Hunted by Taliban, US-allied Afghan troops are in hiding

Columns of Afghan soldiers in armoured vehicles and pickup trucks sped through the desert to reach Iran. Military pilots flew low and fast to the safety of Uzbekistan’s mountains. Thousands of Afghan force members managed to make it to other countries over the past few weeks as the Taliban rapidly seized the country. Others managed to negotiate surrenders and went back to their homes and some kept their weapons and joined the winning side.
But tens of thousands of other Afghan grunts, commandos and spies who fought to the end, despite the talk in Washington that the Afghan forces simply gave up, have been left behind. They are now on the run, hiding and hunted by the Taliban. “There’s no way out,” said Farid, an Afghan commando, in a text message to an American soldier who fought with him. Farid, who agreed to be identified by his first name only, said he was hiding in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, trapped after army units surrendered around him. “I am praying to be saved.” Accounts of the Taliban searching for people they believe worked with and fought alongside US and Nato forces are beginning to trickle out, offering a bloody counterpoint to the gentler face that the militants have been trying to present to the world.
The militants are threatening to arrest or punish family members if they cannot find the people they are seeking, according to former Afghan officials, a confidential report prepared for the UN, and American veterans who have been contacted by desperate Afghans who served alongside them.
The officials said the Taliban had been combing through records at the ministry of defence and interior and the headquarters of Afghanistan’s spy service, drawing up lists of operatives to search for.
On paper, the Afghan forces number 3,00,000. But because of corruption, desertion and casualties, only a sixth of that number were actually in the fight against the Taliban this year, US officials say. The militants are focused on the 18,000 Army commandos, many of whom did not surrender, and officers from the spy service, the National Directorate of Security. Some of those men have taken refuge in Panjshir Valley, a strategic sliver north of Kabul where a handful of Afghan leaders are trying to organise a force to resist the Taliban. They are said to have 2,000-2,500 men, but independent confirmation isn’t available.