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Kandahar, Afghanistan —— Last week, Kawsar Sama and her family packed their bags and boarded a flight to the capital Kabul. For the 21-year-old and her family, life in the southern city of Kandahar has become dangerous in recent weeks as the Taliban have entered the periphery of Afghanistan’s second largest city.
“It’s too risky for people to send their children to school. You only go to the market if you have to, and even so, many shops will be closed. Life has stopped,” said Sama in the temporary residence of his family in Kabul.
Although she said that the Taliban had not yet entered the city center, the fighting had spread to various areas. Residents interviewed by Al Jazeera said that this made them feel trapped and worried that the Taliban might arrive at any time.
For the Taliban, it would be a huge victory to take full control of a city with hundreds of thousands of people a month before the final withdrawal of foreign troops led by the United States, but for the Kandahari, this kind of preoccupied thinking is one. Nightmare.
23-year-old Navid Amini (Navid Amini) has spent his entire life in Kandahar, but he said he has never seen what happened in the province in recent weeks.
On July 13, 2021, in the rescue mission of a police besieged at a checkpoint in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, members of the Afghan special forces regroup after a fierce conflict with the Taliban [File: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters]‘This is chaos’
Like Samar, Amini said that every attack by the Taliban in the surrounding area will exacerbate people’s fears.
“There is war in the whole city,” Amini said over the phone in Kandahar. On Wednesday, residents told Al Jazeera that fighting had taken place in four different areas and the Taliban had occupied an important commercial building.
Last week, Human Rights Watch released a Report The Taliban are accused of immediately rounding up and executing people believed to work for the government and members of the Afghan National Security Forces.
The Human Rights Watch report was released after the United Nations warned all parties to the conflict that they were “tracking many allegations of harm to civilians in the province.”
UNAMA reminds all parties of their obligation to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians. Fighting in urban areas poses great risks to civilians.Increasing concerns about civilians affected by the war #Kandaha. UNAMA is tracking many allegations of harm to civilians.
-UNAMA News (@UNAMAnews) July 22, 2021
The Taliban said it “categorically rejected” these allegations, which it called “propaganda.”
The team went on to say: “We invite all humanitarian and international organizations and the media to visit Spinboldak. We will facilitate their travel and let them prove when and where someone was killed?”
Durmuhammad, 42 years old, does not believe the Taliban. He said that his nephew Ahmadullah was once a member of the police and he was taken away on the night more than a week ago. There has been no news from him since.
Mohammad said that when they first took over the Spin Boldak district earlier this month, the family was deceived by the organization.
He said they sent letters to anyone who had cooperated with the government or foreign military forces that they would not be harmed as long as they reported to the leadership and admitted their “crimes.”
“So, we told him to come back. He was fine for four days, and then they took him away one night, and we haven’t heard from him ever since.”
‘Tell us where the roof is’
However, as the war between the two sides intensified, the possibility of going to these areas is increasing.
Earlier this month, the award-winning Reuters photojournalist Denmark Siddiqui, Killed in a crossfire At the same time working with the Afghan National Security Forces in Spin Bordak. The government blamed the Taliban for his killing on July 16.
But the government has also taken worrying action against journalists trying to report from embattled areas.
On Tuesday, it was reported that the Afghan government In custody Four reporters tried to enter the Spin Boldak district on the border with Pakistan.
The Ministry of the Interior accuses reporters working for local radio and television stations of “propaganda” for “enemy”.
Amnesty International calls for immediate release Reporter. “These reporters returned from Spinboldak district after investigating civilian casualties. We call for their release,” the human rights organization tweeted.
Afghanistan: We are concerned that the National Security Agency has detained four journalists in Kandahar since yesterday. These reporters returned from Spinboldak district after investigating civilian casualties. We call for their release. https://t.co/bfeMDKMWh4
— Amnesty International South Asia (@amnestysasia) July 27, 2021
However, Samar said, it is not necessary to travel far to hear the cruelty of the Taliban.
“Even in the suburbs of the city, they will come to people’s homes, take what they want, and drive the whole family out of the house.”
21-year-old Zainab said her home was only 20 minutes away from the city and was recently attacked by the Taliban.
“When they rushed in, we were all women at home, and they said,’Don’t worry, we won’t do anything to you. Just tell us where the roof is.'”
Zainab said the fighters rushed directly to the roof, where they began to use rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) and rockets to fire on buildings belonging to the police. She said that their home has become the target of firefights between the warring parties.
An Afghan security officer stands guard on a highway in Kandahar [Javed Tanveer/AFP]‘This is a dark place for everyone’
Amini said that in the Milvis Mina community, 15 minutes away from the city, residents have noticed a change in Taliban’s behavior.
“They are not the same as the Taliban two weeks ago,” Amini’s friends told him that even in the last few days, the nature of the Taliban has changed.
The most worrying thing is that combatants were seen digging and laying electrical wires on the ground around main roads and civilian areas.
“They dug bombs underground. It’s obvious that civilians can’t even cross a metre to a safer place,” Amini said.
The picture shows that after the Afghan internally displaced family arrived in the Kandahar refugee camp, they fled the outskirts of the city due to ongoing fighting between Taliban fighters and the Afghan security forces [Javed Tanveer/AFP]A recent United Nations report found that the number of civilian casualties caused by the use of improvised explosive devices has tripled. According to the United Nations, 501 civilians were killed by improvised explosive devices in the first six months of 2021, and 1,457 others were injured.
In recent weeks, the exchange of fire has also become the main cause of casualties in the province.
“The Taliban and the government have killed people, whether wrongly or deliberately, they have killed people,” Amini said of the reasons that led thousands of civilians to flee their homes.
A camp in the city now houses more than 22,000 internally displaced persons from neighboring regions and provinces. In total, as many as 150,000 people have been displaced due to the war in the rural areas of Kandahar.
Nasir Ahmad, 24, said his brother, sister-in-law and mother were shot and killed by people he believed to be Taliban fighters.
“They were shot on a street motorcycle when they cross-fired against my brother,” Ahmed told Al Jazeera. “My mother was hit in the stomach. My brother had a bullet wound in the back, and his wife was injured in the chest.”
Amini, 23, said that the current situation has changed his view of the city he has called home all his life.
“I see children screaming and old women crying. Everything a young man shouldn’t see. This is a dark place for everyone. This is not where you want to live.”
Abdul Martin Amiri reported from Kandahar. Ali M Latifi is from Kabul.
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