Afghanistan: Taliban establish commission to purge ranks, bring reforms within military

The Taliban on Sunday, 7 November, announced the establishment of a commission to purge the ranks and bring reforms within the military in northern Afghanistan. According to Tolo News, the head of the corps in Mazar-e-Sharif, Attaullah Omari, said that the new commission has pledged to work on recognising and punishing those who misuse the name of the Afghan Taliban in the north. Separately, officials attending a conference in the Balkh’s governor’s office said that the commission will work to prevent infiltrators into the Islamic Emirate forces from Islamic State. 

The Taliban had gained control of Kabul in the month of August. Since then the Daesh or the IS has waged a deadly spate of suicide attacks and targeted bombings across multiple provinces and claimed dozens of lives. It is to mention that Daesh had first emerged in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar region in late 2014. Its goal remains to implement Sharia law. They had previously also warned that whoever in the world went against Islam and the Quran will have to face the terror group’s wrath. 

Pro-Daesh and IS terrorists have claimed responsibility for many attacks and bomb blasts in recent weeks. The Nangarhar province has seen an increase in fighting, with the Taliban undertaking counter-offensives targeting "Daesh hideouts," as the regime termed them. Experts believe that most of the recruits of the Daesh have defected from the Taliban branches in Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan, seeking an even more extreme interpretation of Islam with more international-centred goals of ‘Caliphate control’.

Military organisations, provincial head of intelligence to lead commission 

Now, as the IS attacks have been intensified, officials on Sunday said that those who are trying to defame the Islamic Emirate will soon be recognised. Omari said, “Let us take the first step, let us check these 500 forces, 'who are these forces and where were they in the past?”

As per ANI TOLO News quoted Shir Mohammad Sharif, the general director of borders at the Ministry of Interior, as saying, “The commission is formed [with representatives from] three military organizations, the provincial head of intelligence will lead the commission in every province because the purging is the duty of intelligence.” 

“We want to purge the military ranks of corrupted people, the people who have bad backgrounds, and those who are aiming to defame the government," Latifullah Hakimi, head of the commission, added.

Notably, the establishment of the commission comes as the residents of Mazar-e-Sharif complained that various groups identifying themselves as Islamic forces started house-to-house searches in the city. The locals have even reportedly complained that targeting killings have increased in the region. They informed that at least ten civil society activists have been killed. 

(With inputs from ANI)