In Afghanistan, Taliban’s door-to-door raids trigger mass evacuations of fearful citizens

In Afghanistan, Taliban’s door-to-door raids trigger mass evacuations of fearful citizens

The Taliban have started conducting door-to-door nighttime raids in the central as well as southern provinces of Kandahar and Parwan in Afghanistan

Amid the ongoing political, social and economic crisis in Afghanistan, the Taliban have started conducting door-to-door nighttime raids in the central as well as southern Afghan provinces of Kandahar and Parwan under the pretext of looking for illegal weapons. This has further caused locals to become fearful and forced them to flee in larger numbers.

Residents of Kolami village in Parwan’s Salang district are even thinking of a mass evacuation as they are scared by the Taliban’s nighttime inspections, according to a Khaama Press report.

Furthermore, the Kandahar police chief was quoted by Khaama Press as saying in reference to the raids carried out by Taliban officials, “The Taliban are not operating alone in their activities; they are joined by neighbourhood elders and religious scholars”.

Taliban raids houses

The Taliban authorities, meanwhile, have asserted that the objective of these searches is to find prohibited or state-owned weapons. The Taliban security forces have also carried out house-to-house searches in the capital and a few areas of the province earlier in August.

It is pertinent to mention that the Taliban have been conducting house-to-house raids across the country since the United States troops left on August 15 of last year, and the Taliban seized power. After occupying Kabul, the Taliban not only seized governmental control of the country but also all of the military hardware built in the US that had been abandoned by the fleeing Afghan army. Afghan gun dealers openly exchange US-made weapons and military gear in stores, ANI reported.

In addition to this, weapons from abandoned Afghan army outposts are being collected by traffickers, who also acquire them from Taliban militants and Afghan government troops. As per the ANI report, the majority of these weapons are subsequently sold at arms markets in the tribal regions along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

An American contractor captured by the Taliban has been freed

In the meantime, an American contractor named Mark Frerichs who had been kept captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan for more than two years has been freed. The White House and family members on Monday revealed that this release came with the Taliban drug lord Bashir Noorzai’s exchange for his freedom, who is currently imprisoned in the US. As per the Associated Press report, since Frerichs was kidnapped in 2020, the US has been trying to get him back home.

According to reporter Eric Tucker for the Associated Press, “The Taliban had made clear for a long time that the only way to do that was to release Bashir Noorzai. And it was not clear to people who were following this from the outside that that was a deal that was ultimately going to be palatable.” Notably, the Biden administration is continuously working to return American citizens who are being held abroad.