Ahmad Zia Saraj | |
---|---|
احمد ضیاء سراج | |
Director General of NDS | |
In office 09/09/2019–15/08/2021 | |
President | Ashraf Ghani |
Preceded by | Mohammed Masoom Stanekzai |
Deputy Director General for Operations NDS | |
Assumed office 2018- 09/09/2019 | |
Chief of Counter Terrorism Department NDS | |
In office 2016–2018 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Kabul Province,Afghanistan | 11 March 1978
Education | - Master of defence studies - Master of strategic management and leadership |
Alma mater | - King's College London - Chartered Management Institute |
Occupation | Professor at the King's College London [1] |
Profession | Politician Intelligence Military |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Islamic Republic of Afghanistan |
Rank | Lieutenant General |
Ahmad Zia Saraj was final Director General of NDS from 2019 to 2021, [2] until the collapse of the Islamic Republic. He served as the Deputy Director General,chief of counter terrorism department,deputy chief of foreign intelligence &counterintelligence and some other key positions in NDS respectively over 20 years after the fall of Taliban in 2001. He serves as visiting professor in the war studies department of the King's College London University. [3]
Ahmad Zia Saraj was born on March 11,1978,in Kabul,Afghanistan,to a family with a military background. His father was a Brigadier General in the Afghan army. In 2001,Ahmad Zia Saraj joined the National Directorate of Security (NDS) of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Over two decades,he served in various stages and roles within the organization until the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
Ahmad Zia Saraj completed his high school graduation at Amani High School in Kabul and earned a level 7 degree (master's) in strategic management and leadership from the Chartered Management Institute in the United Kingdom. In 2012,he attended the Advanced Command and Staff Course at Shrivenham,followed by obtaining a master's degree in defense studies from King’s College London in 2013. Since 2023,Ahmad Zia Saraj has been a visiting professor at the school.
Ahmad Zia Saraj joined the National Directorate of Security in 2001 and held various roles within the organization. Beginning as a liaison officer,he progressed to become the Chief of NDS Liaison Department. Subsequently,he assumed positions such as Deputy Chief of Counterintelligence and Foreign Intelligence,followed by his appointment as the Chief of the Counter Terrorism Department. Later,Saraj served as the Deputy Director General for Operations.
On September 9,2019,he appointed as the Acting Director of NDS,and introduced as the nominee of that position by the Afghan government for the Afghan National Assembly. [4] On November 30,2020,he garnered 220 votes from people representatives, [5] officially becoming the General Director of the National Directorate of Security in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. He spent two decades at the NDS until the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on August 15,2021.
Under the leadership of Ahmad Zia Saraj,the Afghanistan National Directorate of Security (NDS) embarked on a new phase in the fight against internal and international terrorism. During his tenure,the NDS successfully apprehended or neutralized numerous individuals responsible for suicide and terrorist attacks in Afghanistan. [6] [7] These included the perpetrators of the attacks on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul,the motor bomb attack on the German Embassy in Kabul [8] and terror attack on Kabul University. [9]
Notably,under Ahmad Zia Saraj's command,the NDS made significant strides against the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISK). Key figures like Abbullah Orakzai AKA Aslam Farooqi [10] and Abu Omar Kunari,along with 400 other ISK members, [11] were arrested,leading to a substantial disruption in ISK's leadership structure. The NDS,during this period,also targeted and apprehended many prominent Taliban members,including governors, [12] [13] significantly impacting the Taliban's operational capabilities. Moreover,the NDS played a crucial role in dismantling various financial networks associated with the Taliban. Overall,Ahmad Zia Saraj's leadership marked a period of notable achievements in countering terrorism and insurgency in Afghanistan.
Khadamat-e Aetla'at-e Dawlati,also known by the acronym KhAD,was the agency in charge of internal security,foreign intelligence,counter-intelligence and the secret police of the former Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
The Inter-Services Intelligence is the largest and best-known component of the Pakistani intelligence community. It is responsible for gathering,processing,and analyzing any information from around the world that is deemed relevant to Pakistan's national security. The ISI reports to its director-general and is primarily focused on providing intelligence to the Pakistani government.
Jamayat-E-Islami,sometimes shortened to Jamiat,is a predominantly Tajik political party and former paramilitary organisation in Afghanistan. It is the oldest and largest functioning political party in Afghanistan,and was originally formed as a student political society at Kabul University. It has a communitarian ideology based on Islamic law. During the Soviet–Afghan War and the following Afghan Civil War against the communist government,Jamiat-e Islami was one of the most powerful of the Afghan mujahideen groups. Burhanuddin Rabbani led the party from 1968 to 2011,and served as President of the Islamic State of Afghanistan from 1992 to 2001,in exile from 1996.
