Recruiting armed local residents for security has advantages: they are more effective at weeding out insurgents because they are from the area; and so they know the land and the residents.

In exchange for keeping the Taliban out, the militias are trained by U.S. special forces for a few weeks. The milita members are also provided with weapons and a salary of $150 a month.

Nibikichi is a CIP commander who oversees some 220 fighters known as Arbakai in the Qala-i-zal district. Some accuse him of widespread abuses including torture, unlawful imprisonment and imposing illegal taxes. He denies the allegations.

“If someone is complaining about me, he has to come and prove my guilt in front of the elders," he said. "If I am guilty, then the elders can hang me. Otherwise, if they are lying, the government should ask them to do the same.”

The militias now outnumber Afghan National Police in most districts by five to one, in some places the ratio is said to be even higher.

But as their numbers have grown, so have the abuses that government officials, political analysts and human rights groups had warned against.

“Originally people were in favor of the policy; they were protecting the area from the Taliban, but in the last few years there is no Taliban activity in the village," said Mirza Ali Tanai, a tribal elder from Kanam Village. "Because the Arbakai have abused the people so much and the government is not doing anything about it, the people now people now support the Taliban. It’s a threat to the government.”