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Beyond Today

What happened to the Taliban?

Beyond Today

BBC

News

4.61.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2019

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks the Taliban were never out of the news when Britain and the US deployed their armies to destroy al Qaeda and the Taliban, the terrorist group who controlled Afghanistan at the time. But the Taliban were never destroyed; they still control parts of the country and they still carry out attacks against the Afghan government. It’s a custom around Eid for the Afghan government and the Taliban to exchange prisoners as a gesture of goodwill. Normally around 10 prisoners from each side, but this summer President Ghani of Afghanistan made the unprecedented decision to release nearly 900 Taliban prisoners. So, what does that mean for Afghanistan? We speak to BBC journalists Auliya Atrafi and Claire Press who went inside the Taliban wing of Pul-e-Charki, Afghanistan’s largest prison to find out what’s driving these fighters. As peace talks between the US and the Taliban have yet again broken down, we look at why negotiating with terrorists remains part of the plan. Presenter: Matthew Price Producer: Lucy Hancock and Alicia Burrell Mixed by Nicolas Raufast Editor: John Shields

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.

0:04.6

Hello, I'm Matthew Price.

0:08.8

This is Beyond Today from BBC Radio 4.

0:11.3

Every day we ask one big question about one big story.

0:27.0

Today what happened to the Taliban? As for the Taliban, they can surrender the terrorists or face the consequences.

0:36.0

The aim will be to eliminate their military hardware, cut off their finances, disrupt their supplies, target their troops, not civilian.

0:42.0

Afghanistan has now had two decades of war,

0:45.3

stretching back to when Tony Blair was Prime Minister,

0:48.3

when he sent soldiers to fight the Taliban alongside the US.

0:51.7

The leadership of al-Qaeda has great influence in Afghanistan

0:55.2

and supports the Taliban regime. There was a moment this year when the war looked like it might

1:01.2

actually end, but then peace talks between the Americans and the Taliban

1:05.0

broke down.

1:06.0

When I heard very simply that they killed one of our soldiers and 12 other innocent people, I said there's no way I'm meeting on that basis.

1:16.0

There's no way I'm meeting.

1:17.0

The US has been in Afghanistan since 9-11,

1:19.8

when Al-Qaeda terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center towers in New York.

1:27.0

So Britain and the United States went in to destroy Al-Qaeda and their Afghan allies,

1:34.8

the Taliban who ran the country back then. But the Taliban were never destroyed. They're still there.

1:40.0

They control parts of the country. They still carry out attacks against the Afghan government,

1:45.2

and some of the Taliban are in prison because of the crimes they've carried out in the last

1:50.4

20 years.

...

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