A10 From Page One taliban from A1
reconstruction projects. They plant homemade bombs, close girls’ schools, and take by force a portion of farmers’ crops and resi- dents’ salaries. “This is the new policy of the
Taliban: to shift their people from the south to the north, to show they exist everywhere,” said Fa- ryab Gov. Abdul Haq Shafaq. “They’re using the desert, where there are no security forces at all.”
Letter precedes invasion Before the Taliban invades a vil-
lage, its arrival is sometimes pre- ceded by a letter. “Hello. I hope you’re healthy and doing very well,” Mullah Ab- dullah Khalid, a Taliban deputy district shadow governor, wrote recently to four tribal elders in a Faryab village. “Whatever sup- port you could provide, either fi- nancially or physically, we would really appreciate that. “We hope that you will not deny
us.”
But this is just a formality, be- cause the Taliban is coming any- way. In early November, the villagers
of Khwaji Kinti awoke to the rum- ble of motorcycles. The next morning, they discovered that 30 to 40 Taliban, armed with Kalash- nikovs and rocket-propelled-gre- nades, had taken charge. Tribal el- ders pleaded with police to send help. None arrived. The Taliban was welcomed by a
sympathetic mullah and set to work quickly. From the shep- herds, it expected “zakat,” or char- ity: one sheep out of every 40; and it took “usher,” an Islamic tax, from the wheat farmers: 10 per- cent of the harvest, according to villagers. Its members shut down the lone girls’ school and de- manded shelter and meals from different homes each night. Mo- hammad Hassan, a wheat farmer, said insurgents knocked on his door about once a week after the evening prayer, asking for food. “We’re afraid of the Taliban and the government,” he said. “We’re caught in the middle — we don’t have any power.” Taliban members executed a man known as Sayid Arif, who they said worked for the Afghan government, by pulling him from his car and shooting him. They
S
KLMNO
SUNDAY, AUGUST 15, 2010 Taliban finds new stronghold in the once-peaceful north
PHOTOS BY ANDREA BRUCE FOR THE WASHINGTON POST A livestock market is set up in a dry riverbed in Faryab province, where residents say the Taliban has been gaining control of villages and taking a portion of their income.
left him in the road with a note on his chest that said for whoever works with the government, “this is the punishment,” said a tribal elder named Abdullah. The Taliban began to settle dis- putes with arbitrary punishments — which some consider its main public service. In one case, a dis- pute between a pair of brothers and another man escalated until the third man was shot. Without evidence, the Taliban chose one of the brothers, 22-year-old Mahadi, as the guilty party, villagers said. The Taliban assembled dozens of people, handed the wife of the vic-
tim a Kalashnikov and ordered her to shoot him, which she did. “I stood there and watched
that,” one villager said. Not everyone is unhappy with
this. The headmaster of the boys’ school in Khwaji Kinti, Agha She- jawuddin, said the Taliban is re- storing order based on Islamic law. “The Koran says there should be public punishment,” he said. “I think the situation under the Tali- ban will be better than this gov- ernment.” On Aug. 5, members of the U.S.
battalion, from the 10th Moun- tain Division, along with Afghan
police and soldiers, fought the Taliban in Khwaji Kinti. This sparked an exodus, with hun- dreds of families fleeing town, vil- lagers said. The U.S. soldiers de- cided to withdraw after three days “to prevent civilian property dam- age and loss of life and civilian disruption during the holy month of Ramadan,” a military spokes- man said. That left the power balance un-
changed, according to villagers reached by phone, and 200 to 400 Taliban members remain. The area “is still under complete Tali- ban control,” one villager said.
Hostages at checkpoint After a day of road building in
January, two Chinese laborers and Saifullah, their 16-year-old driver, rolled up to a Taliban checkpoint on Highway 1. They did not make it through. The hostages — including three other Afghans — were taken to a village in Gormach, the most Tali- ban-infested district in Faryab. “For five days, I had no news of
my son,” said Saifullah’s father, Khairullah. “I decided to go and search for him. I told myself I would find him even if I got killed. I would go to that place.” No taxi driver would take him.
He borrowed a car and went alone. In the village, he found a mosque and an adjacent house, with about 40 Afghan-assembled Pamir motorbikes outside. The buildings brimmed with gunmen. “When I showed up, they were surprised. They said, ‘Why did you come here?’ ” he recalled. “I told them, ‘I want my son.’ ” For four hours, he argued with the captors, explained his Islamic lineage and paid $1,300. He re- ceived his son, with a warning: “You must promise that your son will never work for the foreigners again.” This is the message the Taliban regularly preaches in mosque speeches and in letters distribut- ed to villagers. One such letter, passed out on Taliban stationery in Faryab, told villagers that “you are the nation that defeated the British again and again. Once more we want your compassion.” “Come together as one hand to
defeat the infidels of the world,” it read. “And make Afghanistan a Jewish and Christian cemetery.” The two Chinese workers cap- tured with Saifullah would not be
Said, center, who did not give his last name, said the Taliban kidnapped his son near the Qaysar district.
released for months. In a video of them in captivity, obtained by po- lice, the Taliban taunted them. “There is no God but God,” a
Taliban fighter said in Pashto, re- citing a Koranic verse known as the Kalima. “Say it. Say it. Loudly.” The Chinese men stared, not comprehending. “Why are you not learning?” their captor said. “You’re not in- telligent. You haven’t learned any- thing. We’re going to kill you.”
Swelling the ranks
One day, a young Taliban fight- er rode up on a donkey. Nek Mo- hammad, 29, hadn’t seen him in years but remembered him as a fellow refugee. They had both lived in Iran during the Taliban government, two Tajiks in search of work and peace. They sat by the river to talk. “How is your life?” Mohammad
asked.
Since he’d joined the Taliban, the man said, he earned more than $400 a month. “They are paying me very well,” he said. He asked Mohammad to join the in- surgency. The ranks of Taliban have swelled in Faryab because of such men: young and jobless, accord- ing to officials and residents. They profess little allegiance to
a government they view as irrel- evant, at best, and exploitative, at worst. They trace the insecurity to the presence of NATO forces. Afghan officials also see a ri-
valry between Pashtun tribes at play.
“If one tribe, like the Achekzai,
creates 10 Taliban in their tribe, then the Tokhi says, we need 12 Taliban to defend ourselves,” said Mohammad Sadiq Hamid Yar, the Qaysar district chief. Extortion provides much of their funding, Afghan officials said, and Taliban leadership in Pa- kistan provides training, weap- ons, ammunition and additional income. Shafaq, the Faryab gover- nor, estimated that at least 500 Taliban members are in his prov- ince, although others put the number far higher. The 1,800 po- lice, he said, “are not enough,” and the government hopes to form a 500-man militia to bolster them. Although the new U.S. battal- ion has helped, Shafaq thinks that NATO troops need a more aggres- sive approach, including not be- ing afraid to bomb motorcycle gangs as they crisscross the des- ert. If the Taliban forces have been allowed such freedom of move- ment, many residents reason, NATO must not be serious about fighting them. “Afghans are very familiar with this type of situa- tion. We see which side of the scale is heavier, and we just roll to that side easily,” Mohammad said. “Right now, the Taliban’s scale is heavier.”
partlowj@washpost.com
Special correspondent Javed Hamdard contributed to this report.
Afghans herd goats outside Maimana in the northern province of Faryab. From shepherds, the Taliban expects “zakat,” or charity: one animal out of every 40, residents say.
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