The Taliban is kidnapping and forcibly marrying younger women and girls to its fighters because it recaptures large areas of Afghanistan, it was claimed final evening.
The Mail on Sunday has realized that at any time when the extremists seize a brand new city or district, they problem orders by means of the audio system of native mosques for the names of wives and widows of all native authorities and police personnel to be handed over.
The group has rounded up a whole lot of younger girls to be married off to their militants as a ‘conflict booty’, native residents and officers advised this newspaper.
The Mail on Sunday has realized that at any time when the extremists seize a brand new city or district, they problem orders for the names of wives and widows of all native authorities and police personnel to be handed over
The stunning revelations got here because the British and American governments warned their residents to flee Afghanistan final evening.
There was intense combating between Taliban and Afghan authorities forces amid the withdrawal of Western troops following 21 years of conflict.
US President Joe Biden stays dedicated to pulling out all American troopers by the top of this month, however the Taliban has already re-taken greater than half of Afghanistan’s 421 districts in latest weeks.
The International Workplace stated in a warning to British residents: ‘In case you are nonetheless in Afghanistan, you might be suggested to go away now by industrial means due to the worsening safety state of affairs.’
The US embassy in Kabul has urged all People ‘to go away Afghanistan instantly utilizing obtainable industrial flight choices’.
Households fearing the Taliban’s advance have been sending girls and women to safer areas, together with the Afghan capital Kabul, to stop them being taken away.
There have been native experiences of girls being forcibly married off in not less than two northern Afghan areas known as Takhar and Badakhshan, whereas an identical try was made within the province of Bamyan, the place the rebel group was pushed out by Afghan safety forces after 4 days of fierce combating.
The Taliban have re-taken most of Helmand, the troubled province that British troops defended from the group between 2002 and 2014 and the place many of the 456 UK troopers who misplaced their lives in Afghanistan had been killed.
The US has misplaced 2,312 troopers within the nation because the invasion in 2001 following the 9/11 assaults in New York.
Final evening, the Taliban seized management of Sheberghan, capital of the northern province of Jowzjan.
It’s the second provincial capital to fall to the Islamist terror group in two days after it took management of Zaranj within the south-western province of Nimroz on Friday.
The fundamentalist organisation has been closing down women’ faculties in cities it takes over. Girls are ordered that they will solely depart their properties in the event that they put on a burka, and are chaperoned by a male grownup.
Witnesses advised of the group’s sexual slavery after it took management of the distant district of Saighan, within the central highlands of Bamyan province.
In line with native residents, Taliban fighters demanded to know the names and ages of women and girls they stated can be rounded as much as be married to their militants.
The militants even beat some males who resisted, and demanded residents open their wardrobes so they may work out the ages of girls by trying on the garments inside.
The group additionally demanded to know the names and ages of widows of males who died combating the Taliban, in addition to these of the wives of any serving authorities or safety personnel.
Terrified villagers despatched their wives and daughters out of the world. Some fled in employed automobiles, others utilizing items carts, whereas some walked.
Baes Sakhizada, 28, a maths trainer in Saighan, despatched his spouse, Basira, 30, sister, Nafisa, 27, and cousin, Tamanna, 19, out of Saighan by automobile.
In full burka, the ladies had been pushed 150 miles away, typically going by means of Taliban checkpoints, however managed to flee.
Mr Sakhizada stated: ‘Everybody acquired their girls out of Saighan, particularly younger women. They had been the primary to be evacuated.’
Nafisa stated she, Basira and Tamanna first stayed in a close-by village in a single day, then took a automobile to a neighbouring province to flee. She described large site visitors jams as hundreds fled advancing Taliban troops.
Nafisa stated: ‘We acquired out of the automobile and put our baggage in wheelbarrows, and pushed them. It was actually crowded and there was quite a lot of mud and so many individuals. It was horrible.’
Mohammad Tahir Zuhair, the provincial governor of Bamyan, stated the plan to abduct and marry girls was a ‘harmful and merciless revenge on the wives and widows of the safety forces who’ve fought’ the Taliban. (Pictured, a younger Afghan Woman in a pink Panjabb stands outdoors a compound in helmand Province)
The three girls returned to their properties after native militia forces managed to drive the Taliban out after 4 days of combating. They reside in worry figuring out the group will quickly return.
Mohammad Tahir Zuhair, the provincial governor of Bamyan, stated the plan to abduct and marry girls was a ‘harmful and merciless revenge on the wives and widows of the safety forces who’ve fought’ the Taliban.
Omar Sadr, a professor on the American College of Afghanistan, stated: ‘As soon as jihadists seize territory, no matter property there’s, their ideology permits them to say it. This contains girls – they don’t even need to marry them. It’s a type of intercourse slavery.’
Common Nick Carter, head of the British Armed Forces, yesterday warned that ‘grisly photographs of conflict crimes being dedicated in opposition to Afghan particular forces, authorities buildings being wilfully destroyed, civilians being brutalised and ladies pressured into marriages undermine any declare the Taliban might need to political, ethical or moral legitimacy.’
TOBIAS ELLWOOD: This shabby and threatening retreat from Afghanistan might show to be the West’s worst personal aim this century
Wars are usually not received by evacuations,’ stated Winston Churchill after Dunkirk. He was proper. Eighty years on, one other evacuation – our abrupt retreat from Afghanistan – might show the most important personal aim the West has scored this century.
The perilous penalties develop extra apparent day-to-day.
This shabby withdrawal will not be how we envisaged success when, in 2001, we collectively led probably the most highly effective multinational navy alliance the world has ever seen.
