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Taliban raid homes, begin forced enrolment
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Taliban raid homes, begin forced enrolment Ian Traynor (Denau, September 25)
The Taliban press gang arrived in their Datsun pickups in the small hours of Sunday morning, striking terror into every family in a block of flats in north Kabul. On the fifth floor Wahidullah, a 30-year-old ethnic Tajik, comforted his two children and looked on fearfully as the building was shaken by the howling and shrieking of mothers and sisters. The gunmen moved through the first few floors of the block, seizing all males aged between 18 and 30 and dragging them away, the hostages were told, to fight America. "That was when I decided to leave. I thought they were going to take me too," said Wahidullah on Monday, after a 12-hour trek with his family out of Kabul to the other side of the lines in Afghanistan's civil war. Caked in dust, his 18-month-old sobbing in the open back of the jeep carrying 14 people, Wahidullah recounted how the Taliban fighters turned up in 50 vehicles and started hauling men from their beds. Taliban militia have been staging raids at night on the district's homes, dragging the men away to fight for them on the frontline, to get ready to defend the city against US attacks, to be thrown into jail, or to be held as hostages and perhaps human shields. "Four days ago they began to hold people hostage," explained Mohamad Hossain, 30, who arrived in Denau village on Monday with his wife, five children, and niece. "They jail people, then keep them as hostages, because they have many soldiers captive and want to exchange them." The traumatised refugees all told similar tales of panic in the streets of Kabul. Around 100 of the fugitives came through, braving brigands and bombs, and carrying babies on foot for hours across no man's land before being fleeced by "taxi drivers" waiting on the other side to pack them into cars and ferry them to the Panjsheer Valley. The fugitives' harrowing accounts offered an insight into how the Taliban has already begun a campaign of enforced enrolment. It was clear from their stories that the round-ups started late last week and mark a new stage in the reign of terror in Kabul. "My name is Dina," said an 11-year-old girl with black pigtails perched on a Jeep. She was born in Kabul and has never lived anywhere else. But at 4 am on Monday, her father, Abdulhamid, 45, a quiet man who tans leather and trades in sheepskins, rushed the family of 11 into exodus. "I felt danger, I was afraid. It's getting worse," said Dina. "Many people are leaving. They are running for their cars," said her father. "I'd say 10,000 people are leaving Kabul every day. The Taliban are taking all the young men during the night" It is not only the ethnic Tajiks who are fleeing. Refugees said the Taliban were sending their families out of the city in expectation of US strikes, to the southern Taliban heartland. (Guardian News Service) OTHER
The Taliban press gang arrived in their Datsun pickups in the small hours of Sunday morning, striking terror into every family in a block of flats in north Kabul. On the fifth floor Wahidullah, a 30-year-old ethnic Tajik, comforted his two children and looked on fearfully as the building was shaken by the howling and shrieking of mothers and sisters. The gunmen moved through the first few floors of the block, seizing all males aged between 18 and 30 and dragging them away, the hostages were told, to fight America. "That was when I decided to leave. I thought they were going to take me too," said Wahidullah on Monday, after a 12-hour trek with his family out of Kabul to the other side of the lines in Afghanistan's civil war. Caked in dust, his 18-month-old sobbing in the open back of the jeep carrying 14 people, Wahidullah recounted how the Taliban fighters turned up in 50 vehicles and started hauling men from their beds. Taliban militia have been staging raids at night on the district's homes, dragging the men away to fight for them on the frontline, to get ready to defend the city against US attacks, to be thrown into jail, or to be held as hostages and perhaps human shields. "Four days ago they began to hold people hostage," explained Mohamad Hossain, 30, who arrived in Denau village on Monday with his wife, five children, and niece. "They jail people, then keep them as hostages, because they have many soldiers captive and want to exchange them." The traumatised refugees all told similar tales of panic in the streets of Kabul. Around 100 of the fugitives came through, braving brigands and bombs, and carrying babies on foot for hours across no man's land before being fleeced by "taxi drivers" waiting on the other side to pack them into cars and ferry them to the Panjsheer Valley. The fugitives' harrowing accounts offered an insight into how the Taliban has already begun a campaign of enforced enrolment. It was clear from their stories that the round-ups started late last week and mark a new stage in the reign of terror in Kabul. "My name is Dina," said an 11-year-old girl with black pigtails perched on a Jeep. She was born in Kabul and has never lived anywhere else. But at 4 am on Monday, her father, Abdulhamid, 45, a quiet man who tans leather and trades in sheepskins, rushed the family of 11 into exodus. "I felt danger, I was afraid. It's getting worse," said Dina. "Many people are leaving. They are running for their cars," said her father. "I'd say 10,000 people are leaving Kabul every day. The Taliban are taking all the young men during the night" It is not only the ethnic Tajiks who are fleeing. Refugees said the Taliban were sending their families out of the city in expectation of US strikes, to the southern Taliban heartland. (Guardian News Service) OTHER
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