Najibullah Raghi Mawlawi

2. Previous Function:
Provincial Police Commander Laghman

3. Biodata:
Mawlawi Najibullah Raghi Mawlawi Najib Raghi, like Fasihuddin Fitrat, received his religious education in Karachi and joined the Taleban during their post-2001 insurgency. Around 2005, Najib returned to his home district of Yawan and, despite the initial opposition of his family, started to preach jihad against the Republican order and NATO troops.

After a tough start, with the help of the Taleban in Kunduz, he was eventually able to organise a local group of fighters. He went on to become a major commander in this part of Badakhshan, reaping benefits from the fall of the Republic, after which the fighters under his command swelled. Despite his current appointment to another province, his influence over an area of Badakhshan that is important in mining and for having border crossings has so far remained intact.
 

Sources said that a Taliban commander, Mawlawi Najibullah Raghi, who has controlled a goldmine since 2011, earns 17 kilograms of gold every week from the mining site. That comes from his share in the gold which is extracted by locals in the area, sources said. The mining site is located in the Wekadir area in the Raghistan district. Amanullah Paiman, a former MP from Badakhshan, said that during 2010 and 2011, they repeatedly pressured the local government to prevent illegal mining in Raghistan district but the previous government could not retake control of the mining field.

He said that local residents extract the gold every day and give one shekel of gold to commander Raghi in exchange for five shekels they extract daily. Ex-MP Paiman said the share that the residents give to Raghi totals at least 17.5 kilograms of gold a week.
 

A tribal elder from Badakhshan who wished not to be named confirmed that Raghi has been benefiting from the extracted gold in Raghistan for the past 12 years. He said Raghi had links with al Qaeda, Ansarullah of Tajikistan, Uyghurs of China and Daesh during the previous government and used to share the income with them. Based on figures obtained during the previous government, Raghi used to collect 2.5 kilograms to 3 kilograms of gold a day from locals, the tribal elder said. He added that after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and full control of Raghi over the goldmine, 400 excavators, 800 trucks, 800 pumps and 12,000 workers were put to use for mining in the site.
 

According to him, in Oct 2022, the nephew of the Taliban’s deputy prime minister Abdul Ghani Baradar had a secret visit to the mining site. Following his visit, the tribal elder said, Raghi was summoned to Kabul where he was in home custody for a while. Moreover, following the same trip, Raghi was appointed as the police chief of Laghman in eastern Afghanistan.

A local official from the previous government in Badakhshan said that despite being in Laghman and away from Badakhshan, Raghi’s supporters still have the goldmine under their control. The official said that Raghi has built a religious school in the Atar area in Raghistan district worth 12 million Afs from the income he gets from the goldmine where at least 300 students are enrolled. The official added that all expenses of the madrassa are provided from the income of the goldmine.
 

Gen. Sakhi Ghafoori, former police chief of Badakhshan,said that Raghi was one of the most violent figures of the Taliban in Badakhshan but after getting the goldmine under his control, he changed into an influential figure in the area.