Afghanistan dispatches: ‘Kabul and some other provinces will have no electricity in the coming weeks’ Dispatches
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Afghanistan dispatches: ‘Kabul and some other provinces will have no electricity in the coming weeks’

JURIST EXCLUSIVE – Law students and lawyers in Afghanistan are filing reports with JURIST on the situation there after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. Here, a lawyer in Kabul offers his personal observations and perspective on an extended power interruption in Kabul due to an apparent attack on a key electricity station. For privacy and security reasons we are withholding our correspondent’s name and institutional affiliation. The text has been only lightly edited to respect the author’s voice.

Kabul has had no power in two days. Two days ago, one of the electricity stations exploded in one of Kabul’s districts. Soon after the explosion Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), which is the state-owned corporation responsible for provision of electricity to the country, announced that Kabul and some other provinces will have no electricity in the coming weeks.

The Taliban have not made any official statement on who did it but today local media say that the ISIS-K has taken responsibility.

Electricity cut-off due to explosions were one the biggest challenges that the former government could not fight easily. During that time everyone including the former government blamed the Taliban for destruction of public property. In some circumstances, the Taliban took the responsibility but it seems that now ISIS-K are following most of the Taliban’s techniques and strategies to destroy public property.

We do not know how the Taliban will overcome this challenge but this is a challenging responsibility. The electricity stations are usually located on farms, deserts, and over mountains which makes it difficult for anyone to easily ensure their security and safety.

Additionally, the Ministry of Defense of the Taliban announced today that they arrested three people who did the explosion, but threre was no information onm whether they were related to ISIS-K.

In another incident a media outlet called Afghanistan International has published a voice message from an Afghan girl saying that the Taliban are collecting young men mostly from Panjshir and torturing them in a Kabul kindergarten.

This kindergarten is called Lisa Maryam Kindergarten which used to be a kids’ playschool in the former government. Beside this kindergarten there is a secondary school called Abdul Ghafur Nadeem Secondary School in which I studied. The audio further says that are torturing these men with whips and electricity.

In another statement, one of the newspapers reported that one another civilian in Samangan province were arrested and tortured only because he entered a Taliban controlled land with his sheep. This guys who were interviewed in this newspaper said that he gave 1050 kilograms of wheat to the Taliban as compensation and to release him. At the same province, the Taliban arrested an elderly man and people found his dead body later on.

 

Opinions expressed in JURIST Commentary are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JURIST's editors, staff, donors or the University of Pittsburgh.
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