Taliban soldiers are selling their weapons and leaving the country.
Source: Bazgasht News Agency
With the announcement of a 20 percent reduction in the Taliban’s military and intelligence forces, distrust has grown among the group’s Tajik and Uzbek soldiers about their future.
According to information provided to us by our sources, Taliban members, including their local commanders in the provinces of Badakhshan, Jauzjan, Faryab, Sare Pul, Laghman, Kunar, and Nangarhar, are selling their weapons and military equipment. Our sources also report that after the Taliban’s Ministry of Defense confirmed a 20 percent reduction in the ministry’s forces, the market for buying and selling weapons and military equipment has skyrocketed in all corners of the country. According to sources, most of the local Tajik and Uzbek Taliban commanders and their subordinates, who feel threatened by systematic purges and assassinations, have sold their weapons on the black market and fled to Iran. According to sources, a local Taliban commander named Qari Sabir, who has carried out bloody attacks on security forces and former government officials in the past, recently sold several American-made M4 and M16 rifles belonging to a Taliban outpost in the Imam Sahib district of Kunduz out of fear of being removed and expelled from the group's structure and fled to Iran.
According to published information, some Tajik and Uzbek Taliban commanders and their subordinates are joining ISIS after being ignored and expelled from the Taliban ranks. According to published information, Tajik and Uzbek Taliban commanders who were removed from the group are joining the ISIS group in the Warduj district of Badakhshan province. The sources gave the reason for these individuals joining ISIS as follows: “Military fronts opposing the Taliban, especially the Freedom Front and the Resistance Front, do not accept Taliban defectors because they emphasize that the Taliban’s hands are stained with the blood of innocents and for this reason, these fronts refuse to accept Taliban defectors.”
Systematic Exclusion of Tajiks and Uzbeks from the Taliban
The Taliban recruited several Tajiks and Uzbeks to infiltrate the north and fuel the war in these areas. They organized and carried out bloody battles and large-scale military attacks to expand Taliban influence in northern Afghanistan. It was expected that Tajik and Uzbek members of the Taliban would be appointed to high-ranking government positions, like Pashtun militants, after the group took control of Afghanistan. However, due to their ethnicity, they were not given proper appointments in the Taliban government. Recently, the Taliban, having announced a 20 percent reduction in their organization, especially in the military and intelligence structure, has been making a concerted effort to disarm and accommodate their non-Pashtun fighters under the pretext of organizational reduction. Earlier, the Taliban arrested a number of their local commanders in Takhar and Badakhshan provinces and transferred them to Mullah Haibatullah's personal prison in Kandahar.
According to the Russian publication Afghan Insider, last month, the Taliban Defense Ministry arrested four local commanders of the group in a large-scale military operation, namely Hussein Jundi, Bashir Kanat, Arbab Ruhullah Rauf and Nekmuhammad Hakimi, who were loyal commanders of the Haqqani Network in the north, and imprisoned them in Kandahar province. The sources said the Taliban Defense Ministry has not disclosed the reasons for the arrest and imprisonment of these Tajik commanders, and it is not known what their crime is.
In the latest case, a Taliban commander in eastern Afghanistan, originally from Badakhshan province, said: “The people of Badakhshan have bled, killed and fought for the emirate, but they are looked down upon.” The Badakhshan-based Taliban commander complained about the group’s leadership, saying that the Taliban ignores their merits and does not respect them.
The price of weapons and their smuggling routes to regional markets
The Small Arms Survey has published a detailed report on the sale and purchase of American weapons remaining in Afghanistan. According to the report, Taliban members play a widespread and key role in the sale and smuggling of firearms out of Afghanistan. The report states that the price of American weapons in local Afghan markets has increased two to three times since the early days of the Taliban regime. However, this price varies from province to province. According to the report, the price of weapons in Khost has increased compared to other provinces due to the presence of the Haqqani Network, but in some provinces of northern Afghanistan, the price of firearms is still low. According to the published data, the cost of American M4 and M16 weapons in Helmand, Kandahar, Nangarhar, and Kunduz provinces is two to three times higher than in other provinces. According to the report, Kunduz is the most expensive location for the American M4-A weapon, where the price of one barrel is $2,310, while in Nangarhar the same weapon sells for $1,375.
