Ismet Đuherić was the first commander of the Meša Selimović Company of the Army of the Republika Srpska. The unit consisted of 120 men, mostly Muslim Serbs from a few villages in the municipalities of Bosanski Brod and Derventa, but also other Serbs and Croats. According to some reporters, the unit was and still remains one of the principal controversies of the Bosnian War. During the war, Bosniaks were mostly expelled from the Serb-controlled territories in a process which would later be called ethnic cleansing, excluding some villagers who were instead organized into the Meša Selimović unit with the help of Slavko Lisica, a Serb general who helped the remaining Bosniaks on Ismet Đuherić's request.