The Northern Alliance,officially known as the United Islamic National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan,was a military alliance of groups that operated between early 1992 and 2001 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. At that time,many non-Pashtun Northerners originally with the Republic of Afghanistan led by Mohammad Najibullah became disaffected with Pashtun Khalqist Afghan Army officers holding control over non-Pashtun militias in the North. Defectors such as Rashid Dostum and Abdul Momim allied with Ahmad Shah Massoud and Ali Mazari forming the Northern Alliance. The alliance's capture of Mazar-i-Sharif and more importantly the supplies kept there crippled the Afghan military and began the end of Najibullah's government. Following the collapse of Najibullah's government the Alliance would fall with a Second Civil War breaking out however following the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan's (Taliban) takeover of Kabul,The United Front was reassembled.
Terrorism in Pakistan,according to the Ministry of Interior,poses a significant threat to the people of Pakistan. The wave of terrorism in Pakistan is believed to have started in 2000. Attacks and fatalities in Pakistan were on a "declining trend" between 2015 and 2019,but has gone back up from 2020-2022,with 971 fatalities in 2022.
Ahmad Zia Massoud is an Afghan politician who was the vice president of Afghanistan in the first elected administration of President Hamid Karzai,from December 2004 to November 2009. He is a younger brother of the late Ahmad Shah Massoud,the resistance leader against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and against the Taliban. In late 2011,Ahmad Zia Massoud joined hands with major leaders in the National Front of Afghanistan,which strongly opposed a return of the Taliban to power. The National Front was generally regarded as a reformation of the United Front which with U.S. air support temporarily removed the Taliban from power in late 2001.
Asadullah Khalid is a politician in Afghanistan. He served as head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS),which is the domestic intelligence agency of Afghanistan. Before his appointment as the head of the NDS in September 2012,Khalid served as the Minister of Tribal and Border Affairs. Between 2005 and 2008,he was the Governor of Kandahar Province and prior to that as Governor of Ghazni Province (2002-2005). From 2018 until 2021 he was the Minister of Defense. Khalid is said to be affiliated with the Islamic Dawah Organisation of Afghanistan and has been noted as one of many loyalists of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Sirajuddin Haqqani is an Afghan warlord and Specially Designated Global Terrorist who is the first deputy leader of Afghanistan and the acting interior minister in the internationally unrecognized post-2021 Taliban regime. He has been a deputy leader of the Taliban since 2015,and was additionally appointed to his ministerial role after the Taliban's victory over Western-backed forces in the 2001–2021 war. He has led the Haqqani network,a semi-autonomous paramilitary arm of the Taliban,since inheriting it from his father in 2018,and has primarily had military responsibilities within the Taliban.
The National Directorate of Security was the national intelligence and security service of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The headquarters of the NDS was in Kabul,and it had field offices and training facilities in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan. The NDS was part of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).
Afghanistan–Pakistan relations refer to the bilateral ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan. In August 1947,the partition of British India led to the emergence of Pakistan along Afghanistan's eastern frontier,and the two countries have since had a strained relationship;Afghanistan was the sole country to vote against Pakistan's admission into the United Nations following the latter's independence. Territorial disputes along the widely known "Durand Line" and conflicting claims prevented the normalization of bilateral ties between the countries throughout the mid-20th century. Various Afghan government officials and Afghan nationalists have made irredentist claims to large swathes of Pakistan's territory in modern-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistani Balochistan,which complete the traditional homeland of "Pashtunistan" for the Pashtun people. Afghan territorial claims over Pashtun-majority areas that are in Pakistan were coupled with discontent over the permanency of the Durand Line which has long been considered the international border by every nation other than Afghanistan,and for which Afghanistan demanded a renegotiation,with the aim of having it shifted eastward to the Indus River. During the Taliban insurgency,the Taliban has received substantial financial and logistical backing from Pakistan,which remains a significant source of support. Nonetheless,Pakistan's support for the Taliban is not without risks,as it involves playing a precarious and delicate game. Further Afghanistan–Pakistan tensions have arisen concerning a variety of issues,including the Afghan conflict and Afghan refugees in Pakistan,water-sharing rights,and a continuously warming relationship between Afghanistan and India,but most of all the Taliban government in Afghanistan providing sanctuary and safe havens to Pakistani Taliban terrorists to attack Pakistani territory. Border tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan have escalated to an unprecedented degree following recent instances of violence along the border. The Durand Line witnesses frequent occurrences of suicide bombings,airstrikes,or street battles on an almost daily basis. The Taliban-led Afghan government has also accused Pakistan of undermining relations between Afghanistan and China and creating discord between the neighbouring countries.
