India funded warlords instead of Afghan govt, say US documents
Instead of funding the President Ashraf Ghani-led Afghanistan government, India funded Afghan militia leaders, which, among other reasons, contributed to the sudden and unexpected capitulation and collapse of the government before the advancing Taliban forces in just about five days in early August 2021, documents recently made public by the US authorities on Tuesday indicated.
The latest report by SIGAR (Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction), released on Tuesday, quoted former Afghan Army general General Hibatullah Alizai, as saying: “Noor and Dostum and so on, went to India and got money from India to create a resistance in the North. That is good, but that money should have gone to the Afghan government to pay ANDSF forces’ salaries. That should have been directed to the central government to be distributed lawfully.”
Atta Mohammad Noor and Abdul Rashid Dostum are former militia leaders from the northern provinces of Afghanistan. ANDSF is the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces or the military of the Ghani-led regime.
Gen Alizai ruminates: “I as a commander was requesting money for operations and supplies, but I could not get it from the government. But Dostum got money just from making phone calls to the Indians. That funding should have gone to the central government and central bank.”