Armed supporters of former Mujahideen commander Ismail Khan, stand guard at a test level within the Pul-e Malan space of Guzara district in Herat, Afghanistan, 30 July 2021
But right here we’re abandoning the nation to the very insurgency that drew us there within the first place.
Until we get up to the truth of what’s happening, Afghanistan would possibly as soon as once more turn into a terror state. This, keep in mind, is the nation that introduced us 9/11.
Furthermore, by leaving, we’re giving up a strategically essential area to an expansionist China bent on taking our place.
We’d lose not simply the achievements of the previous, however our maintain on the longer term as effectively.
In our eagerness to retreat, we have now deserted our unique targets.
Certain, we went in to filter the Taliban, who had performed a lot to assist Al Qaeda mount its lethal assault on America in September 2001.
However we additionally promised the Afghan individuals we’d rebuild their war-torn state so they may reside in peace.
District after district has returned to a Taliban now poised on the gates of the regional capital, Lashkar Gar
The mission was by no means going to be easy. Afghanistan is a deeply corrupt nation paralysed by a long time of battle, proxy interference and inside tribal strife.
Britain performed its half. We helped stabilise Helmand Province within the south, a key area within the ‘Pashtun Belt’ from the place the Taliban will get most of its recruits.
Greater than 150,000 British troops would ultimately spend time within the province. Extremely, the airstrip at Camp Bastion dealt with extra flights a day than Gatwick.
At one level, we had been manning greater than 130 navy outposts.
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It’s heartbreaking to see that valiant effort wasted and the sacrifice of so many British women and men solid apart.
The marketing campaign value 475 British lives, with many extra wounded, typically terribly.
Numerous others have had their lives blighted by the devastating results of post-traumatic stress.
District after district has returned to a Taliban now poised on the gates of the regional capital, Lashkar Gar. Two regional capitals have fallen since Friday. If Lashkar Gar falls – and different regional hubs observe, together with Kandahar and Herat – solely the besieged capital Kabul will stay free. And if Kabul falls, it’s recreation over.
Why did it go so mistaken? Our personal Authorities is refusing to conduct a assessment, however the solutions are as plain as day.
As I noticed on my frequent visits to the nation as Defence Minister, too little was performed to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan individuals. As we realized in Northern Eire, you can’t defeat an insurgency by navy means alone.
In reality, we made schoolboy errors. First, we failed to ask the Taliban to the desk. They’d requested a seat on the 2001 Worldwide Convention on Afghanistan held in Bonn, however Donald Rumsfeld, then US Defence Secretary, stated no.
How totally different Afghanistan would possibly look at this time if he had stated sure, permitting the total vary of Afghan voices to return collectively and construct a brand new nation.
Second, we failed to coach native safety and police forces till 2005, by which period the Taliban had regrouped, rearmed and retrained on the opposite facet of the border in Pakistan.
Lastly, we imposed a Western mannequin of centralised governance on a rustic the place it’s tribal energy that actually holds sway.
Whereas there have been robust general leaders in Afghanistan up to now, the state of affairs has been extra like that in medieval England the place, for instance, King John shared energy with regional barons.
When Britain and America rebuilt Germany after the conflict, the blueprint was clear: Preserve it native. However that was a blueprint we selected to disregard in Afghanistan.
AS A results of these and different failings, we discovered ourselves in a ‘without end conflict’, one which each candidates within the final US Presidential election promised to finish.
I’ve spoken privately to quite a few serving and retired generals on either side of the Atlantic. Not one believes withdrawing is a good suggestion.
A watching – and more and more hostile – world has seen {that a} US-led alliance is unable to defend worldwide requirements and values.
Had we deserted Germany in the identical manner after the conflict, the Iron Curtain would have in all probability brushed up in opposition to the French border. However we stayed the course for many years, serving to Germany mature right into a democratic powerhouse.
Permitting Afghanistan to fail will see mass migration for individuals who can afford to flee to Europe and a humanitarian catastrophe for individuals who don’t have any selection however to stay.
The nation will as soon as once more provide a haven for terrorism to flourish and it’ll quickly turn into a battleground for neighbouring giants to exert their proxy affect.
It isn’t too late to stop a full-scale civil conflict. However it might require an entire rethink of our current technique.
With out rapid help, the Taliban will quickly start seizing Afghanistan’s cities.
We should retain a 5,000-strong coalition help drive with ample floor, air and intelligence help to present the Afghan military sufficient combating edge to comprise the insurgency (as they’ve succeeded in doing over the previous couple of years). Such a dedication would additionally give the Afghan individuals religion in their very own authorities. In sum, we’d like an overhaul of Western technique, with – for instance – a extra federal, much less Kabul-centred mannequin of administration.
We should safe the backing of Pakistan and finish its help for the Taliban trigger. We have to carry transparency and accountability to Afghanistan’s state funds.
The peace has not been misplaced but in Afghanistan. But when we merely surrender, then the struggle is over
It is a turning level in historical past.
Will we arise for our rules and do the fitting factor? Or can we permit a world disaster with long-term penalties to unfold?
The outlook was bleak for Britain following Dunkirk, however Churchill knew he needed to keep it up, ‘if obligatory for years, if obligatory alone’.
The peace has not been misplaced but in Afghanistan. But when we merely surrender, then the struggle is over.
If the phrase ‘World Britain’ means something, it should imply stopping worldwide terrorism – and stopping an immoral Chinese language state from exploiting rising world divisions.
Churchill’s Britain stepped ahead when others hesitated. We should achieve this once more – for the sake those that have died and people but to endure.
