In the past three years, the Taliban have consistently detained, tortured, or killed former military personnel without due process. During their acts of revenge against ex-military personnel, they arrested and killed dozens in the Paktika province. The Taliban have also threatened the families and relatives of former soldiers in Paktika and other provinces, warning them not to publicize the detention or killing of ex-security forces. This group has even shot disabled soldiers and blown up the graves of some former military personnel in this province.
Paktika, located in southeastern Afghanistan, was among the provinces that fell to the Taliban in the final days of the previous government. According to several residents of this province, former military personnel in Paktika participated in anti-Taliban operations not only within the province but also in neighboring provinces like Ghazni and Paktia during the years of conflict.
Findings from the Hasht-e Subh Daily reveal that the Taliban have taken revenge on former military personnel in Paktika, with many being pursued, arrested, and subjected to violence. While exact figures of killings among ex-security forces in this province are unavailable, sources report instances of arrest, vigilante trials, and torture of former security personnel.
In one instance, the Taliban blew up the grave of a former special forces commander of the previous government in the Urgun district of Paktika. In another, they shot a soldier who had lost his sight in a Taliban-planted mine explosion, right in front of his home.
Badruddin Haidari, known as “Badu,” was the police commander of the Baka Khel district in the previous government. After the regime’s collapse, he fled to Pakistan. Upon returning to Afghanistan, he was arrested by the Taliban in Khost province on February 28, 2023. He was immediately transferred to Paktika and executed by firing squad in a vigilante court the next day.
Gul Khan, a former local police commander in Paktika’s Mata Khan district, was attacked by Taliban fighters on October 12, 2022, while traveling with his family in a vehicle. In this incident, one of his sons was killed, and he and two other family members were injured.
Abdul Aleem, a disabled soldier from the previous government’s police force who had lost both his eyes in an explosion before the Taliban’s takeover, was shot dead by the Taliban on October 2, 2023, in front of his home in Jalalzai village, Jani Khel district.
Abdul Aleem had already lost 12 family members in the war with the Taliban. He was the sole breadwinner for a 30-member family, including several widows and orphaned children.
Continuing their revenge killings, on August 9, 2023, the Taliban abducted the brother of the former deputy governor of Paktika from his home in Yusuf Khel district. His body was found the following day. His name was Mohammad Yasin, and he was a military student in Kabul.
In addition to these incidents, the Taliban arrested a former military member of this province after he returned from Pakistan in Kandahar and another former soldier after he returned from Iran in Helmand. A year has passed, and there is still no information about their whereabouts.
It is worth noting that the Taliban’s actions in Paktika have not been limited to arresting, torturing, and killing former military personnel. In two cases, they also blew up the tombs of military commanders from the republic era in this province.
In January 2022, the Taliban blew up the tomb of Darya Khan Talash, a former soldier from Paktika who had fought against them, in the Surobi district of this province. They also blew up the tomb of Azizullah Karwan, a well-known military figure in the special police forces in the southeastern zone, in June 2022.
In the past three years, the Taliban have systematically targeted former security forces of the previous government in various provinces. This comes despite a recent claim by Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s Minister of Interior, who stated at a meeting in Paktia province last week that the group remains committed to their supreme leader’s general amnesty decree.
You can read the Persian version of this daily report here:
وضعیت اسفبار نیروهای امنیتی حکومت پیشین در پکتیکا | روزنامه ۸صبح
