According to police sources, a police commander and a police officer joined Taliban on Friday in Farah province. The spokesman of provincial police has confirmed this incident and investigation has been started in this regard. The reasons for this incident are still unknown.

This is one of the incidents that are happening far frequently and many of them are stopped from reaching to the media as it may raise many questions about the entire system of security forces. Such incidents mostly occur with police personnel while it is very rare in National Army.

Many reasons have been given about such incidents. One of the main reasons is the clashing viewpoints between the personnel and their superiors. There is a general perception that some innocent Afghans are killed in different operations and police force very reluctantly takes part in such activities. Sometimes, they feel bad when they are ordered to attack their own Afghans and all these have created a mindset that Afghan security forces are committing a crime and as a reaction to this guilt feeling, some of them either leave the force or in extreme cases, join the terrorist groups.

Another reason is the weak and negative character of police force. It has been noticed that due to depression, fear of life and many other reasons, some members of security forces take drugs, drink alcohol and get involved in other immoral activities which has at certain instances, sparked hatred not only in general public but also in their own colleagues. This environment also makes some of them to leave the forces and join the terrorists. There have also been incidents when security personnel kill their own colleagues under the same circumstances and the killer usually escapes into the safe lines of terrorists where he is welcomed as a hero.

The presence of foreign troops and associated hatred is also one of the reasons. It is not a secret that a reasonable percentage of Afghans consider the presence of foreign troops as illegal and term it a form of slavery and direct violation of Afghan sovereignty. Same feelings are more or less present in the lines of security forces as well which is further fueled by the feeling that they are working for attaining the objects of powers that have enslaved our country. A soldier with extreme emotions at times leaves the forces and joins Taliban in protest.

At the same time, the lines of our security forces are not clean of the propagation of extremists and many security personnel can be found with this mentality.

The above problem is very serious and concerned authorities need to consider all the options to bring a sustainable resolution for solving this problem on permanent basis.