The Taliban have used new methods of financial, administrative, national theft, and moral decay.
Author: Atiqullah Atiq Hiravi, independent journalist (Afghanistan)
The Taliban, who in the first days of coming to power with the help of the United States, criticized the former corrupt officials and the fifth column of the corrupt republic for unprecedented financial and administrative corruption, themselves have invented new methods of corruption, bribery, and sexual assault, which their predecessors - the corrupt republicans - could not even imagine. Until now, they use religious terms "tithe" and "zakat" to extort money from people.
There are reports from the provinces of Kabul, Balkh, Kandahar, Herat, and others that under the pretext of preventing the growth of drug addiction in the country, the Taliban have organized drug treatment camps near the centers of large provinces. They attract millions of dollars in aid from foreign institutions to cover their expenses. However, the drug addicts are given dry bread for a whole day. The income from each person in these camps is from 1.5 to 2 million Afghanis (1 Afghani is about 1.5 dollars) for the Taliban. For example, under the name of drug addicts, they take rich people from the city, teenagers, etc., keep them in the camp for weeks, and then release them after taking a bribe or bullying them.
Last week, on Thursday, Yasir, son of Wahidullah, from the 9th district of Herat city, who was with his friends in Dahanae Kamare Kalogh for fun, was detained as a drug addict and sent to the camp. According to Yasser, on the same day, about 200 more young people from Herat, including doctors, engineers, graduates of Herat universities, schoolchildren, as well as businessmen and traders who went to have fun, were detained in Dahanae Kamare Kalogh, Takhte Safir, Baghe Azadi, etc. The Taliban took them all to a camp. After a fake test, they were told that you are drug addicts, you must stay and be treated in this camp for 3 months. This is how the Taliban force people to pay bribes and save their sons from their clutches.
According to Yasser, his father paid a bribe of 22 thousand Afghanis to the guards of the drug treatment camp for his release, and a week later was released. Children of families who are not drug addicts, but do not have the financial means, spend weeks in stinking and lice-infested camps.
According to another source, the people of Afghanistan suffer from all sorts of disasters under the rule of the Taliban group. Now from Herat to Kabul, there are 15 weight control points for cars and bicycles, and at each point, you need to pay one hundred afghani. Previously, there were three points. And the term of each receipt lasted 24 hours, and now there is no term: you will pay at all points. And all these weight controls, in addition to the official payment, also take bribes.
Also, each car traveling on the Salang-Kabul highway and to the north of the country must pay one hundred afghani on each side. This has never happened in the history of Afghanistan. The entire burden will fall on the taxi driver, who will be forced to collect from ordinary people. Also, under various pretexts, the Taliban collect money from passengers. For example, bread should be bought in a Taliban bakery with a small weight and twice as expensive as in the market.
Another report from one of the provinces states that the Taliban are moving female prisoners from the women's prison to their rest areas at night and raping them. The victims do not want to make their rape public because of their family reputation.
Another report is that the government posts for the Taliban are inherited in the name of the group itself, i.e. the Taliban group, ethnic, linguistic, party, gender, professional, i.e. the mullahs and the Taliban, etc., and very little change is made in their power structure.
An example is the head of the Herat electricity grid, against whom all sorts of documented complaints have been made about his obvious corruption and wealth accumulation. Electricity is often cut off due to his negligence. He cheats on the people of Herat in various ways, using false bills and in the name of the state. People are unhappy and do not know who to turn to. They have not had electricity for several days now. And they have suffered many losses from food spoilage and other things. But the head of the power grid doesn't care. In a short time, he acquired all sorts of wealth, real estate, shops, and currency exchange offices in Herat, Kushke Rabate Sangi, Islam Qala, Kabul, Helmand, Kandahar, Iranian Mashhad, and, of course, Pakistan. Corruption made him a millionaire, but the Islamic Emirate never held him accountable.
