[2] After the demise of the Taliban regime in 2001, Mullah Abdul Salaam returned to a civilian life but was later imprisoned by the governor of Helmand province Sher Mohammed Akhundzada for eight months.
In mid-June 2006, as part of the Helmand province campaign, ISAF troops were deployed to Musa Qala, where they came under heavy attack by Taliban elements.
In the autumn of 2007, Mullah Salaam travelled to Kabul where he met President Hamid Karzai and persuaded him that he could provoke a tribal uprising against the Taliban.
He accused British soldiers of undermining his authority by releasing people he had imprisoned and refusing to fund his "war chest", which he claims is for buying the support of Taliban commanders.
[8] On January 1, 2009, Taliban militants attacked his house in the village of Shah Kariz, killing 20 of his bodyguards, but Salaam was absent at the time, and escaped injury.