Gulan was an anti-Taliban militia leader, prior to the ouster of the Taliban.
He was a member of a local anti-Taliban provisional administration that rose to power in Eastern Afghanistan, centred in Jalalabad

Jalalabad

Jalalabad , formerly called Adinapour, as documented by the 7th century Hsüan-tsang, is a city in eastern Afghanistan. Located at the junction of the Kabul River and Kunar River near the Laghman valley, Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar province. It is linked by approximately of highway with...

, Nangarhar, before Hamid Karzai

Hamid Karzai

Hamid Karzai, GCMG is the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, taking office on 7 December 2004. He became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001...

 had assembled the his nation-wide provisional administration.

According to The Washington Post

The Washington Post

The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

Gulan lead one of the pincer movements in December 2001 that unsuccessfully tried to capture Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...

, and prevent his escape from Tora Bora

Tora Bora

Tora Bora , known locally as Spīn Ghar , is a cave complex situated in the White Mountains of eastern Afghanistan, in the Pachir Wa Agam District of Nangarhar province, approximately west of the Khyber Pass and north of the border of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan...

 to Pakistan.

Guantanamo detainee

Guantanamo Bay detainment camp

The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a detainment and interrogation facility of the United States located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. The facility was established in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq...

 Anwar Khan

Anwar Khan (Guantanamo detainee 948)

Anwar Khan is a citizen of Afghanistan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 948....

, reports handing in his weapons, and his brother's weapon to Gulan when his brother was killed fighting the Taliban in Tora Bora

Tora Bora

Tora Bora , known locally as Spīn Ghar , is a cave complex situated in the White Mountains of eastern Afghanistan, in the Pachir Wa Agam District of Nangarhar province, approximately west of the Khyber Pass and north of the border of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan...

, and he chose to retire from the fighting.
Khan told his Administrative Review Board

Administrative Review Board

The Administrative Review Board is a United States military body that conducts an annual review of the suspects held by the United States in Camp Delta in the United States Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba....

 that he and Gulan were under the command of Hazrat Ali

Hazrat Ali

Hajji Hazrat Ali bin Bahawal Sheir is a military commander in eastern Afghanistan.-Biography:He was born in 1964 and is an ethnic Pashai....

, one of the militia commanders who nominated Hamid Karzai

Hamid Karzai

Hamid Karzai, GCMG is the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, taking office on 7 December 2004. He became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001...

for the Presidency of the interim Afghan administration.