Taliban fighters have taken over the glitzy Kabul mansion of one of their fiercest enemies — former Afghan vice president Abdul Rashid Dostum, a warlord and now fugitive.
In the hands of rank-and-file Taliban fighters, the opulent villa has given the austere Islamists a peek into the lives of Afghanistan’s former rulers, and they say the luxury is the proceeds of years of endemic corruption.
Along an endless corridor with a thick apple-green carpet, a young fighter sleeps slumped on a sofa, his Kalashnikov rifle resting against him, as exotic fish glide above him in one of seven giant tanks.
Photo: AFP
The fighter is part of the personal security detail of Qari Salahuddin Ayoubi — one of the new regime’s most powerful commanders — who installed his company of 150 men in the mansion on Aug. 15, the day that Kabul fell.
The luxury of the mansion would be unimaginable for most ordinary Afghans.
Huge glass chandeliers hang in cavernous halls, large soft sofas furnish a maze of lounges and an indoor swimming pool is finished with intricate turquoise tiles.
Photo: AFP
It even boasts a sauna, a Turkish steam bath and a gym.
It is an out-of-this-world experience for the new occupants, who for years sacrificed creature comforts for rebellion — living on their wits in the plains, valleys and mountains of rural Afghanistan.
However, the new head of the household — now the military commander of four provinces — makes it clear that his men are not to get used to the luxury.
“Islam never wants us to have a luxurious life,” Ayoubi said, adding luxury comes in paradise, the “life after death.”
The mansion’s owner, Dostum, is a notorious figure woven into the fabric of Afghanistan’s recent history.
A former paratrooper, communist commander, warlord and vice president, he was the very definition of a cunning political survivor who weathered more than four decades of conflict in war-torn Afghanistan.
Despite a series of war crimes linked to Dostum’s forces, the former Afghan government hoped that his military acumen and seething hatred of the Taliban would help them survive, but his stronghold was overrun and the graying 67-year-old fled across the border to Uzbekistan.
The former vice president is widely suspected to have hugely profited from the corruption and embezzlement that discredited the former government.
Several officials illegally took land to build luxurious mansions in one neighborhood, earning it the nickname “Thieves’ Quarter” among locals.
In one wing of the enormous house, Taliban fighters relaxed in a massive tropical greenhouse of several hundred square meters under a huge glass roof.
That is overlooked by a mezzanine dominated by a dark wood bar — a testament to the reported decadent tastes of a general renowned for a penchant for late nights and strong liquor.
The Taliban have good reason to hate Dostum.
In 2001, he was accused of killing more than 2,000 fighters — locking many in containers in the middle of the desert where they suffocated under a scorching sun.
Ayoubi rejected any desire for revenge.
“If other people who had been oppressed like us came here, you would not have seen the chairs and tables. They might have destroyed them,” he said.
However, the new Taliban regime would not allow such luxury to be constructed with ill-gotten gains in the future, Ayoubi said.
“We are on the side of the poor,” he said, as dozens of visitors wait patiently in the corridor, idly watching the indifferent fish.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS