An official letter reportedly sent by the commander of the Afghan Public Protection Forces (APPF) has sparked a strong outcry among Afghans over its discriminatory nature and contents. 

In the letter, the APPF commander allegedly called on officials to send him a list of names of at least 500 anti-riot officers who were of Hazara, Pashtun, Uzbek and other ethnicities - except Tajiks. 

But, in response to the report, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) has said that such an issue does not exist in the MoI and that this was due to mistakes in the letter.  

But MPs retaliated, and one, Fakoor Behishti said: “They create extensions by having their own political ambitions and this leads to national disagreement, therefore we can not call this force an anti-riot (unit), because this force itself creates chaos.” 

“On the basis of an order of the president, a 500 member anti-riot unit has been established under the Kabul 101 commandant; hereby it is directed that within 24 hours the identities of officers belonging to Hazara, Uzbek, Pashtun etc. - except Tajik ethnicity - must be sent,” the letter states. 

“At the moment, the majority of those serving in the APPF are of Tajik ethnicity; there were some editorial mistakes in the letter; it means that we have sufficient forces from Tajik ethnicity and we need to recruit other ethnicities as well,” said MoI spokesman Najib Danish. 

Meanwhile, a number of former military officers have condemned the move and said it is demoralizing for soldiers and national values. 

“How is it possible that a major general of the country does not pick up the typing mistake despite the fact that he signs it and then sends it to the targeted institution,” said former military officer Mohammad Agul Mujahid.

Back in September, a senior official from the Administrative Office of the President (AOP) had been asked by the head of the organization to resign after a “classified” document shared by him on a social media platform pointed towards alleged discrimination in the appointment process of officials in that office.

The document was “mistakenly” shared on Telegram - a messaging group - by Sawabdin Makhkash, the deputy chief of monitoring and observation at the Administrative Office of the President.

“The Herat Pashtuns who cannot speak Pashto shall be appointed and we shall symbolically appoint Tajiks and Uzbeks who will definitely work based on our demand in order that people would think that the officials of the Administrative Office of the President are from all ethnic groups,” read the document.