Taliban intelligence in Herat Province has recently distributed a form to residents asking for details of their personal and professional lives. The form, which has been seen by Zan Times, requires residents to provide information such as ethnicity, nationality, exact addresses of work and residence, number of family members, ID numbers, background information, and business licenses.
As well, households must list details of any weapons they own.
Finally, the form requires community elders to verify all the information, and to notify Taliban intelligence if any of the details are incorrect.
Community elder Haji Rahmatullah* says that these intelligence forms have been distributed in the centre of Herat city as well as in Injil and Karukh districts, in the outskirts of Herat city. “Taliban intelligence has put a lot of pressure on people and municipal councillors so that these forms are filled out as quickly as possible,” he tells Zan Times. “They have even told us to introduce them to the intelligence if someone is not willing to cooperate and register their details.”
The Taliban appear to be in a rush to get detailed information of everyone in the province: they gave people only 24 hours to fill out their forms and deliver them to local intelligence offices.
This kind of intense information gathering has never been seen before in Herat province under any previous government. Mohammad Hakim*, a resident of Herat city, calls this Taliban action a clear and blatant violation of people’s privacy. “If we assume that the Taliban are looking for weapons, why do they ask people’s ethnicity?” he says to Zan Times. “Why should we explain our past life to them? This situation puts a lot of pressure on people.”
Zabihullah*, an officer of the National Directorate of Security of the former government, tells Zan Times that it seems that the Taliban want to use such detailed personal information so they can easily identify and track their supporters and opponents. “This work of the Taliban shows that they are weak in their intelligence capabilities,” Zabihullah explains. “They want to create an intelligence database or information bank of the people so that they can have information for policing purposes.”
Although the previous government collected detailed intelligence on certain classes of people, such as security personnel, experts believe this Taliban action goes much further and is unprecedented in its methods and scope. Opponents worry about how the information will be used. The Taliban have purposefully arrested, tortured, and even killed many of their opponents, including social activists and former soldiers. They have also arrested or killed many civilians on the suspicion of collaborating with opponents of the Taliban.
*Names have been changed to protect the identity of the interviewees.
