Source:

Ittihad-i Islami Bara-yi Azadi Afghanistan [ID 692]

Islamic Union for the Liberation of Afghanistan Founded by Abdul Rasul Sayyaf (Pashtun, lecturer at the Kabul University) Chairman: Abdul Rasul Sayyaf Party members: Sunnitic Pashtuns

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29.09.2004 - Source: Human Rights Watch

Ittihad-i Islami Bara-yi Azadi Afghanistan (hereafter “Ittihad”) also known as Daw’at-e Islami ("The Rule of the Gun. Human Rights Abuses and Political Repression in the Run-up to Afghanistan’s Presidential Election") [#25888],  [ID 693]

"Ittihad is a predominately Pashtun faction headed by Abdul Rabb al-Rasul Sayyaf, originally a Jamiat official who founded the party in the early 1980s. Ittihad obtained assistance from Saudi Arabia throughout the war against the Soviet occupation, and Arab volunteers supported by Saudi sources fought with Sayyaf’s forces and trained in Ittihad camps. Ittihad’s central power base is in Paghman district, west of Kabul. Ittihad was and is allied with Jamiat. It is sometimes described as part of Shura-e Nazar. Ittihad leaders hold numerous military posts nationally, and numerous judges and governors around the country, including the governor of Kabul, Mullah Taj Mohammad, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Fazul Hadi Shinwari, are believed to have been appointed by President Karzai at the insistence of Sayyaf. Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai, one of the presidential candidates, is an Ittihad member."

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30.03.2004 - Source: International Crisis Group

Some mujahidin parties nominate new leaders to circumvent prohibition for parties to maintain armed forces ("Elections and security in Afghanistan") [#20875],  [ID 694]

"[...] Though very few mujahidin parties have yet applied for registration, some are in the process of and genuinely independent candidates, however, is establishing front parties and nominating new leaders in an attempt to circumvent a prohibition in the law of parties that maintain armed forces. Sayyaf's Ittihad-I Islami faction, for example, has been recently reconstituted as Dawat-i Islami with his deputy, Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai, formally assuming leadership of the party. Enforcing the intent of the political parties law will, in the current security environment, pose a challenge for the registration office. The likely influence of powerful fundamentalists on the registration process, the relative vulnerability of Minister Karimi, an Islamic law professor from Takhar who lacks an independent power base, and the administrative obstacles would argue for including on the permanent review committee a member of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and, for this election, UNAMA. [...]"

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24.09.2002 - Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Ittehad-i-Islami ("Aktualisierte Darstellung der Situation in Afghanistan und Überlegungen zum Internationalen Schutz für Afghanen (Stand 10. Juli 2002)") [#8770],  [ID 695]

"Unter der Führung von Abdul Rab al-Rasul Sajaf. Berichten zufolge wurde er früher von Saudi-Arabien unterstützt; anti-schiitisch; verbündet mit der Dschamiat-i-Islami; spielte eine wichtige Rolle bei den Kämpfen in Kabul in der frühen Phase von 1992 bis 1995, hat jedoch seitdem als militärische Kraft an Bedeutung verloren. Er soll eine wichtige Rolle bei der Finanzierung der Opposition spielen. Seine Gruppe wird in der ITAA durch Abdullah Wardak, Minister für Märtyrer und Versehrte, vertreten."

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hcr-afg-poslong0702de.pdf