SRINAGAR: An armed anti-Taliban group briefly seized control of a district headquarters in Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province, marking the first known instance since the Taliban returned to power in 2021 that an opposition force temporarily captured a district administration.
The attack targeted the district centre of Yaftal-e Paeen (Yiftal Payin) in Badakhshan on Friday night, triggering several hours of fighting before Taliban forces claimed they had regained full control of the area.
Taliban officials said the attackers took advantage of the absence of senior security officials to launch the assault. Ehsanullah Kamgar, spokesman for the Taliban’s provincial command in Badakhshan, said security forces responded swiftly, repelled the attackers and restored control over the district.
However, Taliban sources and local residents acknowledged that the attackers had managed to hold the district centre for a brief period and seized weapons and equipment before withdrawing. Images and videos circulating on social media appeared to show armed men inside the district market and government vehicles under their control, although the footage could not be independently verified.
The assault has been claimed by a previously unknown resistance outfit calling itself the Homeland Soldiers Front (also referred to as the Homeland Warriors or Sepahiyan-e Mihan). According to sources familiar with the group, it comprises between 1,300 and 1,400 fighters, many of them former members of Afghanistan’s security forces under the previous Western-backed government. The group is reportedly led by Abdul Qayum Malang, a former special forces commander.
Taliban Army Chief Fasihuddin Fitrat travelled to Badakhshan after the attack and dismissed the operation as a publicity stunt by a small opposition group.
“Different groups occasionally try to show they exist by raising a flag somewhere and creating publicity. They do not have the capability to confront or resist the security forces,” he said after reviewing the situation.
Military and political analysts, however, described the incident as symbolically significant.
According to military analyst Mohammad Naeem Ghayoor, the attack resembles the Taliban’s own early insurgency tactics during the final years of the previous Afghan republic, when small groups gradually expanded their operations. Another analyst, Ajmal Omar Shinwari, said internal divisions, dissatisfaction within Taliban ranks and governance challenges were creating conditions conducive to guerrilla warfare.
Analysts also highlighted the strategic importance of Yaftal-e Paeen, located only about 17 kilometres from the provincial capital, Faizabad. They warned that similar operations in Afghanistan’s mountainous districts could expose vulnerabilities in Taliban security arrangements.
The incident has also prompted allegations of reprisals against civilians.
Former Afghan parliamentarian Fawzia Koofi accused the Taliban of detaining civilians, including children, after the clashes, alleging that ordinary residents were being arrested on suspicion of supporting the attackers. Human rights activists also condemned what they described as arbitrary arrests and reprisals in the district. The Taliban has maintained that those detained were involved in the assault, a claim rejected by the Homeland Soldiers Front.
Former Afghan Attorney General Mohammad Farid Hamidi described the temporary capture of the district as a symbolic blow to the Taliban’s claim of exercising complete control across Afghanistan. He argued that the operation demonstrated the limitations of governance based solely on force and called for a political order founded on dialogue, equality and respect for human rights.
Badakhshan, which borders Tajikistan, China and Pakistan, has emerged as one of Afghanistan’s most volatile provinces in recent years. Besides sporadic attacks by anti-Taliban groups, the province has witnessed internal disputes among Taliban commanders, local unrest and conflicts over control of mines and other revenue sources. Despite the Taliban’s assertion that no organised armed opposition poses a serious threat to its rule, resistance groups such as the National Resistance Front, the Afghanistan Freedom Front and now the Homeland Soldiers Front continue to mount guerrilla attacks in different parts of the country
