It was his first day as Taliban-appointed mayor of Kunduz, and Gul Mohammad Elias was on a lucrative offensive.
On 8 August, rebels captured the city in northern Afghanistan, which was dilapidated after weeks of fighting. The power lines were down. Generator-powered water was not supplied to most of the residents. Garbage and debris are scattered on the roads.
civil servants who could fix those problems hid at home, who feared Taliban. So the rebel-turned-commander-turned-mayor called some people into his new office to persuade them to return to work.
“I said that our jihad is not with the municipality; Our jihad is against the occupiers and those defending the occupiers,” Elias told The New York Times by telephone.
But day by day, as municipal offices remained mostly empty, Elias grew more and more frustrated – and his rhetoric hardened.
Taliban fighters went door-to-door in search of missing activists in the city. Hundreds of armed men set up checkpoints across the city. At the entrance to the regional hospital, a new notice appeared on the wall: staff must return to work or face punishment from the Taliban.
Just a week after the fall of Kunduz – the first in a series of cities seized by the Taliban at breathtaking speed – insurgents now have effective control over Afghanistan. And they should now act as administrators who can provide basic services to hundreds of thousands of people.
The experience of those living in Kunduz offers a glimpse into how the Taliban might rule and what could happen to the rest of the country.
Within days, the rebels, frustrated by their failed attempts to get civil servants back to work, began to create panic, according to residents who arrived by telephone.
“I’m afraid, because I don’t know what will happen and what they will do,” said one, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal by the Taliban. “We have to smile at them because we are scared, but deep down we are sad.”
Three days after the Taliban took control of Kunduz, Atiqullah Omrakhil, a civil servant, received a call from a rebel fighter asking him to go to his office. He said that the mayor of Kunduz wanted to talk to him.
Omrakhil was living in the house from the time of his retreat Government forces flood roads as rebels And the battered city gripped a sense of restlessness. He had experienced a similar moment twice before, when the Taliban briefly occupied Kunduz in 2015 and again in 2016. Both times, the rebels were pushed back with the help of American air strikes.
But this time, a few days after the Taliban came under control, the entire Afghan army that had recaptured the city surrendered to the insurgents. They handed over their weapons and vehicles in a clear indication that Kunduz would not be saved.
When Omrakhil reached the Municipal Corporation office, the huge complex looked untouched by the war.
Before the Taliban came to power, all of the government’s vehicles, garbage trucks and computers were where it left them and young fighters – known for looting the cities they had seized – were forced into the city. was thrown. The only sign of change was the blanks on the walls with pictures of President Ashraf Ghani. Instead, white flags of the Taliban were hung.
Inside the building, Omrakhil contains eight municipal workers and Taliban commander Ilyas, who introduced himself as the new mayor.
The long-bearded youth, Ilyas, assured him that he would not be targeted by the Taliban and instructed him to return to work to boost the morale of the people. Sharing his mobile number, he said to call if he had any problems with Taliban fighters.
“We have captured the city, and now we can assure the people that we will provide basic services,” Omrakhil, who was interviewed by telephone, quoted Ilyas as saying.
Halfway through, a shopkeeper asked a Taliban bodyguard to meet with the mayor. Like hundreds of others, his kiosk was mostly destroyed by fire during the Taliban’s final push. Omrakhil said shopkeepers wanted the Taliban’s promise to bring their goods safely back to the market, fearing that what was left of their shops would be looted.
Mayer complied, even providing reimbursement of taxi and bus fares spent on carrying his goods, according to Omerkhil.
For the rest of the day, Elias met with other municipal leaders, trying to restore services.
In the state-owned Water and Sewage Corporation, he sought to restore water supply. When a manager told him that the power lines would have to be repaired first, he asked the director of the electricity department to return his employees.
New to the local health department Taliban director gave Same message for hospital staff. Rebel fighters gave water to health workers and each of the hospital guards offered 500 Afghans – about $6 – to pay for that dinner.
Some progress had been made. Government trucks began removing garbage from the roads and workers repaired power lines. But the new normal came with a sense of unease.
Almost every shop in Kunduj remained closed. Fearing that their shops would be looted by Taliban fighters, the shopkeepers took their belongings home. Every afternoon there was silence on the streets and residents feared an airstrike as government planes buzzed in the sky. And about 500 Taliban fighters were stationed around the city, stationed at checkpoints on almost every street corner.
“People are scared, they are not happy, and if someone says people are happy, he is lying,” said a civil servant of the Directorate of Public Health. “Everyone is wondering, what will happen to our future?”
By the end of the week, the fears of many residents were beginning to be realized.
At the regional hospital, Taliban fighters confiscated a list of employees’ phone numbers and home addresses and began calling them, demanding that they return to work, said a health worker, who raised concerns about security. remained anonymous because loved to stay
Another, who had fled to Kabul, received a call from a Taliban fighter asking him to return to work. At midnight he boarded the bus for Kunduj and after reaching there went straight to the hospital.
At the hospital, armed Taliban were monitoring the presence. The health worker said, out of fear, women workers wore sky burqas as they aided in surgery and sustained wounds from air raids that still engulfed the city every afternoon.
“Inside the hospital, they are armed. In the premises of the hospital, they are armed,” said the health worker. “Even the sick Taliban enter the hospital with weapons.”
In the municipal building, Elias called another meeting of civil servants on Wednesday – this time, they had armed fighters. Press managers were asked to stay at home, as well as women working for the government. The sale of alcoholic beverages and non-halal frozen chicken was banned, the new mayor announced. It seemed that the strict Taliban regime was back.
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