Local sources confirmed on Thursday that tensions among local Taliban commanders have flared in the northeastern province of Badakhshan where similar rifts were also reported previously.
The new round of such rifts emerged in Jurm after efforts by senior Taliban commanders to detain a fellow commander of Tajik ethnicity was failed, sources said.
The commander had allegedly resisted directives issued by Taliban’s Pashtun-dominated leadership, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.
At the heart of the dispute are disagreements over the destruction of opium poppy fields—an effort recently intensified by the Taliban—and the systematic sidelining of ethnic Tajik figures from both administrative and local positions of authority in Badakhshan, a northeastern province with a predominantly non-Pashtun population.
Sources said the attempted arrest deepened existing resentment, especially among Tajik commanders who feel marginalized under the current Taliban leadership. The fallout has prompted senior figures within the Taliban, including their Army Chief of Staff Fasihuddin Fitrat and top commander Amanuddin, to intervene in an effort to defuse the tensions. So far, however, mediation efforts have failed to resolve the dispute.
The developments mark the latest sign of internal fragmentation within the Taliban, which have struggled to balance regional, tribal, and ethnic loyalties since returning to power in 2021. While the Taliban have projected a unified front publicly, infighting—particularly among non-Pashtun factions—has surfaced repeatedly across northern Afghanistan.
Observers say the growing unrest in Badakhshan could further strain the Taliban’s grip on a province that has long resisted centralized control and where insurgent rivalries are often compounded by economic interests such as narcotics trafficking.
Taliban have not commented publicly on the incident.
