Afghan intelligence agencies have collected detailed evidence made available to Killid proving that the Taleban infiltrated Afghan security forces to stage some of the spectacularly bold attacks on military and civilian targets this year.
Afghan intelligence agencies have collected detailed evidence made available to Killid proving that the Taleban infiltrated Afghan security forces to stage some of the spectacularly bold attacks on military and civilian targets this year.Killid has in its possession documents and other proof received from Afghan intelligence agencies that confirm the Taleban penetration of security agencies, and provide details of plans to plant their recruits in the Afghan security establishment.
Evidence shows the Taleban leadership switched to the infiltration tactic following defeat in the south and southeast by Afghan and foreign troops. At the Quetta Shura in Pakistan last March, top Taleban commanders were ordered to target Afghan security organisations to realise the insurgency’s goals.
Sources in intelligence departments in western Afghanistan, who we will not identify, say the ISI, Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, is trying very hard to weaken the Afghan government and threaten Afghan national interests – the reason why there has been a spike in suicide attacks.
Some of the big attacks this year:
1. On April 18, a suicide bomber strapped with explosives arrived in ANA uniform in the Ministry of Defence in a vehicle belonging to the defence minister’s 90-year-old deputy. He blew himself up killing two soldiers and injuring seven others. Officials said he was attempting to enter Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak’s office.
2. On April 27, nine US Army officers were killed by an Afghan pilot working for the defence ministry at Kabul International Airport.
3. On May 12, an ANP officer in the Helmand Police Command shot dead two US marines in south Helmand.
4. On May 21, an ANA soldier accompanied a suicide attacker who blew himself up in the Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan Hospital, killing six and injuring 23. Though officials in the Afghan Intelligence Agency confirmed the ANA soldier was linked to the Taliban his family has denied any link between their son and armed insurgents.
5. On April 16, Khan Mohammad Mojahed, police chief in Kandahar was killed along with his two bodyguards by a suicide attacker in police uniform in the Kandahar Police Command building. Security officials who did not want to be identified said Mojahed was eliminated by some of his bodyguards who were linked to the Taleban leadership.
How has the Taliban been able to influence Afghan security forces?
Evidence shows the Taliban have been able to capitalise on the many problems with the government’s functioning and structure like corruption, the categorising of a percentage of security forces according to tribal affiliations, poor intelligence gathering, use of local forces in each area, recruitment in the Afghan security agencies of Taleban who recently surrendered their weapons and the low morale among Afghan soldiers and police enlisted to fight the insurgency.
Alienation within
Lotfullah Mashal, spokesman of the Afghan National Intelligence Agency, in an exclusive interview with Killid, says a dozen armed insurgents who were intending to join ANA and ANP were arrested in the last two months.
He says most of the captives were from the south and southeast areas who were put on trial and punished by Afghan courts.
Mashal shared details of a case involving an ANA soldier, Akmal, who had escorted a suicide bomber into the multi-story military hospital in Kabul on May 21. Akmal, he said, had worked in the Ministry of Defence for three years and joined ANA according to a number of local tribal elders in Kabul. Now he is in custody and under investigation by Afghan Intelligence Agency.
Another case is of Mohammad who had worked 14 years in the Ministry of Defence. He was arrested by Afghan intelligence operatives and charged with links to the Taleban leadership and for organising three huge suicide attacks on facilities that belong to the Defence ministry including the blast on April 18.
General Zaher Azimi, spokesman in the Ministry of Defence, told Killid, “unfortunately on April 18, suicide attackers entered the Ministry in Gul Zarak Zadran’s vehicle. Mr. Zadran is 90 and a four-star general and deputy in the Ministry. He was not aware his car was misused by armed insurgents.” Azimi says 12 ANA top officers who were involved in this conspiracy, were taken into custody.
Pakistani Hand
The ANA has also been infiltrated by “foreigners” hired according to intelligence reports by Pakistan and its military intelligence wing, ISI, to fight the insurgency. One of the top security officials in Herat, who spoke on the condition that he would not be named, says “there is some information in the Herat Police Training Centre about a number of individuals from Laghman, Kunar and Jalalabad planning to enlist. They have arrived from Pakistan’s border areas, and some of them could even be carrying Afghan ID cards issued by the south and south-eastern Population Registration Offices on the payment of 500 Afghanis (roughly 10USD)… There is no real control of offices and how they function in these areas.”
The Taleban have infiltrated even the border police. Two police officers from the Fourth Border Police Zone in western Afghanistan, who had been serving in the Border Police Command for the last three years, were arrested while driving a Ford Ranger laden with explosives two months ago. They intended to bomb three key points in the Command, but fortunately were captured by intelligence operatives.
