In an administrative shakeup within the de facto security apparatus, the leadership of the Afghan National Police Academy in Kabul has dismissed 15 experienced, long-serving academic instructors and replaced them with political loyalists linked to de facto Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani.
According to internal institutional sources, the dismissed professors—many holding senior officer ranks such as lieutenant colonel and possessing over 30 years of military and academic experience—were purged without formal justification or administrative review.
Arbitrary Expulsions and Institutional Restructuring
The purge highlights growing friction over institutional control and the systematic dismantling of republic-era professional cadres:
- Abrupt Discharges: Sources within the academy reported that the instructors were instructed to leave the facility without questioning if their names were removed from daily attendance rosters.
- Targeted Demographics and Ranks: Most of the dismissed faculty members belong to a specific non-Pashtun ethnic demographic and held advanced military ranks earned through decades of state police service.
- Loyalist Appointments: In their place, de facto authorities have appointed personnel directly affiliated with the Haqqani network whose backgrounds consist exclusively of insurgent combat experience rather than formal security or academic training.
Contradicting Official Meritocracy Decrees
The systemic removal of professional instructors directly contradicts recent directives issued by supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. Just days prior, the Kandahar-based leadership issued instructions explicitly banning ethnic favoritism and nepotism within state organs, declaring meritocracy to be the sole criterion for official appointments.
Civil society analysts and former parliamentarians note that replacing specialized academic cadres with ideological loyalists severely degrades institutional capability. Media commentators further warn that such purges reflect a deliberate policy to dismantle remaining professional state structures and enforce a singular, ideologically driven security model across national academies.
Erasing Pre-Existing Identity
The National Police Academy has undergone successive ideological shifts since its establishment. Under the previous administration, the facility was named after General Abdul Raziq Achakzai, the former Kandahar police commander assassinated by the Taliban in 2018. Following their return to power in August 2021, de facto authorities stripped General Raziq’s name from the academy and renamed the institution after a fallen Taliban fighter, mirroring broader efforts to erase non-Taliban historical references from public infrastructure.