Taliban Forms New Special Forces Unit To Provide Security For Qosh Tepa Canal

The Taliban’s Ministry of Interior announced the formation of a special unit to ensure the security of the Qosh Tepa channel.

In a statement, the ministry wrote that these special forces have the "necessary military equipment and devices" to protect the canal.

Over the past few months, the Taliban has focused on the construction of the Qosh Tepa Canal. Some critics of the Taliban said that the Taliban intends to transfer their support base to this northern strategic geographic location.

However, earlier the Ministry of Agriculture of the Taliban called the reports about the distribution of lands around the Qosh Tepa Canal unfounded and said that these land parcels would be distributed only on the orders of the group’s leader.

The Taliban has not officially specified to whom the land parcels around Qosh Tepa Canal will be distributed.

The National Resistance Front (NRF), the main anti-Taliban resistance group, had said last year that the Taliban had started distributing land around the Qosh Tepa Canal.

According to NRF, these lands will be distributed "to terrorists transferred from Pakistan and other non-indigenous people".

The 280-kilometre long and 100-metre wide Qosh Tepa Canal starts from the Kaldar district of Balkh province passes through Jowzjan province and reaches Andkhoi district of Faryab province.

The Qosh Tepa Canal transfers the water of the Amu River to parts of Balkh, Jowzjan, and Faryab provinces, which will irrigate about 700,000 hectares of land.