National police academy students face unknown fate

KABUL (Pajhwok): After the fall of the previous government, students of the Afghan National Police (ANP) academy are facing an uncertain fate.

Numbering in thousands, the students are worried about their future and call on the current government to determine their fate.

Many of the students at the Gen. Abdul Raziq police academy say they have tried several times to reach the academy and the interior ministry, but they were denied entry.

One of the students is Obaidullah Noorzai, a resident of Kandahar's Spin Boldak district, who says he is a third-year student at the academy's criminal faculty.

He told Pajhwok Afghan News that less than a year before his graduation, the Taliban came to power and he, along with thousands of other students, was left with unknown fate.

“Police academy students are in dire straits”, he said, adding that some of them fell off planes during a US evacuation program in August and died, while others were killed while being smuggled to Tajikistan.

He says it has been almost two months since all the students waited for the new government to decide their fate and their efforts would not be wasted.

He said he had repeatedly visited the interior ministry and the academy with a number of other students but was not allowed inside.

Haseebullah Khamosh, a graduate of the academy, is also worried about his fate and future.  He told Pajhwok Afghan News he had visited the relevant authorities several times but was told by Taliban officials that they did not hire former government military personnel.

He said the Taliban had no military training and could not provide security or deal with incidents professionally.

According to him, security is not only maintained by guns, the Taliban need to use professional cadres in security and crime prevention and appoint them to important posts.

Zabihullah Mujahid, deputy head of the Information and Culture Department and a Taliban spokesman, told a news conference about a month ago that the army, police and national security forces would join forces with the Taliban to form an armed force.

But so far these promises have not been fulfilled.

Meanwhile, Interior Ministry spokesman Saeed Khosti told Pajhwok Afghan News the ministry planned to bring back all professionals. He added that the education of those who had dropped out of the police academy would be resumed.

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