IEA in a special ceremony today introduced new uniforms for Afghan National Police (ANP) in presence of senior government officials. pic.twitter.com/cUlwMEHlCW
— Bakhtar News Agency (@BakhtarNA) June 8, 2022
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
June 8, 2022
ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban group unveiled a new uniform for its national police force Wednesday, saying the move will lead to improved security in the conflict-torn country.
“In the first stage, 20,000 uniforms are being distributed [among police forces] in Kabul and Kandahar provinces. The number will reach up to 100,000 in the next two weeks,” Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor told a televised news conference in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
Since returning to power nearly 10 months ago, the Taliban have relied on their widely feared insurgent-turned-security force to handle law and order across Afghanistan amid persistent criticism that the absence of a police uniform and a lack of police training are encouraging the men to indulge in criminal activities or misuse of power.
“This special uniform that you are seeing today will help counter security spoilers and provide better safety to our fellow citizens,” Deputy Interior Minister Noor Jalal Jalali told reporters, while some police officers wearing new uniforms lined up behind him.
The dark green uniform carries the Taliban’s white flag with black Arabic lettering displaying Islam’s main tenet on the sleeves It reads, “There is no God but Allah. Mohammad is the messenger of God.”
The Islamist hardline group used the flag during its previous rule in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, when only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates recognized the Taliban government, amid widespread human rights abuses and the exclusion of women from public life.
The disbanded U.S.-trained and -funded Afghan police forces were using grey-blue uniform, with the traditional tri-colored republican flag on the sleeves.
The Taliban seized power last August as the then-Afghan government and its Western-backed national security forces collapsed in the face of Taliban battlefield advances just days before the final U.S.-led foreign troops withdrew from the country.
No country has yet recognized the new Taliban government, known as Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, mainly because of human rights and terrorism concerns.
The all-male Taliban cabinet has rolled back many human rights Afghans enjoyed over the past 20 years, particularly those of women.
They have abolished the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and replaced it with the Ministry of Vice and Virtue, tasked with interpreting and enforcing the group’s version of Islam in the country.
The Islamist rulers have barred girls from resuming secondary school education across most of Afghanistan and female employees from returning to their jobs in some government departments. Afghan women have been ordered to cover up fully in public, including their faces, and not to travel long distances or leave Afghanistan unless accompanied be a close male relative.
Human rights defenders are urging the United States and other Western nations to press the Taliban to reverse their new rules for women if they want legitimacy, respect, financial assistance and relief from international sanctions.
Heather Barr with Human Rights Watch emphasized in a statement Tuesday that as long as “there are things the Taliban want, there is leverage” the international community can use to press the group to review its human rights-related polices.
“What is happening right now in Afghanistan is the most serious women’s rights crisis in the world today, and the most serious women’s rights crisis since 1996, when the Taliban took over the last time. There is no time to lose,” Barr said.
The Taliban reject the criticism of their governance-related decrees as a disrespect for Afghan religious and cultural values, insisting their actions are strictly in line with Islam.
8am: Taliban fighters have extensively committed war crimes in Baghlan, Panjshir and Takhar provinces where the NRF has managed to fiercely fight and hold the enemy at bay. There have been reports indicating that Taliban forces have arbitrarily executed prisoners and even civilians. Field executions, causing any harm to prisoners or civilians during the war, mutilation of human organs, insulting the bodies of those killed during the war are recognized as war crimes and crimes against humanity under international law. 
8am: Taliban fighters have forcibly removed former soldiers and families from their houses in some provinces, including Herat, handing over their confiscated houses and properties to their own fighters and members. Sources in Zabul province also report that the Taliban in the Hazara and Hawili areas have warned former soldiers to leave their houses and property as soon as possible. According to locals, the Taliban have claimed that the houses and properties are government properties and have ordered the current owners to hand over the houses to the Taliban as soon as possible. According to locals, they built the houses at the behest of the previous government and spent hundreds of thousands of AFN on them. In some cases, the Taliban did not even allow the families of former soldiers to shift household items. According to statistics, thousands of former military and government employees are now present and living in government-distributed areas. 
8am: Simultaneously with the escalation of the clashes in Panjshir, the Taliban’s supreme leader has recently appointed Mohammad Nasim Noori as a new governor for the province, local sources reported. The new appointed governor for Panjshir is from Helmand province and a Pashtun, according to sources. Taliban members have not yet provided details on his appointment and the motives behind this move. 
8am: It is reported that armed individuals opened fire on the Taliban in Balkh province, killing 4 Taliban members. The shooting took place in 5th district of Mazar-e-Sharif, the center of Balkh, on Tuesday night, sources told Hasht-e Subh on Wednesday. 