Zabihullah Mujahid is an Afghan militant spokesperson who has been the chief spokesman for the internationally unrecognized Taliban regime of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan since 25 October 2021 and their Deputy Minister of Information and Culture since 7 September 2021. He has long served as one of several spokesmen for the Taliban,the others being Suhail Shaheen and Yousef Ahmadi. Mujahid commented mainly on the Taliban's activities in eastern,northern,and central Afghanistan,while Ahmadi focused on the western and southern regions. In addition to being the government's main spokesman,Mujahid serves as a personal spokesman for Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
Mohammed Masoom Stanekzai is a former Minister,Chief Peace Negotiator,and chief of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
Baba Jan zahid,is a former senior security official of the Afghanistan government. He was a general of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan,but during the collapse of Najib's government,he entered Kabul with Ahmad Shah Masoud's forces and served in various departments of the Islamic State of Afghanistan under the leadership of Ustad Burhanuddin Rabbani.
Amrullah Saleh is an Afghan politician who served as the first vice president of Afghanistan from February 2020 to August 2021,and acting interior minister from 2018 to 2019. He was the head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) from 2004 to 2010.
On 21 January 2019,in central Afghanistan,the Taliban attacked a military compound in Maidan Shar,killing officers of the Afghan National Directorate of Security. The Taliban attacked while engaging in the process of negotiating a truce with the United States. The attack began when an explosives-laden car rammed through a military checkpoint and onto the grounds of the compound,where the vehicle detonated. After the explosion,two gunmen entered the base and opened fire on Afghan soldiers,before the two were shot down. A senior official in the Afghan defense ministry said that 126 people were killed in the explosion. The Taliban claimed responsibility and stated that over 190 people were killed in the attack. The Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) reported that 36 military personnel were killed in the attack. Afghan president,Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack and said that the 'Afghan intelligence agency personnel were target of the attack'.
The Islamic State–Taliban conflict is an ongoing insurgency by the Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS-KP) against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The conflict initially began when both operated as rival insurgent groups in Nangarhar;since the formation of the Taliban's state in 2021,IS-KP members have enacted a campaign of terrorism targeting both civilians and assassinating Taliban members using hit-and-run tactics. The group have also caused incidents and attacks across the border in Pakistan.
General Mohammad Yasin Zia,is an Afghan military officer and politician. He is a former Chief of General Staff,former Deputy Defense Minister,and former governor of Takhar Province,Afghanistan. Zia has also served as head of Afghanistan's counter terrorism unit (2011) and as the deputy director of the National Directorate of Security (2011–2015). In 2022,he was reported to be one of the leaders of the anti-Taliban Afghanistan Freedom Front resistance movement.
On 15 August 2021,Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul was captured by the Taliban after a major insurgent offensive that began in May 2021. It was the final action of the War in Afghanistan,and marked a total victory for the Taliban. This led to the overthrowing of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan under President Ashraf Ghani and the reinstatement of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban.
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was a presidential republic in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2021. The state was established to replace the Afghan interim (2001–2002) and transitional (2002–2004) administrations,which were formed after the 2001 United States invasion of Afghanistan that had toppled the partially recognized Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. However,on 15 August 2021,the country was recaptured by the Taliban,which marked the end of the 2001–2021 war,the longest war in US history. This led to the overthrow of the Islamic Republic,led by President Ashraf Ghani,and the reinstatement of the Islamic Emirate under the control of the Taliban. While the United Nations still recognizes the Islamic Republic as the legitimate government of Afghanistan,this toppled regime controls no portion of the country today,nor does it operate in exile;it effectively no longer exists. The Islamic Emirate is the de facto ruling government. The US–Taliban deal,signed on 29 February 2020 in Qatar,was one of the critical events that caused the collapse of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). Following the deal,the US dramatically reduced the number of air attacks and deprived the ANSF of a critical edge in fighting the Taliban insurgency,leading to the Taliban takeover of Kabul.
Hasib Qoway Markaz is an Afghan military commander and one of the senior commanders of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan. He is one of the key commanders under the command of Ahmad Massoud and one of the most prominent anti-Taliban figures. He is now in charge of the special forces of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan in Panjshir province.