National Directorate of Security


The National Directorate of Security is the primary intelligence agency of Afghanistan.

Development

The National Directorate of Security was founded as the primary domestic and foreign intelligence agency of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in 2002, and is considered the successor to KHAD, which was the previous intelligence organization before the Afghan Civil War.

Organisation

The NDS is part of the Afghan National Security Forces, and reports directly to the Office of the President.

Operations

As the primary intelligence organ of Afghanistan, the NDS shares information with ministries of Afghanistan and with provincial authorities. The NDS also cooperates with the American CIA, the Indian RAW, the Pakistani ISI, and other NATO intelligence agencies.
After the ouster of the Taliban in 2002, the NDS warned ISI about exiled militant commanders and al-Qaeda operatives hiding in Pakistan. In early 2006, intelligence gathered from NDS detainees suggested Osama bin Laden resided in the western Pakistan town of Mansehra. A classified NDS paper completed in May, titled "Strategy of the Taliban," claimed ISI and Saudi Arabia restarted active support for the Taliban in 2005. Pakistan's military leadership sought to weaken and delegitimize Hamid Karzai's government, in order to prevent an alliance between Afghanistan and India.
In 2007, Amrullah Saleh's NDS used arrests and interrogations to discover the majority of suicide bombings in Afghanistan originated among Paushtuns from Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
During the April 2014 Afghan Presidential Election, the NDS, under Rahmatullah Nabil, collected thousands of signals intelligence indicating Ashraf Ghani's allies organized massive electoral fraud.
The NDS has had a degree of success, including capturing Maulvi Faizullah, a notable Taliban leader, and foiling an assassination attempt against Abdul Rashid Dostum in 2014.
The NDS captured Aslam Farooqi, the chief of ISIS-K, on April 4 2020.

Directors and deputy heads

The president of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani is the Director.