Taliban leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada has ordered the dissolution of Interpol police structures within the group’s Interior and Foreign Ministries, according to a document obtained by Afghanistan International.

The directive, sent to the Taliban’s Administrative Affairs Office two weeks ago, disbanded units comprising about 150 staff, sources said. Roughly 120 personnel had been assigned to the Interior Ministry and 30 to the Foreign Ministry under the Interpol structure.

Afghanistan became a member of Interpol on 21 October 2002 during the organisation’s 171st General Assembly in Cameroon. Interpol operations were first established inside the Interior Ministry and later expanded.

In 2010, with international support, the Interpol police unit was upgraded to an independent directorate under the deputy interior minister for security. The unit managed offices at 13 land border crossings and four international airports — Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat and Kandahar.

Since the Taliban takeover in 2021, the Interpol directorate has maintained only limited contacts with Iran, Pakistan, Russia and the UAE, sources in the Interior Ministry said. They cited the group’s lack of international recognition as the main reason for curtailed activities.

Under the previous Afghan government, the Interpol directorate provided national institutions with access to Interpol databases and facilitated cooperation with its 193 member states.