Taliban paid ‘protection money’ by Afghan government

The three military leaders are widely believed to have accepted payments in
exchange for holding meetings with Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, but
senior analysts said the controversy centres on Taliban corruption.

Michael Semple, a leading expert on the Taliban and former deputy EU
representative in Afghanistan, said the arrests will make the movement’s
leadership more wary of returning to talks with the Americans and other
western mediators.

“The Taliban has been shaken by finding that the former head of its
Military Commission received unauthorised funds from Kabul. The commander’s
apparent success in pocketing large sums of money and acquiring property
sounds like a protection scam, with the leadership upset that the resources
did not go into their coffers,” he said.

“It illustrates the huge challenge that any movement has in maintaining
discipline and honesty during a protracted and clandestine struggle when
there is a lot of money sloshing around. It has made the Taliban strangely
nervous – because it was something out of their control. Not directly
impacted on Doha but will make them more paranoid,” he added.

Mullah Ismail had been moved aside as leader of the Taliban’s Military
Commission in favour of Abdul Qayyum Zakir last year in a reorganisation.

His declining influence was highlighted last August when he was kidnapped and
beaten up by another commander, Baz Mohammad, in a dispute over funding.

The movement’s military leadership was forced to intervene to settle the
dispute, which caused resentment among supporters in the powerful Noorzai
Pashtun tribe.

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