The Taliban had sleeper agents across Afghanistan, including Kabul, who helped the insurgents to rapidly seize control of the country once the US started to withdraw its troops, The Wall Street Journal has reported, citing accounts by several Afghan commanders and former undercover agents.
These agents had different roles – some were designated to become fighters when the time came, some worked as fundraisers, while others worked on recruiting more followers to the Taliban's cause. In order to avoid detection or even suspicion from the country's law enforcement, many of these agents wore jeans and other western outfits, as well as shaved their beards – a tell-tale sign of a possible Taliban sympathiser.
"Many of our friends who had beards were targeted. I was above suspicion. While many of our low-ranking friends were arrested, I wasn't. Even though I was their leader", a Kabul University employee and a Taliban recruiter known under the name Kamran, told the WSJ.
Mawlawi Mohammad Salim Saad, a senior Taliban leader, boasted in the interview with the WSJ that the insurgent organisation had its men in many cities, government bodies, and companies across Afghanistan. Saad himself is a member of the Taliban's elite Badri force, which was responsible for taking control of Kabul after President Ashraf Ghani's reportedly unexpected and swift escape from the capital on 15 August.
"We had agents in every organisation and department. The units we had already present in Kabul took control of the strategic locations. We had people even in the office that I am occupying today", Saad said referring to the security command centre of the Kabul Airport, which served as an evacuation centre for NATO forces in their last days in Afghanistan.
Another Badri force commander, Mohammad Rahim Omari, stayed hidden prior to 15 August working at his family's gasoline-trading business in Kabul. However, on Day X he received a command, picked up a weapon, and along with 12 other Badri members seized an Afghan intelligence service compound. They disarmed the officers, who were reportedly caught off-guard by the president's departure from the country. Omari's team also made sure they did not destroy any information.
The insurgent groups had agents in other cities as well, who took up arms as the Taliban advanced throughout the country amid the US and NATO withdrawal from it. They often surprised their neighbours, who, according to the WSJ, did not suspect them of being Taliban sympathisers. These agents then facilitated the seizure of Afghan cities, many of which surrendered without a fight to the great surprise of western nations.
According to media reports, the American intelligence community did not expect the pro-western regime in Kabul to fall within half a year. Earlier media reports suggested that prior to an attempt to seize a city, the Taliban would send men to suggest they surrender without a fight, with many of them purportedly taking up the offer.
Agents Across Afghanistan
Not all of the sleeper agents were from the Badri forces, as was the case with university lecturer Ahmad Wali Haqmal. Based in Kandahar, one of Afghanistan's biggest cities and the former capital of the previous Taliban government, he volunteered to join the cause. However, instead of summoning him to one of their hideouts in the Afghan mountains, the Taliban ordered him to remain where he was.
"I was ready to take the AK-47 and go because no Afghan can tolerate the invasion of their country. But then our elders told us no, don't come here, stay over there, work in the universities because these are also our people and the media and the world are deceiving them about us", Haqmal said.
Haqmal had been helping the Taliban recruit new followers and after the group seized power in the country, became a chief spokesman for its Finance Ministry.
The Taliban agents were apparently so good at hiding their true loyalties that they even passed US vetting. One such agent, Assad Massoud Kohistani, worked on a USAID-funded irrigation project and at an unspecified United Nations agency. USAID insists that all of its employees undergo vetting for ties with terrorists, but despite that, Kohistani was employed.
24 November 2021, 10:04 GMT
His appearance on national TV with an AK-47 in his hands alongside Taliban members on 16 August came as a shock, according to the WSJ citing his colleague - Afghan lawyer Fereshta Abbasi. She noted that Camp Baron, where Kohistani used to work, served alcoholic beverages and had women walking without head or face covers – all of the things that the Taliban prohibits and which most members despise.
*The Taliban is an organisation under UN sanctions over terrorist activities.