The Afghan National Police (ANP; Pashto: د افغانستان ملي پولیس; Persian: پلیس ملی افغانستان) was the national police force of the former Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, serving as a single law enforcement agency all across the country. The agency was under the responsibility of Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior Affairs, headed by Hayatullah Hayat. The ANP had 116,000 members in December 2018.
The Afghan police traces its roots to the early 18th-century when the Hotak dynasty was established in Kandahar followed by Ahmad Shah Durrani's rise to power. The police force gradually became modernized after 1880 when Emir Abdur Rahman Khan established diplomatic relations with British India. In the 1980s it began receiving training and equipment from former Soviet Union. The most recent ANP was formed after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 and is a member of Interpol.
Several government agencies from the United States as well as Germany's Bundespolizei (BPOL) and the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence Police provided most of the early training. In 2007, the EU-led mission (EUPOL Afghanistan) was heading the civilian policing in the Kabul area but by 2005 the United States established training programs in all the provinces of Afghanistan. Since 2009, the Afghan National Police began receiving advanced training from U.S.-led NATO forces. In 2021 however, the Taliban seized most of the country and the ANP ceased to exist.
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