Date: 18/11/1403

Prime Minister’s Office Orders Distribution of Weapon Permits and Armored Vehicles to Hisba Officers
The Taliban Prime Minister’s Office has instructed the group’s Ministry of Interior to distribute weapons and armored vehicles to the employees and Hisba (morality police) officers of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. According to leaked documents, Hisba officers in both the capital and the provinces may obtain licenses to carry weapons and use armored vehicles with tinted windows.
Based on official letters published on the Talib Leaks website—alongside thousands of other leaked documents from Taliban ministries—the proposal to issue weapon permits and armored vehicles was submitted by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue on 13 Sawr 1403. The Prime Minister’s Office approved it on 6 Sunbula of the same year and forwarded it to the Ministry of Interior for implementation.
The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue has instructed all its deputy directorates and central departments to send lists of their staff to the Ministry of Interior in order to obtain weapon-carrying permits.
The ministry has likewise directed its provincial directorates to approach provincial police commands to process applications for permits to carry weapons and to operate armored vehicles with tinted windows.
One day later, the Taliban Ministry of Interior, after approving the request, instructed the DIAG Directorate of the General Directorate of Intelligence and Crime Control under the Senior Security Deputy to ensure that “the process of distributing forms and permits for carrying weapons and armored vehicles be made available to applicants through the Public Services Directorate; after the completion of legal procedures, the weapon-carrying and armored-vehicle permits shall be printed and distributed to applicants.”
It remains unclear why the Taliban government is placing weapons and armored vehicles at the disposal of Hisba officers, who are considered civilian officials. It appears these officers may require weapons either for their own protection or to enforce their orders.
This comes despite earlier statements by Taliban officials claiming that Hisba officers implement the leader’s directives in society through “advice and guidance.”
Obtaining weapon and armored-vehicle permits is only one part of the new privileges granted to the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue, which serves as the executor of the Taliban leader’s repressive decrees and the group’s ideological arm. In another directive, the Taliban Administrative Office has requested the Ministry of Public Health to ensure that Hisba staff receive treatment not only in civilian hospitals but also in military hospitals.

This directive documents the formal militarization of the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice through the authorization of weapons, armored vehicles, and related privileges. By equipping PVPV personnel—nominally civilian officials responsible for moral regulation—with firearms and armored transport, the measure significantly expands their coercive enforcement capacity. While the directive does not itself mandate violence, it constitutes an enabling framework that increases the risk of arbitrary arrest, intimidation, and ill-treatment, particularly given the ministry’s central role in enforcing restrictive decrees governing behavior, expression, and private life.