In a prison break orchestrated by the Taliban in Afghanistan’s Sheberghan city, at least 700 inmates were released. According to sources in the Afghanistan government, all these prisoners are fighters of the Taliban and they will joining forces with the group, which seized the provincial capital today.
The Taliban on Saturday captured Sheberghan city in Jawzjan, the second Afghan provincial capital to fall to the insurgents in less than 24 hours.
The city is home to notorious warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, who only returned to Afghanistan this week from medical treatment in Turkey.
The Taliban have gained vast parts of rural Afghanistan since launching a series of offensives in May to coincide with the start of the final withdrawal of foreign troops.
On Friday, Zaranj city in Nimroz fell to the Taliban “without a fight”, according to its deputy governor, becoming the first provincial capital to be taken by the insurgents.
There was more resistance in Sheberghan but an aide to Dostum confirmed the city had been taken, AFP reported.
Social media posts suggested the Taliban were welcomed by some residents of the desert city, which has long had a reputation for lawlessness. They showed captured military Humvees, luxury SUVs, and pickups speeding through the streets, flying white Taliban flags as local residents — mostly youths and young men — cheered them on.
One of the first things the insurgents did on entering Zaranj was to open the gates of a local jail, officials said, freeing Taliban prisoners along with common criminals. Videos on Twitter showed mobs looting government offices, stealing desks, office chairs, cabinets, and televisions.
The capture of Sheberghan comes a day after the head of the Afghan government’s media information department was shot dead in Kabul in an attack claimed by the Taliban.
After a failed assassination attempt on the country defence minister Tuesday, the Taliban warned they were now targeting senior administration officials in retaliation for increased air strikes.
(With inputs from AFP)
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