Founded around 1986 during the
Soviet–Afghan War by
Jamil al-Rahman as a splinter from the larger
Hezbi Islami faction, Jamaat al Dawa al Quran was a
Salafi organisation that hosted many
Arab volunteers and received funding from sympathetic Saudi and Kuwaiti businessmen. The group was able to establish the
Islamic Emirate of Kunar, an Islamist mini-state in
Kunar Province in 1991, but it quickly dissolved after attacks by Hezbi Islami and al-Rahman's assassination in 1991, however JDQ continued to operate. Following the 2001 US-led
invasion of Afghanistan, one faction of JDQ registered as a political party and took part in the
2005 Afghan parliamentary elections. Alleged arbitrary arrests and cultural insensitivity by coalition forces, along with loss of influence in the local Kunar administration, led to JDQ members joining the local insurgency as the
Salafi Taliban. By the later part of the decade, JDQ began taking part in the insurgency against
NATO and Afghan security forces in
Korangal Valley. In 2010, the group pledged allegiance to
Mullah Omar, leader of the
Taliban. Taliban spokesman
Zabiullah Mujahid released a statement announcing that JDQ was now a part of the Taliban. The group no longer exists as JDQ but merged completely into the Afghan Taliban. JDQ was involved in the September 2010 kidnapping of British aid worker
Linda Norgrove, who was accidentally killed by US forces during a rescue attempt. ==Designation as a terrorist organization==