Afghanistan’s veterans: the security forces recalled

Hannah McNeish

HRW

General Hajjan was director of Afghanistan’s Intelligence Agency (ANSAR) and a member of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council

Under the Taliban, security forces, or “devils”, as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani called them in 2014, had a battlefield mandate which guaranteed their safety, at least until they “left for heaven”

Major-General Jawed Marwat, General Tariq Hayat and Colonel Gul Agha were killed in the “de-militarisation” operation

Also killed were General Seyed Mohammad Yunus, a deputy of Afghanistan’s defense minister who remained in the position after his death

Haji Aziz Mujib died when guards abandoned him, three family members and a tribal elder were killed

Warrant Officer Sharifullah was picked up by the Taliban and thrown into a tunnel

The number of “devils” killed was too high to have been one rogue execution but carried out by multiple Taliban forces, reports HRW

“Shameless”

Three years after Afghanistan’s High Peace Council effectively “devolved into a patronage organisation”, Mullah Omar and his successor Mullah Akhtar Mansour continued to provide high-level immunity to senior officials

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