By Matin Mehrab
Taliban gunmen are searching houses in Herat province, days after a suicide attack on the Guzargah Mosque killed 21 people, including Mujibur Rahman Ansari, an extremist and pro-Taliban cleric, last Friday.
House-to-house operations began on Monday. Mujeeb Ansar, a Taliban spokesman in west Afghanistan, said the aim is to find and seize weapons and ammunition from residents. He said that nearly 2,000 Taliban gunmen are taking part in the operation.
City residents tell Zan Times that the house searches began without prior notice and have caused panic among the people. They also say that the Taliban gunmen in charge of the searches are behaving very rudely and impolitely with the residents and are careless in handling people’s belongings. As well, no policewomen are accompanying them into the homes.
“The Taliban suddenly enter people’s houses and, ignoring the presence of women, are messing things up and throwing people’s belongings around,” said Mohammad, a city resident.
He says that the Taliban interrogated one of his neighbours for having a toy gun that belonged to his young son.
Fatima, another Herat resident, told Zan Times that, after the Taliban finished searching her house, 5,000 afghanis in cash were missing.
Abdul Khaliq, a resident of Guzrah district, says that the Taliban surrounded their area and then searched 10 to 15 houses at a time.
He says that Taliban gunmen’s surprise visits to people’s houses created panic and terror for women and children.
In addition, the Taliban have increased the number of checkpoints in the city, where gunmen stop, search, and interrogate passers-by and inspect vehicles.
Since Monday, Taliban forces are also conducting house searches outside Herat city, including in the districts of Guzara, Karukh, Injil and Zindajan. And house searches that started two weeks ago are still ongoing in northern provinces, including Balkh, Jawzjan, Faryab, and Kunduz.
Names have been changed to protect the identity of the interviewees.
