Interview with Dawod Naji, head of the AFF’s Political Council, an Afghan resistance group fighting the Taliban.

The Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF), an anti-Taliban insurgent group, has spread its influence across various regions of Afghanistan, emerging as one of the principal forces actively opposing Taliban rule. The AFF brings a distinct legacy of military expertise, led by General Yasin Zia—a former Chief of Military Staff under the former government. General Zia, with a history as a guerrilla fighter under the iconic anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, is a figure of resistance and experience in the Afghan conflict.

Uniquely, the AFF distinguishes itself as the only armed resistance group led by professional soldiers and commanders who once served in the Afghan military. This connection to the former national military grants the group a strategic edge, shaping it into a formidable force in the Afghan landscape.

The AFF primarily operates in regions that have become strongholds of anti-Taliban sentiment: the Salang Valley in Parwan province, Mazar-e-Sharif in Balkh province, Andarab, Pul-e-Khumri in Baghlan province, Ishkamish district in Takhar province, and Kapisa. However, its reach has also extended to historically Taliban-aligned Pashtun-majority provinces, including Kandahar and Laghman, demonstrating the group’s tactical ambitions and operational flexibility.

In a recent report delivered in June, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres detailed the AFF’s activities, noting that the group had conducted 14 attacks against Taliban forces over the preceding three months. These incidents highlight an intensifying campaign that seems poised to challenge the Taliban’s authority in diverse regions of Afghanistan.

In an exclusive interview, Dawod Naji, head of the AFF’s Political Council, offered insights into the group’s future trajectory. Naji discussed the AFF’s political vision and military strategy, shedding light on a resistance movement that appears resolute in its mission to redefine Afghanistan’s political landscape and disrupt the Taliban’s grip on power.

The following interview was conducted over email and lightly edited for readability.

What is the Afghanistan Freedom Front’s (AFF) long-term political roadmap for Afghanistan? How does it envision reshaping the country’s political landscape?

AFF is fighting for freedom as our country is occupied by a radical, fundamentalist, terrorist, and extremist group that has canceled all the fundamental rights of Afghans. Also, the right to study and work for women is being taken away. That’s why we don’t have any legal government in Afghanistan. We are fighting to restore all the legal rights of ordinary people. As per our experience with the Taliban for the last three decades, I can say that they don’t believe in national dialogue. That is why we think at AFF that we need to fight the Taliban with all our might and on all fronts- military, political, and social.

With the Taliban maintaining control over Afghanistan, both militarily and politically, how does the AFF plan to challenge the Taliban’s stronghold on the ground? What strategies do you have in place to shift the balance of power?

We believe fighting for our rights, land, and freedom is our responsibility, and we don’t think we should wait for the policies of other countries before launching our struggle. As of now, we are continuously attacking Taliban forces mainly through hit-and-run attacks, especially in major cities. By doing this, we are giving hope to people that everything is not over and the fight against the Taliban is continuing.

This fight of ours we are carrying on while observing all the international laws and conventions, like we make sure that no civilian target is hit in our attacks. We will be carrying out more significant attacks going forward, like – we recently attacked Kabul military airport through rockets, and our guerilla fighters fought with Taliban forces at the airport. Also, we aim to control sizable territory in Afghanistan to strengthen the resistance. Look, we have a comprehensive plan for our struggle.

We will keep on increasing military pressure on the Taliban. On the other hand, we will intensify the civil and social movement against the current oppressive regime of the Taliban. In this way, we plan to force the Taliban to come to the negotiation table and agree to restore a democratic republic that ensures all the civil rights of its people.

Since the Taliban’s takeover, Afghanistan’s security environment has reportedly improved, and many Afghans feel a sense of safety after years of conflict. Given the prevailing war fatigue and a general reluctance for renewed conflict, do you believe the Afghan public will rally behind the AFF’s cause? How do you address concerns of further instability?

First, I challenged all these stability and relative security reports in Afghanistan as the free media are not doing these reports. These kinds of reports are just false propaganda of the Taliban, nothing else.

Under Taliban rule, there is no freedom of expression; hence, nobody wants to speak about the ground reality in public. I question if people feel a bit secure under the current rule of the Taliban, then why, in the last three years, around 8 million people have left the country.

I want to quote an Afghan woman’s social media post about this. She wrote that even while living in the most dangerous part of Afghanistan under the republic rule, where the Taliban was carrying out daily attacks, we never thought about leaving our country. But living in current Afghanistan under Taliban rule with no rights feels humiliating, and now I don’t see any future for me in this country anymore.

The truth is common Afghans feel oppressed and suffocated under the current Taliban rule. I can say that because of the corrosive policies of the Taliban, people in large numbers are contacting AFF and requesting us to assist them in the uprising against the Taliban.

The AFF and its allies, such as Ahmad Massoud’s National Resistance Front (NRF), are active in select provinces like Panjshir, Parwan, and Badakhshan. Can we expect to see AFF expanding its operations nationwide?

We have a presence in almost all areas of Afghanistan, but the majority of hit-and-run guerilla attacks are carried out in bigger cities. Small attacks are not as effective in the countryside as in cities, but we have a presence nationwide.

Critics often allege that the AFF is predominantly led by Tajiks, sidelining other ethnic groups. How does the AFF plan to ensure broader ethnic representation within its ranks and leadership?

I want to clarify that AFF is the platform of all Afghans, irrespective of their ethnicity. Our leadership council represents all ethnicities, like Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek, and Hazara. Also, we have ensured participation from people from all the country’s regions. We have taken lessons from the past, and we don’t want this struggle to take the shape of an ethnic civil war. That’s why we have ensured representation of ethnicities is based on our struggle for the fight against oppression and discrimination and to ensure rights like- social justice, gender equality, and the rule of law for all.

Can you shed light on which countries or international actors are supporting the AFF and in what ways? How crucial is this support for your mission?

There is no support yet from any country or other international actors. Different political groups in Afghanistan are waiting for external support to launch their campaign against the Taliban. But we at AFF believe that our country is our responsibility, and to safeguard it, we can’t wait for any foreign assistance to start our struggle. I can say with complete conviction that Taliban links with global and regional jihadi groups have strengthened after they came into power, and this regime of the Taliban is a main propagator of terrorism in the region.

The AFF and NRF currently do not control significant territory, relying mainly on guerrilla tactics. Do you think this approach risks reducing your resistance to a perceived nuisance rather than a credible threat to the Taliban? What are the following steps to elevate your efforts from guerrilla warfare to more sustained resistance?

The Taliban censored all the information, and there is no independent reporting currently happening on the ground in Afghanistan. The situation on the battlefield is much different from what the Taliban acknowledges: more attacks are happening against Taliban forces. We are being seen as a beacon of resistance by the masses, and we will soon change this perception that the Taliban is going to rule Afghanistan for an indefinite period.