The conflict over Badakhshan’s mines, particularly in Darwaz district, has entered a new phase of inter-group and local tensions within the Taliban, this report finds. Earlier, gunmen loyal to Juma Khan Fateh, the Taliban deputy governor of Zabul Province, wounded several residents in Badakhshan’s Shekay district on the orders of his brother. The report’s findings indicate that Fateh’s brothers, acting on his instructions, have continued to extort residents, run rackets, and seize mining areas. The Taliban governor of Badakhshan recently traveled to the area and ordered a complete shutdown of gold mining workshops. According to sources, the governor has instructed residents to obtain mining permits from the Taliban. Sources stress that the “deal-making and trade” in permits across Badakhshan is now intensifying, and that through this process, Helmandi and Kandahari Taliban are tightening their grip on mining areas, leaving nothing for residents who once worked alongside local Taliban.
Amid mounting tensions over the plunder of Badakhshan’s mines and the unregulated, illegal extraction of gold in particular, the new Taliban governor has moved to bring the mines under his own control. According to sources, during his recent visit to Shighnan and Shekay districts, he barred residents from operating their gold workshops and ordered them to obtain mining permits from the group before resuming any activity.
Extortion and Racketeering by Juma Khan Fateh
Sources say Mohammad Musa Kaaka, commander of a Taliban border battalion in the 11th Brigade of Jawzjan province, maintains roughly 40 fighters in Shekay district, none of whom hold any official Taliban role there. On April 21, 2026, sources say, these fighters acted on Kaaka’s orders to raid the Qatqati mine area, seizing workshops that residents had spent two to three years developing and distributing among their own affiliates.
At the head of these fighters, sources add, was Mohammadin, Kaaka’s maternal uncle. He seized workshops that local people had built at considerable expense, between 700,000 and three million Afghanis, and handed them to his supporters.
Kaaka was arrested late Monday night by Taliban intelligence.
Sources also report that on May 3, 2026, Mohammad Musa Shahryar and Abdul Fattah, brothers of Juma Khan Fateh, arrived at the Qatqati mine with a number of their fighters and, over two to three days, forcibly took the workshops from residents and redistributed them among their own men.
On May 5 of this year, sources say, a man named Haji Mohammad Yasin Khadem, Fateh’s maternal uncle and deputy of the Taliban commissariat in Nusay district, arrived at the Qatqati mine alongside Mowahid Khanjari, Fateh’s aide, and another man known as Khattab, a Taliban intelligence officer in Nusay. They were joined by Omaruddin and Qari Shafaqat, the Taliban mining director in Nusay, who came on behalf of Fateh, along with Riazuddin, the supervisor of Fateh’s workshops at the mine, and a group of their fighters. According to sources, they then distributed newly surveyed workshops among their own affiliates.
According to sources, residents had been told under an earlier agreement that work at the Qatqati mine would officially begin under the Taliban on Saturday, May 9, 2026, and that new plots would be distributed among the population. People arrived at the site expecting the Taliban to honor that promise. Instead, they were met by Fateh’s gunmen, who set out to hand over unsurveyed areas, lands, and pasturelands belonging to residents to their own men as they saw fit.
At that point, sources say, several tribal elders and the owners of the pasturelands and plots approached the Taliban distribution committee with a request. They asked that, before any distribution, the committee hand over five to ten workshops of its own choosing to people of its selection, who could work them for around a week to determine whether the area was viable. According to sources, this measured request drew a sharp and violent response from irresponsible armed men loyal to Commander Abdul Fattah, brother of Juma Khan Fateh, and the residents, including several local religious scholars, were insulted.
Sources said: “After such humiliating treatment, the people protested peacefully in support of the scholars and to defend their legitimate request, demanding justice. Unfortunately, they were attacked by gunmen loyal to Juma Khan Fateh, and several were wounded.”
