Once, Kabul’s main prison was crowded with thousands of Taliban captured and arrested by the govt . On Monday, a Taliban commander strolled through its empty halls and cell blocks, showing his friends where he had once been imprisoned.
It was a symbol of the sudden and startling new order in Afghanistan after the group swept into the capital nearly a month ago and threw out a crumbling, US-backed government it had fought for 20 years.
The Taliban now runs Pul-e-Charkhi Prison, a sprawling complex on Kabul’s eastern outskirts. After capturing the town , the fighters freed all the inmates there, the govt guards fled, and now dozens of Taliban fighters are running the power .
The commander, who refused to offer his name, was on a private visit to the complex with a gaggle of his friends. He said he had been arrested about 10 years ago in eastern Kunar province and was delivered to Pul-e-Charkhi, bound and blindfolded.
“I feel so terrible once I remember those days,” he said.
He said prisoners suffered abuses and torture. He was imprisoned for about 14 months before he was released. “Those days are the darkest days of my life, and now this the happiest moment on behalf of me that i’m free and are available here without worrying .”
Many Afghans also as governments round the world are alarmed by the swift Taliban seizure of power, fearing the movement will impose an identical , harsh rule as they did during their first time ruling within the 1990s.
But for the Taliban fighters, it’s a flash to savour a victory after years of gruelling fighting – and to ascertain a city few of them have entered since the war began.
Pul-e-Charkhi had an extended , disturbing history of violence, mass executions and torture. Mass graves and torture cells were uncovered dating from the Soviet-backed governments of the late 1970s and 1980s.
Under the US-backed government, it had been better known for poor conditions and overcrowding – its 11 cell blocks were built to deal with 5,000 inmates, but were often full of quite 10,000, including Taliban prisoners and criminals.
Taliban prisoners often complained of abuses and beatings, and there have been regular riots. Still, they maintained their organisation behind bars, winning concessions like access to mobile phones and longer time outside their cells.