Kabul-Akrami, a 36-year-old Kabul resident, heard that in early March that the Taliban might appear on the door soon. They have conducted a search operation in the eastern part of Kabul, and he suspected that he might be a target because the 15 years he spent working at the government’s supported government agent. He remembered that he hoped them to arrive at his home in one or two days. Instead, they appeared in front of the door one hour later. When he opened the door, he saw a dozen members of the Taliban heading towards him.
Akrami said the people rushed into his house without permission and demanded that he would surrender whatever weapons he had before looking for his house.
I told the Taliban interrogators that I worked in the Civil Department – I did not store military weapons or equipment,” said Akrami, who spoke with Buzzfeed News on the condition that his full name and the institution where he worked were not printed for security reasons.
Many Afghan residents are worried that the newly formed Taliban government uses war in Ukraine as a closing to carry out search operations from door to door that is aggressive in and around major cities in the country. “The Taliban killed us one by one,” Homeira Qaderi, an Afghan female rights activist, wrote on Twitter. “The world is preoccupied with the Ukraine crisis. We have been lowered to the back burner.
Buzzfeed News spoke to three Afghan citizens in Kabul and in Kandahar Province who said that they had witnessed or subject to an impromptu search by the Taliban in recent weeks.
Describing the purpose of a new search operation -new, Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said in a press conference that the goal was to catch criminals, and that “two teenagers were saved from kidnappers and the perpetrators were arrested.”
For many Afghanists throughout the country, the fear and anxiety of war never disappeared. In nine months since the Taliban sweeping power through military power, the life for ordinary civilians in the country has grown far worse. The country’s health care infrastructure has collapsed, which leads to a surge in premature birth and infant mortality rate, and post-war recovery efforts have struggled under economic recession, diplomatic isolation, and stable reports on human rights violations. The United Nations reported that they received credible accusations that more than 100 former members of the Afghan government, members of the Afghan security and defense forces, and those who worked with international forces were killed after the takeover in August.
The Taliban has closed 318 media outlets, according to a survey conducted by the Afghan National Journalist Union. As part of the US peace agreement – Taliban, the Taliban has committed to allowing all girls to go to school, but then resign and announce that they will not let girls go to school outside sixth grade.
But while the Taliban is known for their radical way of governing, the increasing prevalence of search operations marks escalation that has triggered panic among the community.
In January, the Taliban raided an apartment in Kabul and arrested several activists of women’s rights that had participated in the parade in the Capital City. Activists spend a few weeks in custody and are then released thanks to pressure from the international community.
During another search in early March, the Taliban captured Sayed Baqir Mohseni, a university professor who was a loyal critic of the regime from Kabul. He was moved to an unknown location and was not heard for three nights. Mohseni’s arrest triggered anger among Afghan people on Twitter. “You cannot die limply those who try to say the truth,” said an activist in Kabul, Shaima, who spoke to Buzzfeed News on anonymity condition. Mohseni was released after two days, then described his detention as a misunderstanding” in the media.