Taliban’s Senior Defence Ministry Officials From Single Ethnic Network, Says Green Trend

The Afghanistan Green Trend (AGT), led by Amrullah Saleh, has released a list of 189 senior Taliban officials, who have allegedly established "an ethnic, madrassa, and acquaintance network" within the Ministry of Defence.

According to the AGT, only one of these officials is not affiliated with the Taliban, and all of them have received education at "religious madrassas in Pakistan”.

Afghanistan International is unable to independently verify the identities and positions of these Taliban officials, as well as other information disclosed by the AGT. Nonetheless, criticisms have been directed at the Taliban for their perceived political and ethnic monopolisation, particularly within government institutions.

The AGT recently published several lists of Taliban officials in ministries on its social media platform, claiming that it reveals the Taliban's ethnically and factionally driven appointments to top government positions.

On Tuesday, it wrote that among these 189 senior officials in the Taliban's Ministry of Defence, there is only one non-Taliban member which is the head of a 400-bed army hospital.

It further stated that mullahs and clerics affiliated with the Taliban occupy a range of positions from lieutenant colonel to general, and they have all graduated from Pakistani madrassas.

According to the AGT, the "Taliban's Ministry of Defence employs over 145,000 personnel," predominantly from "Loy Kandahar, Loy Paktia, and Persian speaking Taliban members”.

Previously, Latifullah Hakimi, the head of the Taliban's Ministry of Defence’s purification commission, had claimed that the group's military forces had reached 170,000 personnel.

The Afghanistan Green Trend alleges that the Taliban has deployed 63,000 militias across nine northern provinces under the framework of defence and interior ministries as well as intelligence directorate, of which 93 percent are Pashtun.

It also claims that the Taliban have deployed 17,000 members in Panjshir province.

According to the Afghanistan Green Trend, the Taliban's defence minister is demanding the recruitment of more than 3,000 experienced military personnel from the previous government into the Ministry of Defence.

Since takeover of the power, the Taliban has appointed their own commanders and forces in government institutions. The group has conducted examinations to verify their educational levels and has provided them with educational and graduation certificates equivalent to academic degrees in Afghanistan's higher education system, for those who have graduated from religious madrassas.