KABUL (AP) – At one point, Kabul’s main prison was filled with thousands of Taliban civilians who had been arrested and detained by the government. On Monday, a Taliban leader walked into his empty hall, showing his friends where he had already been arrested.
This was a sign of an emergency and shocking plan in Afghanistan after the military stormed the capital about a month ago and overthrew the US-dominated government that had been in power for 20 years.
The Taliban are now fleeing Pul-e-Charkhi Prison, a small area east of Kabul. After capturing the city, the freedom fighters released all the prisoners there, government guards fled, and now many Taliban insurgents are patrolling the area.
The director, who declined to be named, was on a tour of the area with a group of friends. He told The Associated Press that he was arrested about ten years ago in eastern Kunar and was brought to Pul-e-Charkhi, where he was arrested and handcuffed.
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“I feel pain when I remember those days,” he said. He also said that prisoners were being tortured and tortured. He was arrested about 14 months before his release. “Those days are the hardest days of my life, and this is a time of great joy for me that I am free and coming here without fear.”
Many Afghans and governments around the world have feared the immediate overthrow of the Taliban, fearing that the group will impose a more equitable, more stringent law as they first commanded in the 1990s. But for the Taliban freedom fighters, it is a moment to feel the victory after years of victory – and I see only a handful of cities have been in since the war began.
For some Taliban guards who accompanied the AP, it was the first time they had entered the abandoned rooms. They stare intently at the cells, still with the things that the last prisoners left behind – curtains for the walls and windows, small stools, water bottles.
A soldier exchanged his shoes with two who found him in a cell. Then he found two good ones and exchanged them. Others played with the heavy bars of ancient prisons.
Pul-e-Charkhi had a long, turbulent history of violence, mass killings and torture. Large cemeteries and torture cells were discovered from Soviet-backed governments in the late 1970s and 1980s. , but they were often packed with more than 10,000, including the Taliban and terrorists.
Taliban inmates often complain of torture and beatings, and there are frequent riots. However, they kept their organization back, gaining access to phones and long hours outside their cells.
Some of the Taliban who now control the area were former prisoners. Government guards fled and did not dare to return, for fear that they might be returned. Although the site remains vacant, one section holds about 60 people arrested in the past few weeks, with security guards saying they were being prosecuted and taking drugs.