It seems one of the soldiers escaped and according to government sources he is now working with his brother, one of the Taleban local commanders in Pashtoon-Zarghoon district, Herat province. There are other examples of insurgents who were once in the ANA and ANP.
Abdul Jabar Pardeli, chief of Police Command in Nimruz province, cites the case of a police officer with links to armed insurgents who killed and injured a number of his comrades. Later this officer and five other police officers joined the Taleban in a suicide attack in Shesh Abeh village, Khashrood District, according to Pardeli.
Intelligence agencies have quoted from the confession of a man who was with the Ghazni police command before he went over to the Taleban. “My name is Mohammad Doost son of Ghulam Mohammad from Sulayman khail village,” the report says. “I studied and finished (from the) Police Academy and then served as junior police officer. Low salary, misbehaviour by commanders and pressures of work such as long shifts made me stop serving in the police and link with the Taliban through a Kuchi friend of mine. He made me familiar with Taleban and then I went to Pakistan after three years.” Doost eventually returned to the Afghan government and joined the peace process, according to the intelligence documents.
Targeting Afghans
Zarin Gul is the assumed name of a recruit who had served in one of the Afghan border police commands some three years ago. He went over to the Taleban with a Ranger and a small amount of ammunition at a time when he held a key position in the Border Police Command. He told Killid in an exclusive interview that he was disillusioned by the “corruption, racism and prejudice, lack of patriotism, petty personal interests of subordinates and superiors” and “made me join the Taleban and stop serving in the police”.
He said that within two years he was in charge of 100 fighters. But he again lost heart when he found for a year that insurgents were doing the bidding of Iran and Pakistan, he says. “Iran forced us to launch attacks on Afghan infrastructure projects and at the same time, Pakistan encouraged us to kill Afghan state employees by equipping and arming us with modern weaponry. Eventually I understood killing my fellow citizens – men and women – and destroying national security was a great national loss. I then asked a number of local tribal elders to join Peace Consolidation Commission.”
Fortunately Afghan security forces have thwarted many more suicide attacks than have been carried out.
General Ziauddin Mahmoodi, chief of Ansar 606 Police Command in west zone, says “a few days ago, one of the local residents in Jalalabad intended to register and join Police West Zone Command through the Police Recruitment Command. But he was arrested because of the biometric system. The man was found to be the mastermind behind a number of suicide attacks and explosions in Jalalabad city.” This was so because the man’s fingerprints, eye and heart signals were saved in an earlier biometric imaging exercise. When he tried to register again he was caught.
Poor intelligence gathering is one of the biggest problems faced by military and police recruiters. Abdul Raoof Nikmanesh, a member of the political party Hezbe Afghan Motehed-e-Mili laments the breakdown of the once excellent system in Afghanistan where “a case was correctly and exactly investigated and for those who wanted to join the security forces, their background were analysed and inspected by intelligence agencies.” He says, “our intelligence agencies have been functioning poorly and the global community has not given us necessary facilities to build up Afghan intelligence organisations …”
The use of local recruits to beef up security has sometimes backfired with the recruits coming under the influence of the Taleban forces in their areas.
Dr. Zaher Faiz Zada, head of the Herat Provincial Council blames it on corrupt officials in the local governments. His reasoning is that “if armed insurgents and opposition forces did not have ties with official in Afghan security agencies they would not be able to influence security forces easily.”
Can the infiltration be stopped?
Members of the Peace Consolidation Commission in Herat say new recruits in Afghan security agencies must be first scrutinised for biometric details and produce a guarantee from socially respected individuals like village elders or senior government officials.
Hazrat Sharif Mojadadi, who heads the Commission in west Afghanistan, says: “The guarantor should be a tribal elder, a powerful local man and or a senior state officer … Also, they must take a guarantee from the family of the recruit “because there might be some who arrive in the country with fake Afghan ID cards.”
Sediq Sediqi, spokesman in the Ministry of Interior, says: “The Afghan police have started gathering biometric details of all employees and fresh-recruits besides cooperating with newly-made intelligence units.”
He adds that the method has helped stop armed insurgents from entering Afghan national police structures and facilities.
“We are extremely serious about how recruits are to be selected, (verifying) their ID cards, their physical and behavioural links and traits will be monitored by special officials of the ministry.”
Meanwhile, some 200 new Afghan intelligence operatives trained to identify Taleban infiltrators have been inducted according to General William Caldwell, head of NATO Training Mission. By the end of the year, their numbers will go up to 445, the General has announced.
