Haroon Al-Rashid Sherzad, who served as the First Deputy Minister of Interior during the Republic, says that when he was introduced as the first civilian deputy of the ministry, he encountered a widespread network of corruption and arbitrary practices after reviewing the ministry’s situation during his initial days.
Sherzad says that the ministry had ghost police officers, problems with providing gratuities to the families of fallen soldiers, corruption in food and accommodation supplies, fabricated reports about insecurity in districts, links between police officers and smuggling and organized criminal networks, corruption in contracts, and the appointment of relatives of political figures to key positions.
According to him, the Ministry of Interior had practically been turned into sources of income for corrupt families, and he claims that Amrullah Saleh and, in his words, other “thugs” were behind this corruption and arbitrary conduct.
Sherzad adds that one week after his introduction to the ministry, Amrullah Saleh and Ayub Salangi forcibly occupied his office and attempted to prevent him from entering the ministry.
He claims that a dangerous network of “thugs” had been established throughout Afghanistan and that its members were involved in kidnapping, targeted killings, corruption, sexual assaults, smuggling, and other crimes.
Sherzad concluded by saying: “I spent 20 years dealing with the thugs; they are poisonous scorpions for the people.”