Documents and field findings obtained by the Hasht-e Subh Daily show that Gul Mohammad Osman, the Taliban Director of Public Health in Kandahar province, has been acquitted by the group’s court and has returned to his post. He had been detained and faced more than 20 charges of financial, administrative, and recruitment corruption, including selling positions, taking bribes from job seekers, and extorting health organizations. The acquittal came with the backing of a circle close to Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban Supreme Leader. Meanwhile, Taliban intelligence has compiled at least 19 corruption cases against him, complete with documents and evidence, and about 48 people have also filed complaints against him. The findings of this report indicate that Osman created a network of affiliated individuals within the Taliban’s administrative, justice, and judicial institutions and drew on the support of a circle in Akhundzada’s office. This allowed him to continue widespread and organized corruption in Kandahar’s public health sector, and despite numerous cases and documented allegations, he continues to work.
The field findings of this report show that the Taliban Director of Public Health in Kandahar province is involved in widespread financial, administrative, and recruitment corruption. According to these documents, all Taliban institutions are aware of the matter, but despite the presentation of evidence, they refuse to stop his financial and administrative corruption. The findings of the report show that Taliban intelligence alone identified 19 violations and instances of corruption against Osman and referred the related cases to the group’s courts. However, using his influence and the support of several individuals in the Taliban courts, and through the oaths they swore, he was acquitted by Akhundzada’s office.
At the same time, knowledgeable sources interviewed for this report confirm that Gul Mohammad Osman sells all administrative positions, from ordinary posts to the post of deputy, to people in exchange for money. The field findings of this report show that the Taliban Director of Public Health has taken money from individuals and job seekers on the pretext of providing them with suitable jobs, but after receiving the money, he has not given these individuals any position.
One knowledgeable source interviewed for this report says: “Dozens of people had filed complaints against Gul Mohammad Osman, and Haqbin was one of them. In exchange for providing an important job for Haqbin, Gul Mohammad Osman had secured the withdrawal of his complaint, but so far he has not kept his promise and has not provided any job for him.”
A credible source says that the Taliban Director of Public Health received $20,000 from a former prosecutor in exchange for assigning him an administrative position, and hired him in the Human Resources post. According to this source, the prosecutor, who paid a bribe to obtain this job, is now selling administrative positions to recoup the money he paid, and also demands money from people hired by organizations.
According to this source, half of the money this person receives from organizations and applicants for administrative positions is paid again to Gul Mohammad Osman, the Taliban Director of Public Health in Kandahar.
This source says that because of the extensive interference of these two individuals in the affairs of organizations and the collection of huge sums of money, organizations based in Kandahar are unwilling to carry out health projects in this province.
This source says: “Dozens of people had filed complaints against Gul Mohammad Osman, and Haqbin was one of them. Osman secured the withdrawal of his complaint on the condition that he would provide an important job for him, but so far he has not kept his promise and has not provided any job for him.”
According to the documents obtained, in addition to receiving money from organizations, these individuals hire people in hospitals, particularly Mirwais Regional Hospital, who have paid money to the Director of Public Health. This process even extends to nursing and security guard positions.
This source says that when organizations begin operating in Kandahar, Gul Mohammad Osman demands between $20,000 and $50,000 from them on the pretext of approving and agreeing to their activities.
The source says: “No head of an organization or project manager is hired unless he pays Osman five or six thousand dollars. On various pretexts, he creates problems for them and entraps them with the Taliban by labeling them as affiliated with the Republic and by using other issues.”
According to this source, the Taliban Director of Public Health in Kandahar seeks to create illegal sources of income in all government hospitals and earns hundreds of thousands of Afghanis from these sources.
A knowledgeable source who does not want his name mentioned in this report says that, to advance his corrupt activities, Gul Mohammad Osman had also hired a special monitoring team tasked with collecting money for him. According to this source, some time ago, several members of this team were detained by the Taliban and are still in prison.
At the same time, another source says that nearly 48 people who had various claims against the Taliban Director of Public Health in Kandahar filed complaints against him in the group’s courts to seek justice and obtain their rights.
Some of these individuals had been promised employment, others had been barred from continuing work on various pretexts, and some had been dismissed from their jobs. In addition, other individuals are also believed to be involved in financial corruption linked to the Taliban Director of Public Health in Kandahar.
