Increasingly at odds with the Ghani government and amid a worsening security crisis, Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) chief Rahmatullah Nabil announced his resignation today, ending five years as Afghanistan’s intelligence chief.
Nabil didn’t leave quietly, either, slamming Pakistan as a terrorist backer and insisting he didn’t support President Ghani’s visit to Pakistan for a regional peace conference, believing nothing would come of the visit.
Nabil has come under criticism amid the worsening situation, though exactly how much power he still had was unclear, as he’s been seen as increasingly sidelined by Ghani as a loyalist to the Karzai government.
This is actually Nabil’s second resignation, as he’d also resigned back in 2012 at the end of his initial two-year term. He was invited back soon after by Karzai, however, when his proposed successor got swept up in a torture scandal.