A member of the Afghan local police meets with soldiers from the U.S. Army in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, January 20, 2013. (photo: Andrew Burton/Reuters)
Graeme Smith | Reuters | Readers Supported News | June 10, 2015
ne band of Afghan gunmen tied up a captive in an open field, picked up rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and used the victim for target practice. Another group rounded up men and boys and confined them in a mosque, before going house-to-house to steal valuables and rape women. Elsewhere, a bunch of gunmen took the most respected elder of a village — a white-bearded gentleman who dared to complain about their behavior — and dragged him behind their pickup truck until he was dead.
Fighters like these collect salaries from the United States as part of a $120 million program to support the Afghan Local Police (ALP). They are called “police” but could be more accurately described as pro-government militias, often serving in the most dangerous rural parts of Afghanistan with only a modicum of control from their masters in the central government.
The anecdotes provided in this article were gathered from interviews in eight provinces of Afghanistan, from 2013 to 2015. We agreed to protect the anonymity of those quoted here because of the very real threat of reprisals. The full International Crisis Group report is available here.