The reported re-arrest of a former Afghan military officer in Kabul has once again drawn attention to one of the most persistent allegations against the Taliban since their return to power: the systematic targeting of former members of Afghanistan’s security forces despite repeated promises of a general amnesty.
According to local sources, Taliban personnel detained former military officer Nasratullah Haji Zada from Kabul’s Lice Maryam area earlier this week before taking him to an undisclosed location. His whereabouts remain unknown, leaving his family increasingly fearful for his safety.
Sources said Haji Zada previously served in the former Afghan National Security Forces in Maidan Wardak province. Following the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, he reportedly abandoned military life and opened a small shop to support his family, reflecting the path taken by thousands of former soldiers who sought to rebuild civilian lives under the Taliban’s declared amnesty.
His family, however, says this is not the first time he has been detained.
In 2024, Taliban intelligence reportedly arrested him, subjected him to torture during six months of detention, and later released him without publicly disclosed charges. His latest arrest has heightened fears that he may once again face abuse or enforced disappearance.
Those concerns have been intensified by reports surrounding another former member of the Afghan security forces, Hashmatullah Hesari, whose killing has become emblematic of the dangers faced by former military personnel remaining inside Afghanistan. Relatives and associates of Haji Zada reportedly fear he could meet a similar fate.
The reported detention also coincides with other accounts of former security officials being arrested elsewhere in Afghanistan, including a former local police commander in Laghman province, suggesting that such incidents are not isolated but part of a broader pattern.
Amnesty in Words, Retribution in Practice?
When the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, they publicly declared a nationwide amnesty for members of the former government, the army, police, intelligence services, and civil administration. That pledge was widely presented as evidence that the new authorities sought reconciliation rather than revenge.
Yet years later, reports of arrests, enforced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings continue to undermine that commitment.
The contradiction raises unavoidable questions.
If a genuine amnesty exists, why do former soldiers continue to disappear after being summoned or detained by Taliban authorities?
Why do former officers who abandoned military service and returned to civilian life remain targets years after the war officially ended?
A Pattern That the International Community Has Not Ignored
The reported arrest of Nasratullah Haji Zada comes against the backdrop of mounting international concern over the Taliban’s treatment of former government personnel.
A recent United Nations assessment documented thousands of former Afghan government officials who have reportedly been fatally targeted since the Taliban’s return to power, while hundreds more have been forced into exile to escape reprisals. Those findings have reinforced longstanding concerns expressed by human rights organizations that the Taliban’s declared amnesty has frequently failed to translate into protection on the ground.
Each new reported detention adds to the growing body of allegations suggesting that former military personnel remain vulnerable regardless of whether they laid down their arms, entered civilian life, or avoided political activity.
Fear as a Tool of Control
Beyond the fate of individual detainees, such arrests have a wider psychological impact.
For thousands of former soldiers, police officers, intelligence personnel, and government employees still living in Afghanistan, every reported detention reinforces the belief that the past can never truly be left behind.
A government confident in its authority typically seeks stability through reconciliation and the rule of law.
Repeated allegations of arbitrary arrests, torture, enforced disappearances, and targeted killings instead project an image of a regime that continues to govern through fear and retribution.
Until credible investigations are permitted and the fate of detained former officials is transparently disclosed, the Taliban are likely to face continuing questions over whether their promised amnesty was ever intended as genuine reconciliation or merely a political assurance that has steadily eroded under the weight of events.