According to one source, after facing numerous complaints, the Taliban Director of Public Health, instead of going to court, tried to resolve the complaints and the complainants’ problems by various means through the mediation of tribal elders, particularly the Kandahar Health Council. Despite this, a large number of them still have complaints against Gul Mohammad Osman.
Following the continuation of financial corruption, the growing number of public complaints and the multiplicity of cases against Gul Mohammad Osman, the office of Akhundzada, the Taliban Supreme Leader, was compelled to intervene in the matter and launch an investigation into the allegations against him. This office had ordered the Taliban’s judicial institutions to review all of Gul Mohammad Osman’s cases.
A source says that after this order was issued, Taliban courts sped up the review of the Director of Public Health’s cases. However, when Gul Mohammad Osman and the complainants went to the courts, he hired a number of Public Health Directorate employees and other individuals in the city, in exchange for payment, before the court sessions began, in order to discredit the claims and allegations made against him. According to this source, these individuals testified against the complainants under oath.
According to this source, half of the Taliban Director of Public Health’s time is spent in the group’s justice and judicial institutions, and he spends most of his time caught up in disputes and legal cases with people.
Based on available information, before the complainants went to the courts, Gul Mohammad Osman had made deals with a number of them. Under these agreements, he promised some of them employment in organizations, promised cash payments to others, and assured some that they could work freely in their field of work and would be safe from monitoring by individuals affiliated with him.
Sources say that documents held at the Taliban Intelligence Directorate in Kandahar and the numerous complaints from people had paved the way for the Taliban Director of Public Health to be detained and imprisoned, but he was released again and returned to his post.
This source says that Gul Mohammad Osman has told a number of his associates that by paying $30,000, he saved himself from the city court and secured the directorship for a second time. According to Osman, a special circle in Akhundzada’s office supports him and resolves his problems.
According to this report, more than 20 charges, including financial, administrative and recruitment corruption, selling government positions and taking money from health institutions, have been brought against Gul Mohammad Osman, the head of the Taliban’s Public Health Department in Kandahar.
Despite having numerous corruption cases in various Taliban courts and institutions, Gul Mohammad Osman continues to enjoy the support of a circle whose members are believed to be involved in the corruption attributed to him and profit from these activities.
Based on available information, this circle operates like an organized chain, and its members in various sectors profit from the corruption attributed to the Director of Public Health. According to sources, the members of this circle include some former members of the Kandahar Provincial Council, individuals affiliated with the Taliban’s provincial authority in the province, justice and judicial institutions, the Directorate of Decrees, Follow-up and Oversight, and several people in Akhundzada’s office.
After the rise in public complaints against Gul Mohammad Osman and the issuance of an order by Akhundzada’s office to review his corruption cases, Osman and the circle affiliated with him launched special efforts to secure his acquittal.
After three months of review and the efforts of this circle, Akhundzada’s office succeeded in obtaining an acquittal ruling from the court for the Director, and he returned to his post.
Documents have come into the possession of the Hasht-e Subh Daily showing that Akhundzada issued an acquittal ruling for Gul Mohammad Osman.
According to the dates recorded in these documents, Gul Mohammad Osman received an acquittal ruling on October 29, 2026, based on an official decision of the court.
This document was obtained from the General Directorate of Civil Security of the Security Cassation Division of the Taliban Court in the Southwestern Zone. It also refers to 19 different cases of the group’s Intelligence Directorate and claims that these cases have no connection to Gul Mohammad Osman.
The Hasht-e Subh Daily has also obtained another document from the Taliban court in Kandahar showing that Gul Mohammad Osman, Kandahar’s Director of Public Health, had been dismissed from his post on August 12, 2026, on charges of abuse of official authority.
Despite the existence of this document, on October 29, 2026, the court issued an acquittal ruling for Gul Mohammad Osman and allowed him to return to his post.
Note: The dates in the documents cited in this report are recorded in the Hijri Lunar calendar (1448 AH) and were converted to the Gregorian calendar.
You can read the Persian version of this report here:
۱۹ پرونده فساد و ۴۸ شکایت؛ هبتالله چگونه رییس صحت عامه طالبان در قندهار را برائت داد؟
