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Kabul, Afghanistan – Residents of Herat and Kandahar said they could not believe that the two cities fell so quickly after the Taliban captured the two largest cities in Afghanistan for several weeks.
“They really betrayed us and there was no government resistance,” a female resident in Kandahar told Al Jazeera, holding back tears on Thursday night.
“I never thought that Kandahar would be so easily occupied,” she said. At that time, the Taliban stepped up their offensive after the United States began its final withdrawal from Afghanistan. When the Taliban raged in various regions, Afghans across the country expressed the same view. Power from the country.
Supporters of the local anti-Taliban militia in the western city of Herat, known as an “insurgent force”, agreed.
“In fact, all these places have been handed over. Note: Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif will be next,” he said, referring to the last two big cities that are still in the hands of the government.
Since August 6, the Taliban have controlled 18 of Afghanistan’s 34 capital cities.
In the week after the Taliban occupied the first provincial capital, no government officials, including President Ashraf Ghani, publicly admitted that they had lost a province.
For many people, Fall back to back On Thursday, the country’s second and third largest cities, Kandahar and Herat, were a turning point in the increasingly fierce fighting between the Kabul government and Taliban forces.
“I still can’t believe how this happened,” said a Herat government official who currently lives in Kabul.
The first official day of Taliban control in Herat and Kandahar also aroused curiosity.
A resident of Herat said that early on Friday morning, people went out to “see the Taliban”. Online videos show hordes of people gathering on the street to see a group of people they have never seen in the city in 20 years.
In Kandahar, a young man in his 20s said that the organization was in a celebratory atmosphere, firing bullets into the air to show its success.
Taliban harassment
But a reporter in Kandahar said that the celebration did not last long and the organization soon began harassing residents and attacking houses.
“They go from door to door asking who lives there, if so and so who is part of the security forces or the government, is there,” the reporter said. He added that when they came to his home they thought the government representative was living there.
He is now hiding in another part of the city; fearing that he will also be targeted by working in a shop near a foreign military base before working with the media.
These searches not only evoke memories of the Taliban’s five-year rule, but also evoke the communist practice of breaking into people’s homes to find any evidence that the Marxist government found guilty in the 1970s.
“My uncle told us to hide anything that irritated them because they checked their houses and kept checking other houses,” said a young man in Kandahar, whose family just wanted to avoid getting people’s attention.
A resident said that the group searched their home and confiscated all guns and vehicles.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Kandahar residents said that the attacks were mainly on people suspected of being members of the government, but people living near potential targets were also worried about their homes being searched.
“I think they have very strong intelligence and a true list,” a resident worried about angering the organization did not leave their home in the city.
Another Kandahari youth described the organization’s behavior more simply: “They are the same Taliban that I cursed all my life.”
In Herat, the story is surprisingly similar. After a brief celebration, armed groups began looking for people who were reportedly included in the list of influential people and government workers.
A politician living in Kabul, far from Herat’s family, said she was worried that the organization would find her family in the city and target them.
“All night, I just thought about our house, my father, my mother, what if they are taken away because of me?”
As the organization’s actions in the city continue to reflect what happened in the area a few weeks ago, even those who want to flee cannot do it. Flights in and out of these two cities have been grounded, and there is no resumption date yet.
At night, the Taliban returned to a joyous atmosphere, as it once again celebrated its victory in Kandahar with celebratory gunfire.
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