Coming out of a Taliban prison, a person takes out only his body, his soul remains there.
Author: Salar Azadi, source: panjshirnews. com
A Taliban prison where no one distinguishes between truth and falsehood, human status and dignity are not important, and wherever you are in its dark and scary premises, guards use whips, red-hot skewers, electric shocks, nail pulling, and other types of torture to destroy your spirit and get recognition. Whiplashes, electric shocks, and red-hot skewer are so terrible that sometimes it makes a person admit what he did not do.
These prisons are so scary that every prisoner has heartbreaking and scary stories about them. In this material, I am writing the story of a prisoner who, despite dozens of types of torture, also experienced a “burning skewer” and for him this horror is unforgettable.
Syed Ahmad [pseudonym] is a Panjshir resident who spent five months in a Taliban prison and has a painful and harrowing history of the terrorist group's horrendous and inhuman behavior in prisons. He starts his story so:
- After graduating from an Islamic school, I underwent military training at the educational center of the National Security Administration, and after completing this course, I began working in one of the divisions of this administration. After some time, the Republican system fell. After the fall of the Republic and the beginning of the rule of the Taliban, I continued my normal life with my family in the Kalai Fathullah district of Kabul City. Hoping for a general amnesty from the Taliban, I had no idea that I was under threat and persecution by them. Little by little, this persecution became more and more serious. The Taliban called me many times and threatened me with imprisonment and arrest. They wanted me to come to them myself. At first, I did not take their threats seriously, because I was not guilty and did not belong to any anti-Taliban movement.
Contrary to what I thought, at 4:30 am on a Monday morning in the month of July 2022, the Taliban attacked our house. When I heard the noise of the Taliban, I looked out of the window of our house and saw at least seven militants on the street armed with M4 and Kalashnikov assault rifles. They all kept their fingers on the trigger as if they were on the front line. They surrounded the house.
The situation was terrible. My wife and children were horrified. Because of the fear of the Taliban, they were confused, crying, and trembling. I told my wife: “Take care of the children and don't be afraid. I will find a way to escape." I fled through a place that was not covered by the Taliban. Then the Taliban could not arrest me.
After several days of running around, I returned home. I decided to move to another house to get rid of this group. Finally, after a few days, I changed my place of residence. Three months later, the Taliban found my new address, and in one of their operations, they arrested me in Qal'ai Fathullah at 2:00 pm. When I was arrested, the Taliban immediately started beating me. While I was being taken to the Security Department of the city of Kabul, on the way they insulted me with the most vile words, kicked me, and beat me with the butt of a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
When I got to the Kabul City Security Department, I was tortured from half past three until midnight. I was arrested on charges of collaboration with the National Resistance Front and possession of 40 weapons. But I never collaborated with the Resistance Front and did not know about weapons. Therefore, it was difficult for me to confess contrary to the truth. With repeated torture and psychological pressure, they did not achieve anything from me, and they took a break for a few minutes.
Then, once again, they poured water over my body, and three Taliban mercilessly beat me on the body with rubber whips, no matter how much they whipped me, beat me with electric current, beat them with fists and kicks, I did not confess.
The next morning, two Taliban approached me and took me to the interrogation room (the place where they tortured me). I bled. Although I could neither speak nor walk, I was still tortured and mercilessly beaten with a rubber whip. Two people hit my body so hard that I lost consciousness again. They grabbed my legs and dragged me out of the interrogation and torture room.
I endured all these painful hardships and did not confess, because what was charged against me did not correspond to reality. My stamina infuriated them. They again took me to the same dark room. The two Taliban again started beating me with a rubber whip. It seemed to me that my body was dividing into parts. They were not satisfied with the whip, because the more they beat me with it, the more they became furious and acted more cruelly.
They left the whips. One of them said to the other in Pashto: “Za sikh la gas sara rovra” and brought into the room a skewer with one gas cylinder. They burned the skewer with gas and stuck it to my body. My flesh and skin stuck together as if they were "welding" metal.
In the early days, I was severely tortured. In the early days, I was severely tortured. They continuously tortured me for a month, but after a month they stopped torturing me. I was transferred to a room for other prisoners, most of whom were residents of Andarab and Panjshir. Each of them had different stories about torture and crimes that happened to them.
I was in Taliban custody for 5 months without guilt and without committing any crime.
I was in Taliban custody for 5 months innocently and without committing any crime. Dozens of people were detained every day on charges of collaboration with the Resistance Front, possession of weapons, and various other pretexts. Everyone was publicly tortured, even some of them died from torture and electric shock.
I was released from the Taliban prison after 5 months with a big guarantee, but I am still mentally in prison and have lost my sense of mental and physical peace.
