Afghan Biographies

NDS National Directorate of Security


Name NDS National Directorate of Security
Ethnic backgr.
Date of birth
Function/Grade Afghan Secret Service
History and Biodata

The National Directorate of Security, also referred to as Amniyat or Amaniyat, is the domestic intelligence agency of the government of Afghanistan. The Director of National Security reports directly to the President.

NDS Headquarter is in Kabul. NDS has 30 Departments. There are Offices in all 34 Provinces. Between 15.000 and 30.000 Officers are working for NDS.

The NDS is an opaque institution which (appears to) enjoy the full panoply of legal powers: it investigates, detains, prosecutes and judges those suspected of security offences. There is evidence that the NDS carries out beatings, electrocution and sleep deprivation and that the Afghan judicial system’s reliance on confession as the main form of evidence gives an added incentive for interrogators to torture.

NDS inaugurated a newly established research center is Afghanistan Research and Invention Center. NDS is said to provide financial, technical and scientific support to the inventors and researchers working in the country. The NDS has major concerns about the security of the researchers and scientists of the country, hence the NDS will take the responsibility for providing security to these personalities.(20141105)

More Details:
NDS prisons in Kandahar and Kabul are the two primary transfer prisons for Afghans captured by American, British, Canadian combat and special forces and other ISAF troops. NDS – which serves as both an intelligence agency and Afghanistan’s secret police – is especially notorious for brutal interrogation methods.

17th department of NDS: arresting and questioning Journalists. The Afghan Government's National Directorate of Security (NDS), the Afghanistan's intelligence agency, issued an order March 1, 2010 banning media from broadcasting live images of terror attacks. Officials justified the ban by arguing that live images of property damage and loss of life abetted the Taliban insurgency. Journalists violating the ban will be subject to arrest, along with the confiscation of their equipment.

Last Modified 2014-11-05
Established 2010-09-25