 to 1996.

On December 1999, Indian Airlines Flight 814 made an emergency landing on the city of Kandahar after the plane was taken hostage by Islamists who demanded the release of three Islamic militants held in India. after India agreed to release three militants – Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and Maulana Masood Azhar. The incident was an opportunity for the Taliban regime to receive a positive spotlight on international television after they attempted to mediate the hostage crisis with the Indian government. The hostage takers were eventually ordered to leave Afghanistan within 72 hours after the end of the crisis.

In October 2001, the Northern Alliance captured the city of Kabul (the capital of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan) with American and British military support. The Taliban retreat to Kandahar afterwards and established it as the de facto capital of the Emirate before its capture by Coalition forces.