AFP, Kasab :
A peach-fuzzed teenager clad in camouflage fatigues, Mohammad Jawad could be mistaken for a boy scout – but he commands one of hundreds of Afghanistan’s local anti-Taliban police units, accused of stoking insecurity.
The US-funded Afghan Local Police (ALP) operate as surrogate village armies to fill a security vacuum in the remote Taliban-infested countryside, supplementing security forces which are stretched on multiple fronts as they face their first fighting season without the aid of NATO troops.
ALP serve as a pivotal first line of defence against the stubborn insurgency, rapidly spreading across the north from its southern hotbeds, but the word “police” is seen as a misnomer – they are widely likened to militias owing to their shady reputation for lawlessness and brutality that is fuelling support for the Taliban in some areas.
Jawad, 19, took the reins of the ALP unit in his native Kasab village in the volatile northern province of Kunduz from his father, who was assassinated earlier this year in Kabul.
The 110-strong force is comprised mostly of farmers and shopkeepers.
“You see the white flag there? That’s the Taliban,” said the high school graduate, pointing a few hundred metres from his fortified base in Kasab, surrounded by wire-topped blast walls and mud-filled trenches that serve as sniper lairs.
“Without ALP the militants will come marching across the field, chop our heads off and turn this village into a Taliban haven,” added Jawad, flanked by gun-toting loyalists.
Kunduz has seen weeks of stalemated fighting since the Taliban launched their annual spring offensive in April, with territory passing back and forth between the government and insurgents.
The Taliban, buttressed by battle-hardened Central Asian fighters in their ranks, recently captured the district headquarters of Chardarah, adjoining Kunduz city, triggering fears they would overrun their first provincial capital since the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan.
It was subsequently retaken by government forces, but the Taliban are targeting major cities in what analysts say is a tactical strategy to be in a position of strength before any possible peace talks with the government.
A peach-fuzzed teenager clad in camouflage fatigues, Mohammad Jawad could be mistaken for a boy scout – but he commands one of hundreds of Afghanistan’s local anti-Taliban police units, accused of stoking insecurity.
The US-funded Afghan Local Police (ALP) operate as surrogate village armies to fill a security vacuum in the remote Taliban-infested countryside, supplementing security forces which are stretched on multiple fronts as they face their first fighting season without the aid of NATO troops.
ALP serve as a pivotal first line of defence against the stubborn insurgency, rapidly spreading across the north from its southern hotbeds, but the word “police” is seen as a misnomer – they are widely likened to militias owing to their shady reputation for lawlessness and brutality that is fuelling support for the Taliban in some areas.
Jawad, 19, took the reins of the ALP unit in his native Kasab village in the volatile northern province of Kunduz from his father, who was assassinated earlier this year in Kabul.
The 110-strong force is comprised mostly of farmers and shopkeepers.
“You see the white flag there? That’s the Taliban,” said the high school graduate, pointing a few hundred metres from his fortified base in Kasab, surrounded by wire-topped blast walls and mud-filled trenches that serve as sniper lairs.
“Without ALP the militants will come marching across the field, chop our heads off and turn this village into a Taliban haven,” added Jawad, flanked by gun-toting loyalists.
Kunduz has seen weeks of stalemated fighting since the Taliban launched their annual spring offensive in April, with territory passing back and forth between the government and insurgents.
The Taliban, buttressed by battle-hardened Central Asian fighters in their ranks, recently captured the district headquarters of Chardarah, adjoining Kunduz city, triggering fears they would overrun their first provincial capital since the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan.
It was subsequently retaken by government forces, but the Taliban are targeting major cities in what analysts say is a tactical strategy to be in a position of strength before any possible peace talks with the government.
