Since August 2021, the Taliban group has imprisoned thousands of citizens of the country for various pretexts. Most of these prisoners are former government affiliates (security employees, army soldiers and national police). Many civilians, particularly youths have been arrested on charges of collaborating with the National Resistance Front (NRF) and armed groups fighting against this terror group. Relatives of prisoners imprisoned in Taliban intelligence detention centers complain about the “extremely painful situation” of the prisoners. According to them, the prison cells are so overcrowded with no facilities, adding that Taliban has set a schedule on sleeping time for the prisoners as all the prisoners cannot be placed to sleep at the same time. In addition, the prisoners are being tortured and severely beaten by the jailors three times a day.
According to the prisoners’ relatives, those who are imprisoned at the 40-intelligence directorate are tortured three times a day instead of three-time meals a day.
The relatives narrate the Taliban gives only one meal a day to the detainees and these prisoners do not have access to healthy drinking water either. Beating, torturing, lack of access to health services, and suffering from mental problems are some of the very common issues that prisoners face in Taliban prison.
Based on relatives’ narrations, the smelly rooms and the deplorable condition of the toilets make death more desirable than living in the prison of the Taliban. According to the sources, the number of prisoners in a cell is so large that they sleep in turns so that they can stretch their arms and legs. The prisoners still say that no human rights institutions monitor their situations.
Hasht-e Subh has also published reports about the narratives of the detainees. Those who were allowed to talk to their prisoners from behind bars during the days of Eid al-Adha do not dare to talk to the media for fear of further interrogation and torture by the Taliban.
One of those whose relatives are imprisoned in the 40 intelligence departments of the Taliban, has agreed to talk with Hasht-e Subh on the condition that his name should not be disclosed and we refer to him in this report as “Narrator”.
After months of waiting, the narrator got the opportunity to visit one of the prisoners. He narrates that he was able to talk to the prisoner through the hole of a cell.
This source says that the Taliban took one of his relatives from his house months ago without informing the district attorney and his relatives. The family of this prisoner referred to every authority but did not receive a response. The narrator searched all the districts of Kabul one by one until finally, he got the clue that the prisoner is in the 40 Intelligence Directorate of the Taliban..
The source said: “We didn’t have much chance to talk; he only said that we are tortured three times a day and they give us food only time in 24 hours. Most of our friends have become sick, and they have developed mental problems. There are also those who have been imprisoned for ten months, but they have not seen their family members and their crime is not yet known.” This narrator adds, quoting the prisoner that their toilets are not cleaned and their rooms smell very bad in addition to dampness.
Other sources have told Hasht-e Subh that the Taliban in the 90 and 40 directorates do not know how to arrange the files and transfer the cases to the court.
The source said: “It’s been ten months since our loved ones have been in the 40 directorates. Their cases are neither processed, nor the prisoners are being released. They are in an uncertain fate.”
The source further said that most of the prisoners do not have written files, criminal records, previous duties, types of trouble, reasons for the obligation and reasons of innocence.
Sources told Hasht-e Subh that thousands of people are currently in Taliban detention centers, but the actual figures have not been reported yet. According to these sources, the number of prisoners is so high that the Taliban have built several prisons in Kabul.
According to them, currently, there are thousands of prisoners in Pul-e-Charkhi, Qasaba, the former monitoring house of the Kabul Police Command and in the 40 and 90 Intelligence Directorates of the Taliban.
The source added that the Taliban takes the people who are accused of membership or collaboration with ISKP to Bagram prison and no one knows about their condition.
The families of the prisoners, speaking to Hasht-e Subh, ask human rights defenders and international human rights organizations to put pressure on the Taliban so that this group stops torturing the prisoners.
The members of the prisoners’ families still ask human rights organizations to visit these prisons to reflect on the facts and document the crimes and violations of human rights behind the prison cells.
Recently, the United Nations has expressed concerns in a report about the human rights situation in the country.
According to the “New York Times” report, in the first six months of the Taliban rule over Afghanistan, about 500 former soldiers had been arrested, tortured and killed. The figures have for sure now tripled.
