One of the senior commanders of the Afghan-Uzbek Taliban, Makhdum Alim, was arrested for cooperating with previous governments and foreign intelligence
KABUL, March 8 - Sangar, Farzam Kazemi.
So far, it has only been reported that he was arrested by Taliban military intelligence for kidnapping in the northern provinces of Afghanistan under the Karzai and Ghani administrations.
A Taliban Supreme Court source familiar with the Makhdum Alim case told Sangar's website that the kidnapping is only a small part of the case, in fact, he was arrested for cooperating with previous governments and foreign intelligence.
“According to documents obtained from the archives of the former National Security Directorate, Makhdum Alim received more than one (1) million dollars over the past 10 years from the Border and Tribal-Ethnic Affairs branch of the 024 Department of this Directorate. The Americans were also in the know. Makhdum Alim's mission was also very dangerous," the source said.
According to him, the task of Makhdum Alim was to unleash clashes between the Taliban groups and this group with ISIS* to aggravate the security situation in the northern provinces of Juzjan, Faryab, Sari Pul, and Samangan.
“At the same time, his task was to create Taliban groups in areas where they were not and to cooperate with ISIS. He had close ties with terrorist groups in Central Asia, especially with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan*, and with the help of the Security Department lobbied this movement, in particular, helped its members to travel abroad or be treated in clinics in cities. Alim and his men were involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping, and extorting money from their relatives,” the source said.
Makhdum Alim was the "shadow" governor of the Taliban, and after they came to power, he headed the provincial military commission in Faryab. On January 13, he was summoned to the Taliban intelligence headquarters in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province, and arrested on charges of kidnapping. The arrest warrant was issued by Mullah Fazel, the Islamic Emirate's deputy defense minister, who was held captive by Abdul Rashid Dostum's forces in Faryab during the first Taliban rule (1996-2001).
Meanwhile, Naqibullah Faeq, the former governor of Faryab (2018 - 2021) in January of this year, during the days of mass demonstrations in support of Makhdum Alim in the city of Maimana, the center of Faryab, told the media that the issue of kidnapping by Makhdum Alim’s group was obvious during his governorship, but the Taliban never tried to punish him.
If Makhdum Alim is found guilty, it will certainly become clear that previous governments and their patron, the United States, were involved in the project of Talibanization, isilisation, and surrender of northern Afghanistan to terrorist groups.
According to reliable data, training centers and bases of terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda *, ISIS, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and Ansarullah * are currently operating unhindered in the northern provinces of Afghanistan.
*Organization is under UN sanctions for terrorist activities.