Sources added: “Juma Khan Fateh’s brothers, Mohammad Musa Shahryar and Abdul Fattah, along with several other close relatives and associates, are operating unchecked in seizing the tunnels of people’s workshops and have inflicted widespread oppression on the population. That is part of what triggered this incident. It should also be noted that the shooting at residents was carried out by forces loyal to Abdul Fattah, Fateh’s brother, who holds no official position within the Taliban structure.”
After the shooting, sources say, the Taliban district governor in Shekay asked the group’s police commander to remove Kaaka’s men, who hold no official role, from the area. Instead of expelling them, the commander provided security for these same fighters loyal to Fateh.
The Taliban Governor’s Visit and Order Banning Local Mining
Sources say Ismail Ghaznawi, the Taliban governor of Badakhshan, toured the districts of Shighnan, Shekay, and Nusay together with the group’s intelligence chief and the head of Taliban mining in Badakhshan. They inspected mining areas and workshops belonging to residents and local Taliban, and the governor then ordered a halt to all mining operations. According to sources, he instructed both local Taliban and residents to obtain mining permits and to pay “khums,” a one-fifth Islamic tax, to no one else.
Local sources say the governor first traveled to Shighnan, where he arrested several Chinese nationals and men loyal to Mawlawi Amanuddin Mansour, the Taliban governor of Helmand, and took them with him to Faizabad. Sources say these men had previously acted in a domineering manner toward the governor, which is why he ordered their arrest.
According to sources, Fateh had instructed local miners and his own men in Shekay and Nusay to switch off all sites and lights when the governor arrived in the districts at night, so that Ghaznawi would be unable to see the mining areas. Contrary to that expectation, sources say, the governor arrived during the day and inspected the area using drone cameras, known locally as “Shahparaki,” capturing aerial footage of every village.
Sources add that the governor also declined Fateh’s hospitality and issued a firm order that no further “khums” be paid to Fateh’s men, and that residents must obtain mining permits from the Taliban. Fateh, who had been pressuring the population, hid all of his excavators and mining equipment after the visit, and the tents of several of his affiliates were dismantled and removed on the governor’s orders.
One local source said: “The [Taliban] governor came to Shekay and arrested seven or eight Chinese nationals. Two of Mawlawi Amanuddin’s nephews were also detained. He took down Qari Qayyum’s tent and said no tent should be pitched here again. When the governor arrived, Nooruddin, one of Fateh’s men, fled the checkpoint. People told the Taliban governor that this mine is their only hope and that without it their livelihoods would collapse. He told them mining was not permitted and that they would have to obtain permits.”
Sources also say the governor ordered, in Nusay, that government lands previously distributed under Fateh’s instructions be reclaimed. The old bazaar, which Fateh had ordered evacuated and whose new shops had been forcibly sold to residents, is likewise to be restored to its earlier state.
According to sources, one resident told the governor to his face that Fateh has sold off all the people’s lands and pasturelands, and that the practice continues under him.
Sources late last night confirmed that the governor had turned back and traveled to the Shekay district again.
One resident said the abuses and bullying of local Taliban have cleared the way for senior Taliban officials, and that the new order will leave residents unable to obtain permits because of their economic hardship. The situation, he said, could open the door for Helmandi and Kandahari operators to seize control of Darwaz, as they have done in major cities and other mining regions, reducing the people of Badakhshan to ordinary laborers.
He added, “This works in the Taliban’s favor. They push people to get permits. But the permits go to Helmandi and Kandahari Taliban, because they have money and influence. Then the deal-making and trade in permits begins, and every office falls under the control of Helmandis and Kandaharis. Poor people, who had limited access to the mines through the local Taliban, are now cut off from everything.”
The previous Taliban governor of Badakhshan has also been accused of widespread corruption, looting of the mines, and extorting payments from gold operators. According to sources, he also took a young girl in the province as a second wife during his tenure and moved large sums of money from Badakhshan to Kandahar.
You can read the Persian version of this report here:
بدخشان زیر سایه رقابت و غارت؛ «معامله و تجارت جواز» در دروازها داغتر میشود
