Popular Uprising Forces (wulusi patsun in Pashto; khezesh-e mardomi in Persian) are a more ad hoc set of local, counter-insurgency forces that are supported by the NDS. They appear to have proliferated under the National Unity Government. There is little publicly available information about their number, cost, weaponry, training, locations, or how commanders and locations are chosen. They are under no known formal mechanism of accountability and, as UNAMA has pointed out, they “have no legal basis under the laws of Afghanistan.” The NDS’ main sponsor is the CIA, which is itself outside the scrutiny of the main US watchdog, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR. It is assumed that some CIA funds go to the NDS-backed Uprising Forces.(20200701)