In less than four months, a second anti-Taliban commander has been killed in Iran, raising serious concerns among former Afghan military personnel living in the country.
On Wednesday, General Ikramuddin Sari’ was shot dead near his home in Tehran by masked assailants. Earlier, in September, Ma’ruf Ghulami, a political and military figure close to prominent anti-Taliban figure, Ismail Khan, was killed by gunfire in Mashhad city.
Individuals close to both men say the Taliban were responsible for the killings. They argue that the commanders were assassinated on Iranian soil amid what they describe as a heavy and deliberate silence by the Islamic Republic toward the Taliban.
The killing of a senior general from Afghanistan’s former government in Tehran has sounded alarm bells for former Afghan soldiers and officers residing in Iran. Over the past four years, the Taliban have detained and killed members of the former Afghan security forces. Observers now say that individuals who are, either in practice or potentially, perceived as threats to the Taliban are being deliberately targeted.
The Islamic Republic, which has given refuge to hundreds of officers and soldiers from Afghanistan’s former army, has failed to protect them from assassination threats. While Sari’ was killed in the heart of Tehran, Ghulami was murdered in Mashhad, one of Iran’s most important and religious cities.
Earlier, Iranian police announced that three suspects had been arrested in connection with Ghulami’s killing. However, two were later released. Police said they had sufficient evidence linking one individual to the assassination but provided no further details regarding the suspect’s identity or affiliation.
A source familiar with the investigation told Afghanistan International that the detained individual was a Taliban operative and that the group played a direct role in Ghulami’s assassination. Despite the passage of several months, Iranian police and judicial authorities have not officially released details of the investigation or the handling of the case.
The lack of transparency has raised questions about whether Tehran’s silence reflects political considerations stemming from its close relationship with the Taliban, or whether Iranian authorities lack sufficient evidence to formally accuse and prosecute the primary suspect in Ghulami’s killing.
Who Was General Ikramuddin Sari’?
General Ikramuddin Sari’ was a professional Afghan military officer. Born in Kapisa province, north of Kabul, he served as police commander in Nuristan, Baghlan and Takhar provinces and later worked as an adviser at Afghanistan’s Ministry of Interior.
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He was widely known for his outspoken and uncompromising views on security matters.
Following the collapse of Afghanistan’s former government, Sari’ relocated to Iran. He became an informal representative of former Afghan military personnel living there and was regarded as an influential figure, maintaining close contact with hundreds of former officers and soldiers.
After Iranian authorities began large-scale deportations of Afghan migrants, Sari’, together with several colleagues, worked to prevent their forced return to Afghanistan.
While in Iran, Sari’ was openly critical of the Taliban and took a firm public stance against the group and its policies.
Who Was Behind the Assassination?
General Sari’ maintained contact with most former Afghan soldiers and officers living in Iran. He advocated for their rights and acted as an intermediary between them and Iranian authorities.
Iranian officials have not identified those responsible for his killing. Former soldiers who knew Sari’ say that, apart from the Taliban, no group or country would benefit from the high-profile assassination of a former police commander and refugee inside Iran.
A former Afghan military official and anti-Taliban activist accused both the Taliban and Iran of responsibility. Others argue that the Taliban are the principal perpetrators, but add that such assassinations could not take place without the knowledge or tolerance of certain circles within Iran.
Groups including the National Resistance Front say Iran bears responsibility for ensuring the safety of Afghan military refugees and must conduct transparent investigations and provide clear public information regarding the assassinations.
Sari’ was killed amid earlier reports that Iranian police had detained and interrogated him.
‘Assassinations Abroad’
The targeted killings of senior former military figures in Tehran and Mashhad suggest that former Afghan soldiers are no longer safe even outside Afghanistan. Those who fled the country to escape Taliban reprisals now find themselves hunted in regional capitals.
A former Afghan soldier said the attacks indicate the Taliban have begun carrying out “assassinations abroad.”
Taliban officials have previously threatened to target opponents beyond Afghanistan’s borders.
Mohammad Nabi Omari, a deputy minister at the Taliban’s Ministry of Interior, has said that if necessary, the group could kill opponents abroad for as little as 500 Pakistani rupees.
Two years ago, Saeed Khosti, the former spokesman for Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban interior minister, openly threatened Taliban opponents living outside Afghanistan, warning that the group had hundreds of volunteers ready to carry out assassinations overseas.
The recent killings have heightened fears among all Taliban opponents living abroad.
A source told Afghanistan International that the Taliban had even planned to assassinate leaders of the National Resistance Front in Tajikistan, but the plot was foiled by Tajik security forces.
