In startling revelations during the Azaad Siasat podcast, retired Major General Zahid Mahmood claimed that Afghanistan was deliberately turned into a hub of terrorism through a calculated campaign funded by the United States, involving the development and distribution of a pro-jihad curriculum for schoolchildren.
Speaking on the podcast, Gen (retd) Mahmood stated that for the first time, concrete evidence has come to light exposing how, since the 1980s, Afghanistan was transformed into a breeding ground for terrorism. He revealed that millions of dollars were allegedly spent by the US to develop a special syllabus designed to attract Afghan children towards jihad from an early age.
According to the retired officer, this curriculum was created by a US university and disseminated across Afghan schools with the help of Afghan study centres and other allied institutions. The textbooks reportedly included content related to jihad and firearms, even at the primary school level.
Leaked documents and details available to Azaad Digital suggest that over 15 million books were published as part of this project, which were then distributed among schoolchildren throughout Afghanistan. These books, he said, were published in both Pashto and Dari, the two most widely spoken languages in the country.
One particularly disturbing example shared by Gen (retd) Mahmood was a Grade 1 mathematics book published in Pashto. According to him, the book taught children to count using weapons, for instance, showing an image of one Kalashnikov rifle for the number one, and two knives for the number two. He said this method was a deliberate psychological tactic to familiarise children with weapons from a young age and to create a subconscious association between learning and violence.
He further claimed that the funding for this project came directly from American institutions, which allegedly allocated Rs43 million for the printing and distribution of these books. The aim, he said, was to create a generation conditioned to view armed conflict, particularly against the Soviet Union at the time, as a form of glory and religious duty.
“This entire operation was part of a well-thought-out strategy,” said Gen (retd) Mahmood, “to create an environment in Afghanistan where children were systematically prepared for jihad, while later the blame for promoting this culture was shifted onto Pakistan.”
He pointed out that such indoctrination was part of a larger geopolitical plan, where those who were shaped by this mindset were later glorified as heroic fighters standing up against a so-called ‘evil empire’. He also referred to former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s comments during a visit to Pakistan, where she reportedly admitted that all parties involved bore equal responsibility for the consequences of the war on terror.
Gen (retd) Mahmood noted that despite some voices raising concerns about this strategy at various forums in the past, a unified and forceful stance was never adopted to challenge it meaningfully. He said that even now, efforts by leaders like former US President Donald Trump to acknowledge and rectify past mistakes have yet to address the deeper impact such actions have had on the region.
These revelations, if verified, raise serious questions about the role of international actors in fuelling extremism in Afghanistan and the long-term consequences of ideological manipulation in conflict zones.
