The Taliban Ministry of Defense* has created a new division in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan and appointed its commander and chief of staff
KUNDUZ, Feb 20 - "Sangar", Jamshid Badakhshi. The opening ceremony of this new division was personally attended by the Chief of Staff of the Taliban Ministry of Defense - Qari Fasihuddin.
One of the participants in the meeting, which took place in Faizabad - the capital of Badakhshan, with the participation of Qari Fasihuddin, Mullah Abdul Ghani, the governor, Mavlavi Abdul Haq, the chief of police, Mavlavi Nurulkhuda, the head of the security service of the province, told the "Sangar" correspondent that the division was named after Mulla Omar, founder of the Taliban, "Umari Solis" or "Third Umar".
Photo: Mulla Yaqub (left) and Kari Fasihuddin, January 26, 2022, Faizabad.
“The Taliban believe that the first Umar was the second caliph of the Muslims, the second Umar - his son - Umar ibn Abdul Aziz, and Mullah Umar is the third Umar. It is noteworthy that the division was based in the homeland of Burhanuddin Rabbani, one of the anti-Taliban leaders, an opponent of Mullah Omar, ” our correspondent reports.
According to the source, Mullah Hafez Mujahid, from the Baharak district, Badakhshan province, was appointed commander of this division. He is one of the commanders of Qari Fasihuddin.
“Mulla Hafez is fluent in English. He is educated. After the collapse of the republic, with the Taliban coming to power, he acted as head of the Badakhshan Rural Development Department", our correspondent reports.
Photo: Mullah Hafez
The sources add that the issue of creating a separate military division in Badakhshan was discussed at the end of January this year during the visit of the Taliban Defense Minister Mullah Yakub and Army Chief of Staff Qari Fasihuddin.
“At this meeting, Qari Fasihuddin spoke to the audience, who told the Badakhshan commanders that if you create a separate division, it is for your own good, otherwise, do not complain about what will happen in Badakhshan in the future. When the audience asked him to clarify what he meant, the Taliban Defense Minister, Mullah Yaqub, spoke. He said that if the Resistance Front takes any action in the province, he will send his forces from Mashriqi (Eastern Pashtun areas) and from the center (Kabul) to Badakhshan, and Mawlawi Amanuddin (the current commander of the Taliban Air Force) will command these forces.” , - said a source who participated in this meeting.
Our source claims that although we are talking about a division, at the place of its deployment - the airport of Badakhshan - there are practically no relevant buildings, not even military equipment, and personnel.
“The division has no technical staff. To address this and other issues, Mawlavi Mahbubullah Hamed, known as Mawlavi Mahbub, a Taliban commander in the Khostak Valley of the Jurm region, who harbors foreign terrorists, was appointed to the post of chief of staff of the division. He has about 100 fighters, and with the group of Mullah Hafiz, the number of personnel of the division can reach about 200 people, ”the source says.
Photo: Mawlavi Mahbub
Badakhshan is one of the largest provinces in Afghanistan, bordering Tajikistan, China, and Pakistan, where about 90 percent of the population are Tajiks and was originally considered anti-Taliban territory. During the First Resistance (1996-2001) the city of Feyzabad was considered the political capital of the Islamic State of Afghanistan, under the leadership of Burhanuddin Rabbani.
The fighters of foreign terrorist organizations, originally from Russia, China, and Central Asia, have been hiding in the Khostak valleys of the Jurm region and Shola of the Ragistan region for the past 20 years. According to our information, they have now joined the Taliban and received Afghan citizenship.
*This organization is under UN sanctions due to terrorist activities.
