Atta Mohammad Noor, a former jihadi leader and prominent member of the Resistance Council to Save Afghanistan, revealed in an interview with Anisa Shaheed that the release of audio recordings attributed to Ziaulhaq Amarkhil during the presidential elections 11 years ago was the work of General Yasin Zia.
At that time, the presidential election was marred by widespread allegations of fraud. Abdullah Abdullah, leader of the “Reform and Convergence” campaign team—who claimed victory in the election—presented evidence and documents in this regard. Part of this evidence included several audio recordings allegedly belonging to Ziaulhaq Amarkhil, then CEO of the Independent Election Commission, and members of Ashraf Ghani’s campaign team, which were said to show their involvement in rigging votes in favor of Ghani.
Until now, the identity of the person who intercepted and recorded these conversations had remained unknown. But Noor now says this operation was carried out by General Yasin Zia, who was then an employee of the National Directorate of Security, as part of his “patriotic operational activities.” Noor also expressed appreciation for Zia’s “sacrifice.”
Attempts to contact General Zia for comment were unsuccessful. The news has sparked mixed reactions on social media. Some users—particularly former supporters of Ashraf Ghani—have criticized the act as a violation of document confidentiality and the privacy of intercepted conversations, while others have praised it.
After the formation of the Ghani-led government, Yasin Zia was appointed governor of Takhar, then as an advisor to the National Security Council, and later as Chief of Army Staff. He left this position a few months before Afghanistan’s fall. Some believe that had Zia remained in this post, Kabul would not have fallen so easily, and perhaps martial law would have been declared or a military resistance formed in the capital.
Zia now leads the Freedom Front, an armed group fighting the Taliban, whose operations have even drawn attention from the United Nations.
At the time of Afghanistan’s fall, Defense Minister Bismillah Mohammadi and the then Chief of Army Staff both left the country.
Atta Mohammad Noor, who has considered himself the leader of Jamiat-e Islami since the assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani—although Salahuddin Rabbani also claims this leadership—also spoke in the interview about what he called the “hidden secrets of Afghanistan’s fall.” He said that if there had been no “plot for the fall,” he and Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum could have prevented the fall of Mazar-e-Sharif. However, both he and Dostum crossed into Uzbekistan via the Hairatan border crossing.
Noor now appears to oppose war with the Taliban, prioritizing negotiations and elections, but he stressed that if talks fail, “the next option will be war.”
