Ministry of Interior Affairs (Afghanistan)

The Ministry of Interior Affairs (Dari: 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
Jurisdiction	Government of Afghanistan
Headquarters	Kabul 34°34′04.13″N 69°10′42.82″E
Motto	Resolute. Ready. Responsive.
Minister responsible	Sirajuddin Haqqani (Acting)
Deputy Ministers responsible	Ibrahim Sadr (Acting) Noor Jalal (Acting) Mohammad Nabi Omari (Acting)
Government agency executives	Mullah Abdul Nafi Takoor[1], Spokesperson Maulvi Badruddin Haqqani[2], Director of Procurement
Website	moi.gov.af/index.php/en Official YouTube channel

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

Portrait	Name	Took office	Left office	Political affiliation
	Ali Ahmad Loinab[3]	August 1919	June 1925
	Abdul Aziz Barakzai[3]	June 1925	1928
	Abdul Ahad Wardak[3]	1928	1929
	Abd al-Ghafur Khan[4]	January 1929	1929		Saqqawist
	Muhammad Hashim Khan[3]	1929	1930
	Muhammad Gul Mohmand[3]	1930	1939
	Ghulam Faruq Usman[3]	1939	1942
	Muhammad Nauruz[3]	1942	1945
	Ghulam Faruq Usman[3]	1945	1948
	Gen. Asadullah Seraj[3]	1948	1949
	Gen. Mohammad Daoud Khan[3]	1949	1951
	Gen. Abdul Ahad Malikyar[3]	1951	1955
	Abdul Hakim Shah-Alami[3]	1955	1958
	Sayyid Abdullah[3]	1958	1963
	Dr. Abdul Qayyum[3]	1963	1965
	Abdus Sattar Shalizi[3]	1965	1966
	Eng. Ahmadullah[3]	1966	1967
	Muhammad Umar Wardak[3]	1967	1969
	Eng. Muhammad Bashir Lodin[3]	1969	1971
	Amanullah Mansuri[3]	1971	1972
	Nimatullah Pazhwak[3]	1972	1973
	Faiz Mohammed	1973[3]	1975		Independent
	Abdul Qadir Nuristani	1975	28 April 1978		Republican
	Nur Ahmed Nur[5]	30 April 1978	11 July 1978		PDPA–Parcham
	Mohammad Aslam Watanjar[6]	11 July 1978	1 April 1979		PDPA–Khalq
	Shir Jan Mazdooryar[7]	1 April 1979	28 July 1979		PDPA–Khalq
	Mohammad Aslam Watanjar[8]	28 July 1979	19 September 1979		PDPA–Khalq
Vacant (19 September – 28 December 1979)
	Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoy[9]	28 December 1979	15 November 1988		PDPA–Khalq
	Mohammad Aslam Watanjar[10]	15 November 1988	6 March 1990		PDPA–Khalq
	Raz Muhammad Paktin[11]	6 March 1990	16 April 1992		Homeland Party
	Abdul Samad Khaksar[a]	1996	2001		Taliban
	Qari Ahmadullah	1996	?		Taliban
	Khairullah Khairkhwa	1997	1998		Taliban
	Abdur Razzaq Akhundzada	? — May 2000 — ?			Taliban
	Yunus Qanuni	7 December 2001	19 June 2002
	Taj Mohammad Wardak	19 June 2002	28 January 2003
	Ali Jalali	28 January 2003	27 September 2005[12]		Independent
	Zarar Ahmad Osmani[b]	28 September 2005	11 October 2008
	Mohammad Hanif Atmar	11 October 2008	July 2010		Independent
	Bismillah Khan Mohammadi	July 2010	September 2012		Jamiat-e Islami
	Mujtaba Patang	15 September 2012	22 July 2013		Independent (Police)
	Mohammad Omar Daudzai	1 September 2013	9 December 2014		Independent
	Mohammad Ayub Salangi (acting)	9 December 2014	27 January 2015		Independent (Police)
	Nur ul-Haq Ulumi	27 January 2015	24 February 2016		Hezb-e Muttahed-e Melli
	Taj Mohammad Jahid	24 February 2016	13 August 2017		Jamiat-e Islami
	Wais Barmak	13 August 2017	23 December 2018		Independent
	Amrullah Saleh (acting)	23 December 2018	19 January 2019		Basej-e Milli
	Masoud Andrabi	19 January 2019	19 March 2021
	Hayatullah Hayat (acting)	19 March 2021[14]	19 June 2021		Independent
	Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal (acting)	19 June 2021[15]	15 August 2021		Independent (Military)
	Ibrahim Sadr (acting)	24 August 2021	7 September 2021		Taliban
	Sirajuddin Haqqani (acting)	7 September 2021[16]	Incumbent		Taliban (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”.^[17] 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.^[18][19]

Joint Task Force Guantanamo counterterrorism analysts described Khairullah Khairkhwa as a former Taliban Minister of the Interior.^{[dead link][20][21][22]} 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^[23]

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).^[24][25]

Police forces

• Afghan National Police (ANP)^[26]
  • Afghan Uniformed Police (AUP)^[26]
  • Public Security Police (PSP)^[26]
  • Afghan Border Force (ABP)^[26]
  • General Directorate for Intelligence and Counter Crime (GDICC) (formerly Afghan Anti-Crime Police (AACP))^[27]
  • Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF)^[28]
  • Counter Narcotics Police of Afghanistan (CNPA)^[28]
  • Afghan Local Police (ALP)^[28]
• General Command of Police Special Units (GCPSU)^[29][30] (Dari: قوماندانی عمومی قطعات خاص)^[31]
  • Afghan Territorial Force (ATF) 444^[30]
  • Crisis Response Unit (CRU) 222^[30]
  • Afghan Special Narcotics Force - also known as Force 333 or Commando Force 333.^[32] The force was a counternarcotics paramilitary unit, founded at the end of 2003 with training and assistance from British advisers. It carried out drug interdiction missions in remote areas of the country against high-value targets such as drug laboratories. The Department of Defense provided the unit with intelligence and airlift support.^[33][34] All of its operations were sanctioned by the President and Minister of Interior Affairs. It operated regularly with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on raids and seized hundreds of tonnes of illicit drugs.^[35]
  • Provincial Special Units^[30][32]

Notes

1. Minister or deputy Minister.
2. Served as deputy Minister when Jalali resigned.^[13] Appointed acting Minister before his appointment was made permanent.

See also

• Ministry of Defense (Afghanistan)