Silence From Tehran
The Islamic Republic has not publicly responded to the targeting of Taliban opponents on its territory. Iranian officials have remained silent regarding the assassinations.
Iran hosts former Afghan military personnel and is responsible for their security. However, critics say that due to Tehran’s close ties with the Taliban, the Islamic Republic has effectively sacrificed former Afghan soldiers and migrants to preserve its relationship with Afghanistan’s ruling authorities.
Facing a difficult regional environment, Iran is seeking to secure the Taliban’s goodwill. Analysts say the Taliban are the only group in the region currently serving Iran’s strategic interests. As a result, Taliban opponents, despite historical, cultural and linguistic ties, appear to hold little importance for Tehran, which is unwilling to risk its relations with the Taliban over their deaths.
Iran has handed over Afghanistan’s embassy in Tehran and its consulate in Mashhad to Taliban representatives, a move critics say has given the group greater freedom to carry out cross-border assassinations.
Although the Islamic Republic bears responsibility for protecting former Afghan military personnel, it has demonstrated significant weaknesses in preventing planned killings on its soil.
Critics note that Israel has been able to kill dozens of Iranian military officers and senior officials in a single night, underscoring Iran’s broader security vulnerabilities.
Hossein Jafarian, a figure close to the National Resistance Front and a former Iranian cultural attaché in Afghanistan, referred to these weaknesses in response to Sari’s killing.
Criticising Iran’s relationship with the Taliban administration, he said:
“Supporters of the Taliban should pull their hats down over their faces. It is not only Netanyahu who assassinates Haniya [the former political leader of Hamas] in Tehran. Now Mullah Haibatullah does the same, first in Mashhad and now in Tehran. Shame on you.”
Another political figure opposed to the Taliban, citing the depth of ties between the Taliban and the Islamic Republic, said he saw a “conspiracy” behind such incidents. He told Afghanistan International that, in his view, the host country bears primary responsibility for these events.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s interior minister, said the group remains committed to the Doha Agreement.
He added that the group aims to address Afghanistan’s internal challenges and disputes with the international community through dialogue and what he described as “logical and sustainable” methods.
Speaking at a graduation ceremony for nearly 900 cadets at the Taliban police academy, Sirajuddin Haqqani said Afghanistan posed no threat to other countries and that the door to dialogue remained open.
“The doors to dialogue about problems are not closed, and we are seeking logical and legitimate solutions to resolve these issues,” Haqqani said. “We want to address problems, distrust or misunderstandings through dialogue. We have passed the test of confrontation; we may be weak in resources, but our faith and will are strong.”
Haqqani said the Taliban had fully implemented their commitments under the Doha talks, particularly those related to preventing Afghan territory from being used to threaten other countries. He added that security had improved to the extent that Taliban officials now travel across the country without weapons.
In a recent report, the United Nations sanctions monitoring committee said a wide range of countries consistently confirm the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan. The report cited groups including Islamic State Khorasan, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, al-Qaeda, Turkistan Islamic Party, Jamaat Ansarullah and Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan.
Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s former special representative for Afghanistan, has warned that the country risks becoming a hub for militant activity and said failure to contain the situation could lead to a catastrophe similar to the September 11 attacks.
Pakistan has repeatedly accused the Taliban of allowing armed groups hostile to Islamabad to operate from Afghan soil, claims the Taliban deny.
Separately, Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security said on Thursday that its forces clashed with individuals who had entered Tajik territory from Afghanistan. The committee said three alleged militants and two Tajik border guards were killed in the fighting.
The Taliban-run Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday that 12,000 people across 30 institutions have been confirmed as eligible for retirement following an assessment process carried out over the past four months.
Abdul Qayum Naseer, spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance, told state-run national television that pension payments for some retirees have already begun. He said the process would continue until all eligible retirees receive their payments.
The ministry did not specify which institutions’ former employees have so far been paid.
After seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban suspended pension payments to about 160,000 retirees who had been receiving benefits under the previous government. The decision triggered repeated protests over the past four years, with retirees frequently demonstrating outside the General Directorate of Pensions to demand the resumption of payments.
In 2024, Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada issued an eight-article decree instructing retirees to pursue their pension claims through special courts.
Separately, the Ministry of Finance announced on December 16 that pension payments would be made by January 20, 2026, to retirees from several institutions, including the ministries of finance, interior, and labour and social affairs, as well as the national electricity company, the directorate of urban water supply and sanitation, and the Taliban-controlled national television network.
Emomali Rahmon on Wednesday inaugurated a tank training ground and four new military outposts along Tajikistan’s border with Afghanistan, as Dushanbe steps up efforts to strengthen border security.
