One week in the Taliban regime

It was his first day as mayor of Kunduz for the Taliban, and Gul Mohammad Elias he was on a great offensive.

Last Sunday, the insurgents took control of the city in northern Afghanistan, in ruins after weeks of fighting. The power lines were cut, the water supply, supplied by generators, did not reach most of the inhabitants. Garbage and debris littered the streets.

Officials who could fix these issues were hiding in their homes, terrified of the Taliban. So the insurgent commander became mayor summoned some to his new office to persuade them to return to work.

“I told them that our jihad is not with the municipality, our jihad is against the occupiers and those who defend them», Assured Elias New York Times by telephone.

Day after day, the municipal offices remained almost empty. Elías became frustrated and his rhetoric became stricter.

The Taliban fighters have started going door-to-door in search of workers urban absent. Hundreds of armed men set up checkpoints in the citya d. A notice appeared at the entrance of the Regional Hospital stopped : Employees must return to work or be punished by the Taliban.

Just one week after the fall of Kunduz, the first of several cities to be seized by the Taliban with impressive speed, the insurgents have effective control of Afghanistan. And now must function as administrators who provide basic services hundreds of thousands of people.

The experience of the inhabitants of Kunduz offers an idea of how can the taliban rule and what could happen in the rest of the country.

In a few days, the insurgents, frustrated with their unsuccessful efforts to get civil servants back to work, they began to spread terror, informed residents consulted by telephone.

“I’m afraid because I don’t know what’s going to happen and what they’re going to do “said the one who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation from the Taliban. “We have to smile at them because we are afraid, but we are deeply unhappy. “

Three days after the Taliban took control of Kunduz, Atiqullah Omarikhil, a civil servant, received a call from an insurgent fighter who told him to go to his office. The mayor of Kunduz wanted to talk to him, he said.

Omarkhil has been at home since the withdrawal of government forces, as insurgents flooded the streets and a sense of unrest gripped the battered town. He has already lived two similar moments, when the taliban took Kunduz briefly in 2015 Yes again in 2016. Both times the insurgents were driven back with American tanks.

But this time, days after the Taliban took control, the entire Afghan army responsible for reconquering the city surrendered to the insurgents. They surrendered their weapons and vehicles as a clear sign of Kunduz would not be saved.

When Omarkhil arrived at the municipal office, the sprawling complex seemed oddly untouched by war.

All government vehicles, garbage trucks and computers were exactly where they left them before the Taliban took control and young fighters, known to plunder captured towns, entered the town. The only sign of change was the white spaces on the walls where the photos of the President Achraf Ghani. Instead, white Taliban flags were hung.

Inside the building, Omarkhil joined eight municipal employees and Elias, the Taliban commander, He ordered them to return to work to improve morale. Sharing his cell phone number, he told them to call if there was any problem with the Taliban fighters.

“We captured the city, and now we can assure people that we will provide them with basic servicesSaid Omarkhil, who was interviewed by phone, quoting Elias.

In the middle of the meeting, a merchant pleaded with the Taliban guards to see the mayor. Like hundreds of others, his booth had been almost completely destroyed by fire in the latest Taliban assault. He said that Traders feared their stores would be looted, wanted a promise from the Taliban that they could safely return to the market for their belongingsOmarkhil said.

The mayor complied, and even reimbursement of taxi or bus fares in which they moved their goods, he said.

For the rest of the day, Elias met with other city leaders to try to restore services.

To the State Water and Sewer Corporation, demanded that the water supply be restored. When the manager told him that the power lines needed to be fixed first, ordered the director of the electrical department which get your employees to come back.

At the local health department, the new director of the Taliban conveyed the same message to hospital staff. Insurgent fighters gave medical personnel water and offered 500 Afghans, about six dollars, to each hospital warden to pay for dinner that evening.

There have been advances. Government trucks started picking up garbage streets and workers they fixed the power lines. But the new normal came with a sense of unease.

Almost all the stores in Kunduz were closed. Traders, fearing their stores would be looted by Taliban fighters, took their wares home.. Every afternoon, the streets emptied of their inhabitants, fearing airstrikes as government planes hummed in the sky. And about 500 fighters were stationed in the city, occupying checkpoints on every street corner.

“People are afraid, they are not happy, and if someone says people are happy, they are lying,” said an official in the public health department. “Everyone is wondering what will happen to our future? “

By the end of the week, the fears of many residents were coming true.

At the regional hospital, Taliban fighters seized list of employees’ phone numbers and home addresses and started calling them to ask them to return to work, said a health worker who preferred to remain anonymous for security reasons.

Another, who had fled to Kabul, received a call from Taliban fighters asking him to return to work. He boarded a bus to Kubuz in the middle of the night and went straight to the hospital upon arrival.

To the hospital, the armed Taliban carried out an attendance check. Out of fear, the worker said, female staff wore sky-blue burqas to help with surgeries and cared for those injured in the air raids that further divided the city in the afternoon.

“Inside the hospital they are armedThey are armed in the courtyard of the hospital, ”said the health official. “Same Sick Taliban enter hospital with guns”.

At the municipal building, Elias called another meeting with public officials on Wednesday, this time with armed fighters by his side. Press directors were urged to stay at home, as were women who worked for the government. Sale of non-halal frozen chicken and prohibited alcoholic beverages, new mayor announces. Apparently, the strict rule of the Taliban had returned.

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