Kabul fell on the 15 August without a fight. Since then, the Taliban have occupied the city. Terrified Afghans desperate to leave fled to the airport in scenes that will come to symbolise the shambolic American withdrawal.
A few weeks earlier, when they were in the middle of planning their final offensive, we were the last journalist to meet them. We gained access to the towns and villages they administered. They showed us their hospitals, where men and women were treated separately. We slept alongside their combatants, shared their meals and they told us that how easily Kabul would fall.
We saw them distribute the considerable arms they had recovered from the defeated Afghan army, which they planned to use to conquer the capital. And they authorised us to film their Sharia courts, where a judge administered ‘divine law’ with a masked executioner at his side, ready to immediately implement any sentence.
It’s likely that what we witnessed and filmed is just a prelude to what will come to be imposed on all the country. The Taliban now rule the lives of all Afghans. They showed us how they intend to do.
Now that the Taliban have retaken Afghanistan, what will their administration be like? In this exclusive film, including an unprecedented interview with Muhammad Nabi Omari, one of the notorious 'Taliban Five', we see how the destinies of five men summed up 20 years of war in Afghanistan. And how these same five men will probably shape the next Taliban government.
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The speed at which the Taliban have retaken Afghanistan has taken everyone by surprise. How could it happen? What went wrong with ‘the good war’? And what comes next?
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