Rahmon visited the Ministry of Defence on December 24 and formally opened the facilities via a video link, according to a statement posted on the website of the Tajik presidency.
The statement said the tank training ground in the Harb Maidon area has been equipped with modern educational infrastructure to train military specialists to a high professional standard. Rahmon instructed the Ministry of Defence and other security agencies to make full use of the new facilities to improve technical training.
Tajik authorities say border security efforts have intensified over the past two to three years. During that period, around 80 new border outposts equipped with military hardware have been constructed.
The move comes amid a series of attacks that Tajik officials say originated from Afghan territory. On Thursday, December 25, Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security reported an armed clash with militants who had crossed the border from Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of three suspected militants and two Tajik border guards.
Earlier this month, the press office of the Tajik presidency said two separate attacks originating from Afghanistan killed five people and wounded five others. Following those incidents, Rahmon ordered security institutions to assess the situation and propose additional measures to reinforce border defences.
Tajikistan was initially among the most vocal regional critics of the Taliban following their return to power in Kabul. In recent months, however, Dushanbe has expanded contacts with Afghan authorities and moved cautiously towards engagement while continuing to prioritise border security.
The National Resistance Front, led by Ahmad Massoud, has called on Iran to carry out a serious, transparent and independent investigation into the assassination of General Ikramuddin Sari, a former Afghan police commander.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the group described the killing as an “explicit crime” and a “targeted terrorist act”.
The National Resistance Front said the incident has sparked deep anger and concern among Afghan refugees living in Iran.
General Sari, who sought refuge in Iran after the fall of Afghanistan’s former republic order to the Taliban, was killed in an attack on Wednesday evening, in central Tehran.
In recent years, he had been active in Iran advocating for the rights of former Afghan military personnel.
The group called on Iranian authorities to identify those who planned, carried out and supported the assassination and to bring them to justice.
Jamiat-e Islami: Taliban Behind the Killing
Jamiat-e Islami Afghanistan, led by Salahuddin Rabbani, also condemned the assassination in a separate statement. The party said that since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, this was the second influential Afghan migrant figure to be targeted in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The statement said such killings are particularly concerning when they occur in cities where Afghanistan’s political and consular missions are under Taliban control.
Jamiat-e Islami also urged Iranian authorities to take action to identify and prosecute those responsible for such attacks.
This marks the second assassination of a senior anti-Taliban commander on Iranian soil. Previously, a commander close to Ismail Khan, one of Afghanistan’s former jihadi leaders, was killed in the city of Mashhad.
Two Tajik border guards were killed in an armed clash with militants who crossed from Afghanistan into Tajikistan, the country’s State Committee for National Security said.
In a statement carried by Khovar, Tajikistan’s state news agency, on Thursday, the committee said three members of a terrorist organisation crossed the Afghan border and entered Tajik territory in the Shamsiddin Shohin district.
According to the statement, Tajik border guards located the militants inside Tajikistan at 11:15 a.m. on 24 December and launched an operation against them.
The committee said the militants ignored orders to surrender and opened fire. They were attempting to carry out an armed attack on one of the border posts of the Border Forces of the State Committee for National Security but were killed in a shootout.
The identities of the three militants and the name of the terrorist organisation to which they belonged have not been disclosed. The committee said weapons and ammunition were seized from the militants.
The State Committee for National Security said this was the third armed attack, terrorist act or illegal border crossing from Afghanistan into Tajikistan in the past month that resulted in the deaths of military personnel.
Call for Taliban Apology
The committee said the repeated attacks over the past month demonstrate what it described as the Taliban administration’s serious and repeated irresponsibility in fulfilling its international commitments and its assurances to ensure security and stability along the Tajik–Afghan border and to combat terrorist organisations.
Tajik border forces said they hope the Taliban leadership will apologise to the people of Tajikistan and take effective measures to ensure security along the shared border.
The Border Forces of the State Committee for National Security said they possess full physical and combat capabilities to safeguard the country’s borders.
The statement said Tajik border guards will continue to defend the country’s frontiers with full force against external aggression and will respond decisively to terrorist groups, smugglers and any attempts to cross the border from Afghanistan.
According to the committee, the situation along the Tajikistan–Afghanistan border is currently calm, and investigations into the clash are continuing.
The press office of the president of Tajikistan confirmed in the month in November that five people were killed and five others wounded in two attacks launched from Afghanistan. Following those incidents, President Emomali Rahmon ordered security agencies to assess the situation and explore ways to strengthen border security.
Tajikistan was among the critics of the Taliban administration following the group’s return to power but has recently expanded its relations with Kabul and moved towards greater engagement.
