Sources say that employees of the Herat Provincial Environmental Protection Directorate, under Taliban control, are deeply concerned about pressure from Abdulali Muttaqi, the Taliban’s newly appointed head of the department. According to the sources, this Taliban official exerts pressure on staff under various pretexts to force them to resign so that he can replace them with his own affiliates. The sources also refer to one employee who, on Muttaqi’s orders, has been barred from attending the office, with instructions given to his guards not to allow the employee to enter the department again. According to the sources, several others have also been dismissed from their duties under different pretexts. Meanwhile, sources say that he is also involved in administrative corruption and the misappropriation of funds. According to the sources, around 100,000 Afghanis in cash had been collected from companies in the Herat Industrial Park, but it remains unclear where the money has been spent, and its fate is still shrouded in ambiguity.
Sources in Herat say that Abdulali Muttaqi, the Taliban’s new head of the Environmental Protection Directorate in Herat, is a resident of Gulran district of the province. According to the sources, a few days ago, one employee of this institution who had responded to Muttaqi’s insults was barred from attending the office and was told not to return to the department.
These sources say that Engineer Farhat, a mining and greening specialist; Engineer Tahir, a sustainable development goals specialist, Hamidullah Amiri from the sustainable development section, and several others have been dismissed under various pretexts. The sources emphasize that the head instructs the administrative manager to prevent employees he disfavors from signing their attendance, or he personally marks them absent with his own pen.
A source told the Hasht-e Subh Daily: “He exerts so much pressure and uses such insults that colleagues lose the desire to continue working. He uses words such as ‘malicious,’ ‘idiot,’ and ‘scoundrel.’”
Sources also say that this Taliban official has pressured some employees, including the general director of pollution and waste monitoring and the director of sustainable development, to collect money from companies for tree planting.
However, sources confirm that around 100,000 Afghanis in cash, which had been collected from companies in the industrial park, remains unaccounted for. According to the sources, the Taliban governor in Herat is also aware of the issue, and two employees of this department have currently been investigated, but they had handed over the money to Muttaqi. Sources say that the new Taliban head has been summoned several times to the Taliban governor’s office to explain the fate of the money, but so far, no information is available regarding how it has been spent.
This comes as many employees of government offices under Taliban control complain of the group’s dual and discriminatory treatment. Government employees have repeatedly said that the Taliban view them with contempt and place pressure on them under various pretexts to leave their jobs. These employees confirm that, due to fear of retaliation, they refrain from making many of their issues public and are concerned about losing their jobs and even their lives.
You can read the Persian version of this report here:
از فشار بر کارمندان تا اختلاس پول هدیهکنندهگان؛ شکایتها از رییس محیط زیست طالبان در هرات
