The screams and prayers at full strength cannot make us forget the unprecedented humanitarian crisis and economic collapse
“Kabul did not fall into the hands of the Taliban, Kabul was liberated by the Taliban,” Zazai Rashedm, a staunch 24-year-old Islamist, corrected the foreign journalist amid the crowd gathered outside the doors of the US embassy. A year later. After the Americans lower their flags and evacuate personnel to the airport, hundreds of fighters and supporters of the Islamist movement celebrate their victory at the gates of the legation. It is a moment of euphoria because “it is a holy day when all mujahideen (holy warriors) should remember the important victory over the enemy after two decades of fighting,” says one of the fighters, a pistol on his belt and Ak47. on the shoulder. The old roundabout Ahmad Sha Masoud, a national hero who declined after the regime change, is now a sea of white flags of the emirate for the legation of the great enemy.
Some arrive on foot with banners in hand, most aboard trucks or armored military vehicles bought by the United States for the now-defunct Afghan military. The cry rises above walls now adorned with the shahada (Islamic declaration of faith) and various anti-American slogans. August 15 will be a holiday in the Afghan national calendar, but the most purists would rather wait for September 1, as “that is the date the last infidel left our country,” says a follower of the group, who is unarmed and from the Netherlands. arrives. Wardak province.
The euphoria of the Taliban experienced at that time spreads through the streets of the city through the vehicles flying at full volume with religious prayers. It’s a mirage. As soon as the Taliban leave, silence returns. Kabul is empty and it seems that the citizens do not have much to celebrate on this day. There is fear of possible attacks by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) and above all there is no zeal for the Islamists. What no one can forget are the moments of absolute desperation experienced the same day and the next at the international airport. Tens of thousands of people risked their lives to escape from those who now rule the country. Loud screams and prayers cannot hold back memories and are not enough to cover up the unprecedented humanitarian crisis and economic collapse.
Taliban militants now wear uniforms inherited from the former security forces they once fought against. Nasratullah, the fictitious name he asks us to use to introduce him, was part of the special forces and fought the Taliban all over the country for five years. Now he lives in absolute anonymity, helplessly attending the celebrations of the people he had to arrest and kill.
“The Taliban are trying to show the world that they managed to bring security back to the country this year and that before everything was a disaster and many more people died. What happens is that they were the ones who attacked civilians, security forces, bridges and highways and now they are the ones in charge,” explains the ex-serviceman from a safe spot on the outskirts of the capital. He recalls the night operations in the southern provinces, the great bastions of the insurgency and the code they applied in battle: “In revenge for one of our wounded, we killed five Taliban and for a dead friend we killed fifteen. .”
He becomes enraged when he remembers how the enemy was able to take over the country’s 34 provinces one after the other with little resistance and enter Kabul in a sort of triumphant walk. “They betrayed us from above. From the top of the government to the governors and police chiefs, everyone was in cahoots with the Taliban and each was looking after their interests, not Afghanistan’s. From one day to the next we were without air support, without ammunition supply, they left us alone,” laments this former member of the special forces. Like the rest of the armed forces, he does not trust the Taliban and has never approached them to try to rejoin the army.
He keeps two photos of his uniformed past on his phone, that’s all. One of them corresponds to the operation in which they managed to arrest Anas Haqqani, the brother of the current interior minister. “It was a great success, we found one of the great commanders, but then the Americans released him in a prisoner exchange,” he says, still hurt by this decision. When we talk about the United States, I think of the war in Ukraine and he warns that “they will do the same with the Ukrainians as with us, they will use them as long as it serves their interests and then they will put them in the hands of the enemy like us”.
As the Taliban continue their celebrations on the streets of Kabul, in many homes like Naratullah’s, they simply want the international community to never recognize this government because “the brutality won’t stop growing.”
Source: La Verdad
I am an experienced and passionate journalist with a strong track record in news website reporting. I specialize in technology coverage, breaking stories on the latest developments and trends from around the world. Working for Today Times Live has given me the opportunity to write thought-provoking pieces that have caught the attention of many readers.
