‘Whatever horrors they do, they do in secret’: inside the Taliban’s return to power

The Audio Long Read

The Guardian

Society & Culture

4.3 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 14 March 2022

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mazar-i-Sharif was once the most secular, liberal of Afghan cities. But 20 years of corruption and misrule left it ripe for retaking by the Taliban. Will anything be different this time? By Ghaith Abdul-Ahad. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Transcript

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1:00.6	Whatever horrors they do, they do in secret.
1:05.3	Inside the Taliban's return to power, by Reif Habdel Ahad,
1:11.2	read by Wallace Hammond and produced by Tony Onachukwe.
1:17.6	At the police headquarters compound in the Northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sherif,
1:22.8	a large crowd waited in front of a wire mesh door.
1:27.9	The entrance was guarded by a young Taliban fighter, with long shaggy hair and a beard,
1:34.3	who sat on a broken plastic chair.
1:37.9	Beside him was a large pile of shoes and flip flops,
1:41.5	belonging to those who had already been admitted to meet the newly appointed Taliban police chief.
1:47.7	It was mid-October 2021, seven weeks since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan,
	...

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