In its day, Kabul’s main prison was packed with thousands of Taliban captured and arrested by the Afghan government. On Monday, a group commander was walking through its hallways and empty cells, showing his friends the place where he had been imprisoned.
It is a sign of the sudden and surprising new order in Afghanistan after the insurgent group’s rapid offensive broke into the capital almost a month ago and overthrew a weak, US-backed government, against which it had fought the last 20 years.
The Taliban now controls the Pul-i-Charkhi penitentiary, a huge complex on the eastern outskirts of Kabul. After taking the capital, the fighters released all the criminals, the government guards fled and now dozens of insurgents guard the center.
The commander, who refused to identify himself by name, was making a personal visit to the complex with a group of friends. He told AP that he was arrested about a decade ago in Kunar province in the east, and was taken to Pul-e-Charkhi tied up and blindfolded.
“I feel very bad when I remember those days,” he said, noting that the inmates were abused and tortured. He was imprisoned for about 14 months before being released. “These are the darkest days of my life, and now this is the happiest time for me because I am free and I come here without fear.”
Many Afghans, such as governments around the world, have been alarmed by the Taliban’s rapid rise to power for fear of imposing a government as severe as its first stage, in the 1990s. Pear for its fighters , it is time to savor victory after years of bloody struggle, and to see a city in which few of them had been since the beginning of the war.
For some of the Taliban guards accompanying the AP, it was the first time they had entered the abandoned cell blocks. They watched with curiosity some facilities that still kept what the last inmates left behind: fabrics hanging from walls and windows, small carpets, bottles of water.
A fighter changed his sandals for a better pair he found in one of the cells. And he repeated the operation when he came across another better one. Others played improvised weight bars by former tenants.
Pul-i-Charkhi has a long and disturbing history of violence, mass executions and torture. The mass graves and torture cells discovered date back to governments backed by the former Soviet Union in the late 1970s and 1980s. Under the Washington-backed executive, he was best known for his poor condition. and overcrowding: in its 11 blocks of cells, built to house 5,000 criminals, there were typically more than 10,000, including common Taliban fighters criminals.
The Taliban often complained of abuse and beatings and riots were common. However, they remained organized in prison, securing concessions such as mobile access and longer time outside the cubicles.
Some of the fighters who now guard the complex, were locked up there before. Government guards have fled and dare not return for fear of reprisals. Although the penitentiary is mostly empty, in one section there are about 60 people arrested in recent weeks for common crimes and drug addiction, the new guards explained.