Watch our special report on fighting with the Taliban
 
 

At the butcher’s, pieces of meat hang on metal hooks and from the wire mesh attached to the window. Sadakhan has come to find something to feed his family over the weekend. He discusses with the butcher the situation in their village, Char Asiab. “Luckily  it’s calm and safe here,” he says. “But just next door there is fighting. And towards the south, the situation is even worse.” Wearing a long beard dyed with henna, Sadakhan points his finger at the tarmacked road which crosses the market, in the direction of the neighbouring province of Logar, a few kilometers away. The vendors settled all along the pavement watch taxis, trucks and motorbike riders go by, hoping for a client.  

The village of Char Asiab, approximately 20 kms from the Afghan capital, is one of the main entryways into Kabul province. For the past year, residents of this village have seen the fighting get closer to their homes. Police cars patrol the village and Afghan helicopters regularly fly over on their way to the southern part of the country, where fighting has escalated.

“You can find the Taliban in neighbouring districts, just one or two kilometres away,” says Captain Momen, a commander in the national Afghan army. Smiling, he points out some nearby hills surrounding the area. “The Taliban hide in the mountains and in the nearby villages and at night they come out and go make their case to the people,” he says. “They are more active than they were last year.” The insurgents fight in regions previously considered calm and are drawing closer to the Afghan capital.

At the entrance to Char Asiab, taxis stop and fill up their tanks at the last gas station in Kabul province. Here the crime rate is not as high as in the neighbouring provinces. The stop is made without fear of being robbed. …. Kandara, a brick-maker, watches the taxis pass and says, “Yes, the Taliban are here but they haven’t hurt anyone yet. The Afghan government must negotiate with them, because they are the sons of our country. If they take our village, we will let them. We are too tired to fight.”