Reading Abdul Salam Zaeef: My Life with the Taliban:

Mullah Mohammad Omar Akhund, who later became the leader of the Taliban movement, was the commander of our fronts in the north. Mullah Mohammad Omar Akhund, Mullah Mazullah, Mullah Feda Mohammad and Mullah Obaidullah Akhund were the main leaders of that battle in Sangisar.

The Russians pushed forward, and soon we could see them from our trenches. By the late afternoon they were only a hundred metres away. The clash was brief but the fierce fighting left the battlefield littered with bodies. We seized two PKs and many light weapons. Jan Mohammad took one of the PKs and Mullah Mohammad Omar Akhund took the other. The battle turned into a hand-to-hand fight, with grenades flying over our heads. Some mujahedeen managed to catch them in midair and throw them back, though in one case a mujahed was martyred when a grenade exploded in his hand before he could throw it back. The Russians pulled back and started shelling our position with DC guns. The ground shook with the explosions and the air was heavy with the smell of gunpowder. Smoke and dust rose up all around. Their air forces bombed our positions; every house and trench was hit. Four mujahedeen were martyred and another four injured. Mullah Najibullah was hit by a bomb, and the blast knocked him out. His hand was injured and when he came to he could no longer hear. Shrapnel, pieces of stone and wood flew through the air. Mullah Mohammad Omar was only twenty metres away from me taking cover behind a wall. He looked around the corner and a shard of metal shrapnel hit him in the face and took out his eye.

Soon every room was filled with injured mujahedeen, but none of them lost their composure. The bodies of the martyred mujahedeen lay on the ground, a jarring reminder of the battle outside. Mullah Mohammad Omar busied himself bandaging his eye. On that same night we held a marvellous party. The late Mullah Marjan sang and we accompanied his sweet voice with percussion on whatever we had to hand. I can still remember the ghazal that Mullah Mohammad Omar Akhund sang:
My illness is untreatable, oh, my flower-like friend
My life is difficult without you, my flower-like friend
Even though he was injured, Mullah Najibullah amused us a lot. He still could not hear a word but we kept on trying to talk to him. A bomb had also injured Khan Abdul Hakim, the commander of the other front.

May God be praised! What a brotherhood we had among the mujahedeen! We weren’t concerned with the world or with our lives; our intentions were pure and every one of us was ready to die as a martyr. When I look back on the love and respect that we had for each other, it sometimes seems like a dream.
…
Many great battles were fought against the Russians and the government forces by the mujahedeen but none was as intense for me as the final assault on Kandahar Airport near Khushab in 1988. The Russians had already retreated to their main base camp and were preparing to withdraw when we decided to make a final push. It was summer and the grapes were not yet ripe when we gathered our forces together. It was the biggest operation I personally took part in, with some five or six hundred mujahedeen led by Mullah Mohammad Akhund and myself. I commanded a group of fifty-eight approaching the base from the northeast, while Mullah Mohammad Akhund attacked the camp from the north with the rest of the fighters.

The Russians fought back aggressively—no holds barred—in a way we hadn’t seen before. There was no way for them to retreat and it was their last base in the south. We fought for three days and three nights. I did not sleep or eat. It was the month of Ramazan and I was fasting, but the attacks did not cease and went on all throughout the night. The Ulemaa’ advised me to break my fast, but I was afraid that I would die any minute in the storm of bombs and rockets being launched at us, and I did not want to be martyred while not fasting. In only three days, I lost fifty of the fifty-eight men under my command.

We came under attack from Dostum’s men and his government forces. In all my life and out of all the fights I saw and took part in, the battle for Khushab was the fiercest, most dangerous and hardest of all.
…
Hajji Latif, who was the commander of the joint front at this time, told Mullah Burjan, “Mullah Saheb! Fear God! You should not sacrifice our young Taliban to the Russians”. “Hajji Saheb!” Mullah Burjan responded. “There is no other option. If we don’t fight the jihad, then the Russians will conquer our homeland. To fight the jihad means that martyrdom and losses are inevitable”.

This didn’t satisfy Hajji Latif. “Mullah Saheb! I don’t mean that we should not fight the jihad, but I am concerned about the Taliban and the Ulemaa’, for they are the spiritual heart of our country and they need to be protected. Most of the fighters I have on my fronts smoke hashish, shave their beards and know little about Islam. They would fight against the mujahedeen if I let them. Making them stay stops them from joining the government forces. If they die along the way, well then they will be martyred and enter heaven. The Taliban have a greater role in society”.

The Taliban encountered Hajji Latif and his men later, at a meeting of commanders in Nelgham. Hajji Latif had arrived at the meeting escorted by rough-looking, hashish-smoking boys. They were young, wore western-style clothes and carried small Kalakov machine guns slung over their shoulders. The difference between them and the Taliban was clear and plain to all.