Bomb blasts and suicide attacks were quite regular in Jalalabad city but now the Taliban were not responsible for the attacks and it was their duty now to stop the blasts. The Taliban security is quite good in comparison to the previous government setting up random check points around the city and rotating them in different positions. They also use a lot of people on the ground to report suspicious activities back to them.
We paid a visit to the intelligence department of the Taliban in Jalalabad and met Dr Basheer. It seemed like New York Times and Washington Post were also keen with interviews. Hollie stood her ground on wanting our interview private so all the other journalists had to wait outside. We chatted for over an hour and a half and I guess the other journalists were pretty pissed off and wondered what was so important for the Intelligence chief to yap on for ages.
We asked him to define IS-K. He told us he calls them “Bag Li” or Rebels instead of IS-K. You have ex military unit from the Afghan National Army, the Popular Militia groups that resisted the Taliban just before the fall and ex Taliban groups that fell out group and became IS-K wanting hard extremist Sharia law.
In comparison to ISIS or areas ruled by Al Nusra Front, The Taliban have be accomodating to the rules. Women’s rights and Music probably beared the brunt at the start of them being in power. DJs play at weddings though and live music was banned. People still listened to music on the radio. Even talibs listened to songs on headphones on their phones.
The hardest rule was education for girls from grade 6 to 10. School for them were closed except in 12 provinces out of 34. The Taliban always offered to correct it, saying the girls needed private transport as an excuse. Private schools were open though to girls and women and we had seen it with our own eyes plenty of women attending private school and tuition in Kandahar.
Women always had the rough end of the stick though even before the Islamic Emirate and it not about Islam or Sharia law. It was more so cultural and this was a male dominated country and you had to be the top bread winner in the family than your wife here. It was considered a shame. In my first year living here, I worked for TOLO television and we had a female colleague Needa who worked on marketing and finances on the tv show I worked on.
She was educated and smart and unfortunately arranged married to a country bumpkin who never finished high school. He demanded more money out of our boss to continue having her employed which my boss flatly refused. Being sent to the village depressed her and numerous times she tried to flee. Finally she ended her life in defiance of being locked up. I have many stories like this over the time of living in Afghanistan. But I say this and you do meet wonderful fathers who appreciate their daughters going to school, even moving provinces to one where their daughters can attend school.
The Taliban don’t really want you to report on IS-K stories but it more so the Talibs on the ground appreciate you in one piece. Saying that we still went along to the village where the Americans had hit a IS-K commander at his home after the bombing of the Americans at the airport evacuation. The place had eerie vibes to it.
Some villagers came out and showed us where the bombing happened. One of the guys actually witness the event and had a crazy green light target him from above and then left as he approached the building. Later on he explained that IS-K members came and took weapons and stuff that were buried in the ground. Afghan TV networks came to the site and he was on tv talking about what he saw. IS-K sent him letters saying they would punish him for talking to the press. He feared for his life and fled to Jalalabad and still hopes one day he can leave the country.
The guy showed me the house, we could remove one of the bricks in the wall and see inside. The targeting was precise infact with every little external damage to the house. Where he was killed was precisely where the weapons were stashed. Apparently the commander had wives who came out of the house screaming and terrified for their lives.
After that we were told IS-K infact lived not so far away and come out at night when the Taliban are gone patrolling. Kinda made me feel quite uneasy and figured, let’s get out of this sundown town. Hollie and Naweed felt it too so we got into the car and headed back home.
We came back another time to the area on rumours of Taliban heads in a canal. The villagers about collaborated the stories and also civilians being beheaded as well or taken away by IS-K.
None of this I had seen but they seemed like real graphic stories of gruesome murders
It just seemed like one fucked up town and felt sorry the Taliban and the civilians that had to deal with such savagery.
We drove all the way back to Kabul trying to understand the IS-K mindset. It didn’t make sense the beheadings as during the many years of war, decapitation wasn’t really an Afghan thing to do. Would there be continual war in this country? I could only hope not.