© Tomas Munita for The New York Times
When Basir Arian was summoned to the Taliban headquarters, he knew he had to go. To defy them meant death. The torture left him devastated and sure he had to leave the country
‘I knew that sooner or later, they would come for me,” says Basir Arian. After the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021, he had set up an online English study programme for girls when they were banned from attending school. In May 2022, he was eating lunch in the western city of Herat, when he got a call from an unfamiliar local number. A Talib official told Arian to come to the intelligence directorate within 20 minutes and to bring his phone.
“I’ll never forget that moment,” he says. “If you disobey this order, they will kill you. You have to try not to make them angry.” He told a friend where he was going, and they hurriedly discussed what to do if he didn’t return.
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© Photograph: Mary Turner/The Guardian
© Photograph: Mary Turner/The Guardian
© Photograph: Mary Turner/The Guardian
Nothing done to stop planting weapons on dead Afghans, ADF inspector says, as ‘breakdown of command’ allowed ‘egregious behaviour’
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Some Australian SAS officers knew that soldiers under their command were using “throwdowns” – planting weapons on dead Afghan civilians to portray them as combatants – but did nothing to stop the unlawful practice, a previously unpublished military report has said.
Posted online this week, the executive summary of a 2021 investigation into the “cultural context” of the special operations command by the inspector general of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) is scathing about the “breakdown of command” and the erosion of military discipline during special forces operations in Afghanistan, which “resulted in episodes of potential and actual egregious behaviour”.
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© Photograph: LS Paul Berry
© Photograph: LS Paul Berry
© Photograph: LS Paul Berry
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