In 1221, the
Battle of Parwan was fought near Charikar, in which
Jalal al-Din Mangburni with a large army defeated a column of 30,000 soldiers of the invading Mongols. He later escaped into the northern Punjab, and avoided the immediate consequences of the fall of the
Khwarezmid Empire. At the beginning of the 19th century, Charikar became a flourishing commercial town of several thousand inhabitants. Charikar was the location of major battle during the
First Anglo-Afghan War. In 1841 a British garrison was massacred by Afghans led by
Mir Masjidi Khan, and the Anglo-Indian army officer Major
Eldred Pottinger was badly wounded. During the
Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989), the region around Charikar saw fierce fighting. Some areas around Charikar served as a stronghold of the
Liberation Organization of the People of Afghanistan (SAMA). Charikar was at the front line between
Ahmad Shah Massoud's
Northern Alliance and the
Taliban who captured Kabul in 1996. Charikar,
Jabal Saraj District and
Gulbahar were captured in January of 1997. On 14 August 2011, a team of about six suicide bombers attacked the governor's palace in Charikar. The Governor
Abdul Basir Salangi survived but 19 people were killed to which the Taliban claimed responsibility. On
19 May 2020, gunmen opened fire inside a mosque in Charikar, killing 11 worshipers and injuring 16 others when they were offering the
evening prayer after breaking their
Ramadan fast. The Taliban denied involvement in the attack. In late August 2020, the city was the
site of floods that killed at least 92 people. Following the
Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban provincial governor of Parwan province announced in December 2022 that the name of the city would be changed. One news source said the new name of the town was "Imam Abu Hanifa", while another reported the new name as "Imam Azam". A government official from the former
Afghan regime said the renaming was the beginning of an anti-
Farsi campaign by the regime. ==Climate==