RASC News Agency: The Taliban regime has dismissed five former officers of Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) in the northern province of Balkh, a move widely seen by analysts and local sources as part of a broader campaign of political retribution and institutional cleansing against former government personnel. According to a classified document obtained by local sources on Saturday, June 14, the five individuals each of whom had previously held senior positions within the security architecture of the former Islamic Republic were reappointed after the Taliban’s return to power under a so-called “reintegration” scheme. The document, bearing the official stamp and signature of the Taliban’s provincial intelligence department in Balkh, confirms their abrupt dismissal without due process.
Local sources familiar with the matter say the Taliban cited “lack of trust” and “completion of investigations” as the rationale behind the decision. However, rights advocates and observers have described these reasons as deliberately vague and reflective of the Taliban’s growing paranoia toward those with institutional knowledge of the previous republic. “This is not about administrative efficiency,” said a former Afghanistani intelligence official now living in exile. “This is a continuation of the Taliban’s systematic purge of experienced personnel individuals who represent a vision of Afghanistan rooted in professionalism, law, and republican values.”
Although the Taliban claimed in August 2021 to have declared a “general amnesty” for former government and military officials, numerous reports since then have pointed to a grim reality: former officers have been harassed, detained, tortured, and in many cases executed often without trial or formal charges. Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and the United Nations, have documented dozens of such cases, where former military, police, and intelligence officers were targeted under the pretext of “security reviews” or “reinvestigation.” The dismissals in Balkh appear to be part of this same pattern of retaliation.
Analysts argue that the Taliban’s internal insecurity and fear of organized resistance are driving such purges. By removing even those individuals it previously reintegrated into its own ranks, the regime is signaling that no former member of the republic regardless of their willingness to cooperate is beyond suspicion. “This kind of systematic exclusion not only violates the Taliban’s own so-called ‘amnesty’ decree but also underscores the ideological rigidity and authoritarian nature of their governance,” said a Kabul-based political analyst, who requested anonymity for security reasons. “They are dismantling every remnant of a functioning state and replacing it with a structure based on loyalty, fear, and obedience not competence.”
The document seen by sources lists the full names and former titles of the dismissed officers, all of whom reportedly served in critical intelligence roles prior to the fall of Kabul. Sources claim the Taliban’s decision is likely linked to internal power struggles within the regime’s intelligence wing, which has increasingly been staffed with loyalists from the Haqqani network and Kandahari factions. While the Taliban has not issued a public statement regarding the dismissals, their silence is consistent with past incidents of political purging and retaliatory action. The group’s intelligence apparatus has, in many instances, operated beyond the reach of any accountability mechanisms carrying out arrests, interrogations, and disappearances with impunity.
Observers warn that such tactics are not only unjust but dangerously destabilizing for Afghanistan’s already fragmented internal security environment. By removing trained professionals from key positions and replacing them with ideologically driven and often inexperienced cadres, the Taliban is hollowing out the state from within further weakening the prospect of future national cohesion or stability. The purge in Balkh is yet another stark reminder that the Taliban’s rule remains rooted not in governance or inclusion, but in vengeance and domination. It underscores the regime’s refusal to tolerate dissent, institutional memory, or the possibility of shared national ownership values that once formed the backbone of Afghanistan’s republican experiment.
As international focus wanes and media coverage declines, the Taliban continues its silent war against the very fabric of Afghanistan’s former civic and security institutions one dismissal, one arrest, one disappearance at a time.
