The Ministry of Interior Affairs (, ) is the cabinet ministry of Afghanistan responsible for law enforcement, civil order and fighting crime. The ministry's headquarters is located in Kabul.

The current minister of Interior Affairs is Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is also the first deputy leader of Afghanistan and the leader of the Haqqani network.

List of ministers Portrait Name Took office Left office Political affiliation Ali Ahmad Loinab August 1919 June 1925 Abdul Aziz Barakzai June 1925 1928 Abdul Ahad Wardak 1928 1929 Abd al-Ghafur Khan January 1929 1929 Saqqawist Muhammad Hashim Khan 1929 1930 Muhammad Gul Mohmand 1930 1939 Ghulam Faruq Usman 1939 1942 Muhammad Nauruz 1942 1945 Ghulam Faruq Usman 1945 1948 Gen. Asadullah Seraj 1948 1949 Gen. Mohammad Daoud Khan 1949 1951 Gen. Abdul Ahad Malikyar 1951 1955 Abdul Hakim Shah-Alami 1955 1958 Sayyid Abdulillah 1958 1963 Dr. Abdul Qayyum 1963 1965 Abdus Sattar Shalizi 1965 1966 Eng. Ahmadullah 1966 1967 Muhammad Umar Wardak 1967 1969 Eng. Muhammad Bashir Lodin 1969 1971 Amanullah Mansuri 1971 1972 Nimatullah Pazhwak 1972 1973 Faiz Mohammed 1973 1975 PDPA–Parcham Abdul Qadir Nuristani 1975 28 April 1978 Republican Nur Ahmed Nur 30 April 1978 11 July 1978 PDPA–Parcham Mohammad Aslam Watanjar 11 July 1978 1 April 1979 PDPA–Khalq Shir Jan Mazdooryar 1 April 1979 28 July 1979 PDPA–Khalq Mohammad Aslam Watanjar 28 July 1979 19 September 1979 PDPA–Khalq Vacant (19 September – 28 December 1979) Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoy 28 December 1979 15 November 1988 PDPA–Khalq Mohammad Aslam Watanjar 15 November 1988 6 March 1990 PDPA–Khalq Raz Muhammad Paktin 6 March 1990 16 April 1992 Homeland Party Abdul Samad Khaksar 1996 2001 Taliban Qari Ahmadullah 1996 ? Taliban Khairullah Khairkhwa 1997 1998 Taliban Abdur Razzaq Akhundzada? — May 2000 — ? Taliban Yunus Qanuni 7 December 2001 19 June 2002 Taj Mohammad Wardak 19 June 2002 28 January 2003 Ali Jalali 28 January 2003 27 September 2005 Independent Zarar Ahmad Osmani 28 September 2005 11 October 2008 Mohammad Hanif Atmar 11 October 2008 July 2010 Independent Bismillah Khan Mohammadi July 2010 September 2012 Jamiat-e Islami Mujtaba Patang 15 September 2012 22 July 2013 Independent Mohammad Omar Daudzai 1 September 2013 9 December 2014 Independent Mohammad Ayub Salangi 9 December 2014 27 January 2015 Independent Nur ul-Haq Ulumi 27 January 2015 24 February 2016 Hezb-e Muttahed-e Melli Taj Mohammad Jahid 24 February 2016 13 August 2017 Jamiat-e Islami Wais Barmak 13 August 2017 23 December 2018 Independent Amrullah Saleh 23 December 2018 19 January 2019 Basej-e Milli Masoud Andrabi 19 January 2019 19 March 2021 Hayatullah Hayat 19 March 2021 19 June 2021 Independent Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal 19 June 2021 15 August 2021 Independent Ibrahim Sadr 24 August 2021 7 September 2021 Taliban Sirajuddin Haqqani 7 September 2021 15 August 2025 Taliban 15 August 2025 Incumbent

The Democratic Republic period During the period where Afghanistan was a communist state known as the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, those that worked for the Ministry of Interior (MoI) were referred to as “Sarandoy”. This label included traffic police, provinical officers and corrections/labor prison facility officers. The Ministry of Interior also had female personnel who were tasked with interacting with female civilians, such as when searching them at checkpoints. Those who worked for the Ministry of Interior were tasked with fighting “counter-revolutionaries”, securing government and party components and ensuring the safety of important structures. As of 1982, the Ministry of Interior may have had its own intelligence agency. The Sarandoy were a centrally commanded force and companies, battalions, and brigades reported to the “Directorate of the Defense of the Revolution of the Ministry of Interior”.

It should also be noted that a gendarme forces also existed during the monarchy and Daoud Khan’s republic, and that personnel under the Ministry of Interior were trained by Turkey from the 1950s well into the 1970s. Additionally, both West Germany and East Germany trained those in the Ministry of Interior and on the eve of the Saur Revolution in 1978, Afghanistan’s officer corps and MoI personnel contained personnel who received training in the United States. Regardless, the Sarandoy had far more numbers and were more effective due to the cooperation of the Soviet MVD and its “Kobalt” units in 1981 and 1982 where 12,000 of these Sarandoy personnel were trained at MVD facilities in the Soviet Union between 1978 and 1986, many of them being junior commanders and NCOs. 2,500 of these Sarandoy personnel would be trained in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic for past excellence in combat.

The first Islamic Emirate period During the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996–2001), Abdul Samad Khaksar (also referred to as Mohammad Khaksar in some news reports) was a Taliban deputy Minister of the Interior, who is notable because he offered to help the US deal with al-Qaeda and became an informant for the Northern Alliance. Khaksar was assassinated on January 14, 2006 by Taliban gunmen.

Joint Task Force Guantanamo counterterrorism analysts described Khairullah Khairkhwa as a former Taliban Minister of the Interior. However, during his second annual Administrative Review Board hearing Khairullah Khairkhwa disputed this allegation.

The Islamic Republic period

During the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2004–2021), the ministry maintained the Afghan National Police, the General Command of Police Special Units and the General Directorate of Prisons and Detention Centers (GDPDC).

Police forces Afghan National Police (ANP) Afghan Uniformed Police (AUP) Public Security Police (PSP) Afghan Border Force (ABP) General Directorate for Intelligence and Counter Crime (GDICC) (formerly Afghan Anti-Crime Police (AACP)) Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF) Counter Narcotics Police of Afghanistan (CNPA) Afghan Local Police (ALP) General Command of Police Special Units (GCPSU) () Afghan Territorial Force (ATF) 444 Crisis Response Unit (CRU) 222 Afghan Special Narcotics Force - also known as Force 333 or Commando Force 333. The force was a counternarcotics paramilitary unit, founded at the end of 2003 with training and assistance from British advisers. It carried out drug interdiction missions in remote areas of the country against high-value targets such as drug laboratories. The Department of Defense provided the unit with intelligence and airlift support. All of its operations were sanctioned by the President and Minister of Interior Affairs. It operated regularly with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on raids and seized hundreds of tonnes of illicit drugs. Provincial Special Units

Notes

References

External links

Official website of the Afghan Public Protection Force