KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Sources in Daikundi province (central Afghanistan) say that Hayatullah Sharafat, the Taliban’s head of the Ulema Council in the province, is building a house for himself but has placed the responsibility of providing construction timber on the residents of a village.
A source told KabulNow that Sharafat is building a private house in the “Zarghab” (Zarghio) area of Pato district.
According to the source, the Taliban official has ordered the community council of Ghadar village in central Daikundi, which is adjacent to Zarghab, to collect timber from local residents for him.
The source said that Sharafat told the Ghadar council to provide him with a list of individuals who refuse to contribute timber.
Sources say that the residents of Ghadar are under pressure from the Taliban official.
According to sources, when Sharafat served as the Taliban’s deputy intelligence chief in Daikundi, he also forcibly relocated the health center of Ghadar village to his own area in Zarghab in September 2022.
Sources say that at the time, Sharafat threatened the residents of Ghadar with arrest and torture, saying that “anyone who raises their voice in protest will bear the responsibility themselves.”
Sources further allege that during his tenure in the Daikundi intelligence department, Sharafat accepted bribes from people in exchange for resolving cases and carrying out administrative affairs.
A similar case emerged earlier this week when credible sources told KabulNow that Mawlawi Abdul Rashid, the Taliban’s mayor of Kabul, was arrested by Taliban intelligence forces on corruption charges. According to the sources, around 20 district officials in Kabul were also detained in connection with the case.
Afghanistan, under Taliban rule, has dropped four places in Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), ranking 169th out of 182 countries and territories.
The annual report, which measures perceived levels of public sector corruption, gave Afghanistan a score of 16 out of 100, down from 17 in 2024, when it ranked 165th, and 17 in 2023, when it was 162nd. The CPI scores countries on a scale from 0, indicating high corruption, to 100, indicating very clean governance.
In Afghanistan, the findings indicate that corruption remains widespread despite Taliban claims of eradication. Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have provided minimal transparency on the management of public funds, tax revenue, and national resources. While bribery in the public sector has been criminalized, other forms of corruption—including diversion of public funds and humanitarian aid, nepotism, and abuse of official powers—persist widely.
The allegations reflect broader concerns frequently raised by residents and rights advocates about the abuse of authority, coercion, and lack of accountability in local governance under Taliban rule. In many rural areas of Afghanistan, communities have reported facing pressure from powerful local officials, often with limited avenues for seeking redress or challenging decisions that affect their livelihoods and access to public services.
