Inside An Afghan Prison That Holds 2,000 Taliban Fighters

A guard assigned to the Afghan National Detention Facility (Pul-e-Charkhi prison)(Wikipedia)

BBC: Inside Block Six

The prison wing that holds 2,000 Taliban

Pul-e-Charkhi prison, on the outskirts of Afghanistan's capital Kabul, is surrounded by colossal grey stone walls topped with barbed wire, and guarded by numerous watch towers and huge steel gates. Of the 10,000 inmates, about one fifth are Taliban - Afghanistan's hardline Islamist insurgent group.

Taliban inmate Mawlawi Fazel Bari says he wasn't born a fighter, but after five years in prison, he says he’s never felt more ready to die.

“I have become so frustrated. I never thought I would carry out a suicide motor-bomb, but now, by god I swear I will.”

For the time being, Bari will remain incarcerated at the top-security jail. But the prison is one of a number across the country that has been releasing Taliban prisoners in unprecedented numbers, as part of a goodwill gesture by a government locked out of peace talks.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The part of this entire story that caught my eye was from a former Taliban fighter who was released ....

.... Qari Sayed Muhammed, 32, lives in Balkh province, northern Afghanistan - deep in Taliban territory. He spent six years in Pul-e-Charkhi prison.

As the only remaining male in his family - his father and two brothers were killed while he was in jail - he says for now he must stay at home to run the family farm.

He believes that of those prisoners recently freed, he is one of only a handful who are still alive.

“I believe 95% of those recently released have rejoined the Taliban and a lot of them have already died,” he says.

Let this sink in .... 95% of those recently released are dead. That is a very telling number.