Ministry of Interior Affairs (Afghanistan)

The Ministry of Interior Affairs (Persian: وزارت امور داخله افغانستان, Pashto: د افغانستان د کورنیو چارو وزارت) is the cabinet ministry of Afghanistan responsible for law enforcement, civil order and fighting crime. The ministry's headquarters is located in Kabul.

Ministry of Interior Affairs
Emblem of the Ministry of Interior Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
Government agency overview
JurisdictionGovernment of Afghanistan
HeadquartersKabul
34°34′04.13″N 69°10′42.82″E / 34.5678139°N 69.1785611°E / 34.5678139; 69.1785611
MottoResolute. Ready. Responsive.
Minister responsible
Deputy Ministers responsible
Government agency executives
  • Mullah Abdul Nafi Takoor[1], Spokesperson
  • Maulvi Badruddin Haqqani[2], Director of Procurement
Websitemoi.gov.af/index.php/en

The current minister of Interior Affairs is Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is also the first deputy leader of Afghanistan and the leader of the Haqqani network.

List of ministers

PortraitNameTook officeLeft officePolitical affiliation
Abd al-Ghafur Khan[3]January 19291929Saqqawist
Mohammad Gul Khan Momand1930sIndependent
Faiz Mohammed19731975Independent
Abdul Qadir Nuristani197528 April 1978Republican
Nur Ahmed Nur[4]30 April 197811 July 1978PDPAParcham
Mohammad Aslam Watanjar[5]11 July 19781 April 1979PDPAKhalq
Shir Jan Mazdooryar[6]1 April 197928 July 1979PDPAKhalq
Mohammad Aslam Watanjar[7]28 July 197919 September 1979PDPAKhalq
Vacant (19 September – 28 December 1979)
Sayyed Mohammed Gulabzoi[8]28 December 197915 November 1988PDPAKhalq
Mohammad Aslam Watanjar[9]15 November 19886 March 1990PDPAKhalq
Raz Muhammad Paktin[10]6 March 199016 April 1992Homeland Party
Abdul Samad Khaksar[a]19962001Taliban
Qari Ahmadullah1996?Taliban
Khairullah Khairkhwa19971998Taliban
Abdur Razzaq? — May 2000 — ?Taliban
Yunus Qanuni7 December 200119 June 2002
Taj Mohammad Wardak19 June 200228 January 2003
Ali Jalali28 January 200327 September 2005[11]Independent
Zarar Ahmad Osmani[b]28 September 200511 October 2008
Mohammad Hanif Atmar11 October 2008July 2010Independent
Bismillah Khan MohammadiJuly 2010September 2012Jamiat-e Islami
Mujtaba Patang15 September 201222 July 2013Independent
(Police)
Mohammad Omar Daudzai1 September 20139 December 2014Independent
Mohammad Ayub Salangi
(acting)
9 December 201427 January 2015Independent
(Police)
Nur ul-Haq Ulumi27 January 201524 February 2016Hezb-e Muttahed-e Melli
Taj Mohammad Jahid24 February 201613 August 2017Jamiat-e Islami
Wais Barmak13 August 201723 December 2018Independent
Amrullah Saleh
(acting)
23 December 201819 January 2019Basej-e Milli
Masoud Andrabi19 January 201919 March 2021
Hayatullah Hayat
(acting)
19 March 2021[13]19 June 2021Independent
Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal
(acting)
19 June 2021[14]15 August 2021Independent
(Military)
Ibrahim Sadr
(acting)
24 August 20217 September 2021Taliban
Sirajuddin Haqqani
(acting)
7 September 2021[15]IncumbentTaliban
(Haqqani network)

The Democratic Republic period

During the period where Afghanistan was a Marxist-Leninist state under the People’s Democratic People of Afghanistan, those that worked for the Ministry of Interior (MoI) were referred to as “Sarandoy”.[16] This label included traffic police, provinical officers and corrections/labor prison facility officers. The Ministry of Interior also had female personnel who were tasked with interacting with female civilians, such as when searching them at checkpoints. Those who worked for the Ministry of Interior were tasked with fighting “counter-revolutionaries”, securing government and party components and ensuring the safety of important structures. As of 1982, the Ministry of Interior may have had its own intelligence agency. The Sarandoy were a centrally commanded force and companies, battalions, and brigades reported to the “Directorate of the Defense of the Revolution of the Ministry of Interior”.

It should also be noted that a gendarme forces also existed during the monarchy and Daoud Khan’s republic, and that personnel under the Ministry of Interior were trained by Turkey from the 1950s well into the 1970s. Additionally, both West Germany and East Germany trained those in the Ministry of Interior and on the eve of the Saur Revolution in 1978, Afghanistan’s officer corps and MoI personnel contained personnel who received training in the United States. Regardless, the Sarandoy had far more numbers and were more effective due to the cooperation of the Soviet MVD and its “Kobalt” units in 1981 and 1982 where 12,000 of these Sarandoy personnel were trained at MVD facilities in the Soviet Union between 1978 and 1986, many of them being junior commanders and NCOs. 2,500 of these Sarandoy personnel would be trained in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic for past excellence in combat.

The first Islamic Emirate period

During the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996–2001), Abdul Samad Khaksar (also referred to as Mohammad Khaksar in some news reports) was a Taliban deputy Minister of the Interior, who is notable because he offered to help the US deal with al-Qaeda and became an informant for the Northern Alliance. Khaksar was assassinated on January 14, 2006 by Taliban gunmen.[17][18]

Joint Task Force Guantanamo counterterrorism analysts described Khairullah Khairkhwa as a former Taliban Minister of the Interior.[dead link][19][20][21]However, during his second annual Administrative Review Board hearing Khairullah Khairkhwa disputed this allegation.

The Islamic Republic period

Seal of the Interior Ministry and Police of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan[22]

During the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2004–2021), the ministry maintained the Afghan National Police, the General Command of Police Special Units and the General Directorate of Prisons and Detention Centers (GDPDC).[23][24]

Police forces

Notes

See also

References

External links