[Peace-discuss] Another straw in the wind ...

[Ron Szoke]

NYT  November 1, 2010
Afghan Police Unit Defects en Masse to Taliban Side
By DEXTER FILKINS and SHARIFULLAH SAHAK

KABUL, Afghanistan — For months, American and Afghan officials have been 
promoting a plan to persuade masses of rank-and-file Taliban fighters to 
change sides and join the government. The tactic, known as “reintegration,” 
is one of the big hopes for turning the tide in the war.

But the Taliban, it appears, have reintegration plans of their own. On Monday 
morning, they claimed to have put them into effect.

In Khogeyani, a volatile area southwest of the capital, the entire police force 
on duty Monday morning appears to have defected to the Taliban side. A 
spokesman for the Taliban said the movement’s fighters made contact with 
the Khogeyani’s police force, cut a deal, and then sacked and burned the 
station. As many as 19 officers vanished, as did their guns, trucks, uniforms 
and food.

Even the local police chief, who missed the attack, said he suspected a 
defection en masse.

“This was not an attack but a plot,” said Mohammed Yasin, the chief of the 
Khogeyani police force. “The Taliban and the police made a deal.”

A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, said the Afghan officers 
decided to defect after “learning the facts about the Taliban.”

“We never force people to join us,” said Mr. Mujahid, whose name is fictitious. 
“The police joined us voluntarily and are happy to work with us, and to start 
the holy war shoulder-to-shoulder with their Taliban brothers.”

The Taliban takeover of the station did not last long in Khogeyani, a district 
in Ghazni Province. Musa Khan Akbarzada, the provincial governor, said his 
office lost contact with the police station at about 5 a.m. Government forces 
arrived in Khogeyani about three hours later and found the station smoking 
and abandoned.

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<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/world/asia/02afghan.html>