KABUL (AP) — As soon as, Kabul’s essential jail was crowded with 1000’s of Taliban captured and arrested by the federal government. On Monday, a Taliban commander strolled by its empty halls and cell blocks, displaying his mates the place he had as soon as been imprisoned.
It was an indication of the sudden and startling new order in Afghanistan after the militant group swept into the capital practically a month in the past and threw out the crumbling, U.S.-backed authorities it had fought for 20 years.
The Taliban now run Pul-e-Charkhi Jail, a sprawling complicated on Kabul’s jap outskirts. After capturing town, the fighters freed all of the inmates there, the federal government guards fled, and now dozens of Taliban fighters are working the power.
The commander, who refused to present his identify, was on a private go to to the complicated with a gaggle of his mates. He advised The Related Press he had been arrested round a decade in the past in jap Kunar province and was dropped at Pul-e-Charkhi, certain and blindfolded.
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“I really feel so horrible once I keep in mind these days,” he mentioned. He mentioned prisoners suffered abuses and torture. He was imprisoned for round 14 months earlier than he was launched. “These days are the darkest days of my life, and now this the happiest second for me that I’m free and are available right here with out concern.”
Many Afghans in addition to governments around the globe have been alarmed by the swift Taliban seizure of energy, fearing the motion will impose an identical, harsh rule as they did throughout their first time ruling within the Nineties. However for the Taliban fighters, it’s a second to savor a victory after years of grueling preventing — and to see a metropolis few of them have entered for the reason that battle started.
For a number of the Taliban guards accompanying the AP, it was the primary time they’d entered the deserted cell blocks. They regarded with curiosity by the cells, nonetheless affected by issues the final inmates left behind — materials handing from the partitions and home windows, small rugs, water bottles.
One fighter exchanged his sandals for a greater pair he present in a cell. Then he discovered but a greater pair and exchanged once more. Others performed with the previous prisoners’ makeshift weight bars.
Pul-e-Charkhi had an extended, disturbing historical past of violence, mass executions and torture. Mass graves and torture cells had been uncovered courting from the Soviet-backed governments of the late Nineteen Seventies and Eighties. Underneath the U.S.-backed authorities, it was extra recognized for poor circumstances and overcrowding — its 11 cell blocks had been constructed to deal with 5,000 inmates, however had been usually filled with greater than 10,000, together with Taliban and criminals.
Taliban prisoners usually complained of abuses and beatings, and there have been common riots. Nonetheless, they stored up their group behind bars, successful concessions like entry to cell telephones and longer time outdoors their cells.
A few of the Taliban now guarding the positioning had been former inmates. The federal government guards have fled and don’t dare return, fearing reprisals. Although the power stays largely empty, one part holds round 60 folks imprisoned previously few weeks, who the guards mentioned had been principally accused criminals and drug addicts.