Two districts of Faryab province in Afghanistan have risen against the despotism of the Taliban.
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, April 24 — “Sangar”, Qari Ahmad. The Taliban intended, through a “sharia-based tactic,” to register Pashtun residents from southern provinces and Pakistan as citizens and allocate land to them.
A “Sangar” source in Faryab reports that Pashtun leaders of the Taliban, under threat of force, compelled the districts of Andkhoy and Karamkul to issue Afghan identity documents to non-local Pashtuns and southern nomads (Kuchis).
“According to this plan, they are first granted citizenship, and then land is allocated to them from pastures and green areas. Anyone who has seen these two districts knows that due to their proximity to the Amu Darya River, they possess lush pastures and fertile lands,” the source said.
According to the source, when registration officials in these districts, mostly ethnic Uzbeks, refuse to carry out these orders, they are detained and beaten by Taliban police.
“The head of the population registration department of Karamkul was personally summoned to Maimana, beaten, and detained on the orders of the Taliban governor Mullah Abdulhad Fazli, who is originally from Helmand province. In this regime, anyone who opposes ethnic policies ends up in prison,” the source reported.
He added that families supported by Pashtun Taliban are not registered in the population records system of Karamkul district, and attempts to issue them identity documents are considered a violation of Afghanistan’s population registration laws. He noted that in response to these events, residents of Andkhoy and Karamkul rose up, went to the district administration building, and held protests.
“This is the first time that people’s patience toward the Taliban’s ethnic oppression is running out. They demanded that if the government has surplus land, it should be given to local residents in need, not to outsiders,” the source said.
A “Sangar” source added that some nomadic tribes, including Adozai and Achakzai, who in recent years arrived from the south and Pakistan and settled in the pastures and forests of Karamkul, despite having previous identity documents, are seeking new documents in this district.
“Large-scale protests near the Karamkul district administration building are ongoing. Protesters are demanding that the Taliban authorities halt this process, uphold the rule of law, and conduct a transparent investigation into this issue,” the source reported.
Observers note that the mass mobilization of the Uzbek population in Andkhoy and Karamkul shows that the divide between northern residents—especially Uzbeks—and the Taliban has deepened more than ever.
Earlier, Nida Mohammad Nadim, the Taliban’s Minister of Higher Education, during a visit to Kabul University, slapped an Uzbek student for wearing an Uzbek skullcap. This act caused dissatisfaction among Uzbeks and other ethnic groups.
Local sources report that after tensions with Pakistan, the Taliban moved into non-Pashtun northern provinces with slogans of brotherhood and “Afghanizm,” but in practice began implementing a “sharia tactic”—a dangerous plan to change the demographic structure of the North. The events of April 23, 2026, in Faryab exposed this large-scale deception.
They claim that the Taliban is not a government but an ethnically driven occupying force that seeks, through forged identity documents, to eliminate the roots of indigenous peoples of the North. However, Faryab has shown that the North is awakening, and these protests will inevitably spark armed resistance.
So far, the Taliban has not issued any official statements regarding these developments.
