Soviet war in Afghanistan
During the Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979–1989), the Red Mosque played a major role in recruiting and training Mujahideen to fight alongside the Afghan Mujahideen against Soviet troops. A few months before his assassination in 1998 Moulana Abdullah together with Moulana Zahoor Ahmad Alwi, Qari Saeed-ur-Rehman and some other scholars toured Afghanistan. Maulana took his rebellious son (Abdul Rashid Ghazi) especially with him. This delegation met Mullah Omar, Osama Bin Laden and Dr Ayman Al Zawahiri