Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) serve as the last hope for Afghanistan to remain integrated, after the planned withdrawal of NATO troops from here. In the last decade, Afghan National Army (ANA) has appeared as the most reputable organization while almost all other government entities remain highly entrapped in controversies.

Public trust over Afghan soldiers have increased manifold in the recent years. At the same time, the US that is leading the Afghan war, by keeping in view the growing capabilities of ANSF, has started handing the core security responsibilities to them. Nonetheless, despite very significant development of Afghan army and police, there are still some critical challenges lying ahead of them.

Issue like the issue of capacity, inadequate weapons and aircrafts and other resembling issues can be addressed by the passage of the time. However, the biggest hindrance facing ANSF at current is the ongoing insider attacks that have kept on increasing recently. There are fears that some of the enemies of Afghanistan have infiltrated their ranks.

At the critical juncture where Afghanistan is standing – ongoing security transition and withdrawal of NATO forces and Presidential election which is due in 2014 – infiltration of ANSF ranks by the enemies of Afghanistan is an extremely serious issue that needs urgent attention from the Afghan government and its international backers. President Karzai also realizes the gravity of the matter and called for immediate measures to prevent the infiltration of insurgents in the line of ANSF.

Insurgents those infiltrated the ANSF have been killing the NATO military and civil personnel and also the Afghan security forces. Figures pertaining to such incidents occurred in 2012 are alarming and show a dramatic increase. 40 foreign soldiers and 53 members of ANSF have been killed by insider attacks.

The issue seems to have turned into a headache for the US and Afghan governments and all preventive measures taken by military authorities to identify potential killers within ANSF are yet to bear fruit. As Afghanistan will move ahead, such incidents are expected to increase further. Afghan security forces are at more risk of falling victims into the hands of rogue culprits. Targeting foreign troops would be somehow difficult as reaching them would need a more systematic plan.

The issue of green on blue attacks and killing of Afghan security forces by infiltrators make up the biggest challenge for the future of Afghan army and police. Therefore, the US and the Afghan government have to address this issue before it goes out of control.