Inside the Taliban’s surveillance network monitoring millions | Global News Avenue

In a crowded control center surrounded by dozens of TV screens, the Taliban police force proudly demonstrates its newly acquired network of 90,000 CCTV cameras to watch the daily lives of millions of people.

“We have monitored the entire Kabul city from here,” said Khalid Zadran, spokesman for the Taliban Police Chief.

Authorities say such surveillance will help fight crime, but critics fear it will be used to cut objections and monitor strict ethics codes implemented by the Islamic Taliban government. Under their interpretation of Islamic law.

The BBC was the first to allow international journalists to see the system.

Inside the control room, police officers sat in a row, watching live streams of thousands of cameras, consistent with the lives of the 6 million people living in Kabul.

Everything from license plates to facial expressions is monitored.

“In some communities, we quickly approached the local police when we noticed a group of people and suspected that they might be involved in drug use, criminal activity or something suspicious,” Zadran said.

“They arrived quickly and investigated the nature of the party.”

Under the previous government, Kabul was attacked daily by the Taliban and so-called ISIS militants, as well as high-profile kidnapping and cycling parties. When the Taliban regained power in 2021, they promised to fight crime.

The sharp increase in the number of surveillance cameras in the capital indicates an increasing way in which the Taliban enforces laws and order. According to a security force spokesman for power, the capital had only 850 cameras before its return.

However, over the past three years, the Taliban authorities have also proposed a series of severe measures that have limited people’s rights and freedoms, especially women’s rights. The Taliban government has not yet been officially recognized by any other country.

The surveillance system BBC displays features in Kabul with the option to track people through facial recognition. Pop up at the corner of a screen image, each face is classified by age range, gender, and whether they have beards or masks.

“On a clear day, we can amplify people (in kilometers) away,” Zadran said.

The Taliban even monitors its own personnel. At the checkpoint, when the soldier pops up, the soldier opens the car’s trunk to check the camera, and the operator focuses its lens and zooms in to double-check what’s inside.

The interior ministry said the cameras “help to improve safety, curb crime rates and prompt arrest of criminals.” It added the introduction of CCTV and motorcycle control, resulting in a 30% drop in crime, but it is impossible to independently verify these figures.

However, rights groups worry about who is being monitored and how long it lasts.

“Under the guise of ‘national security’, the installation of cameras sets a template for the Taliban to continue its tough policies that violate the fundamental rights of the Afghan people, especially women in public places,” Amnesty International said.

Women are not allowed to hear outside their own houses by law, although this is not strictly enforced. The teenage girl was blocked from secondary school and higher education. Women are banned from various forms of work. In December, women training as midwife and nurse told the BBC they were ordered not to return to the course.

Although women continue to be visible on the streets of cities such as Kabul, they must wear facial coverings.

Fariba* is a young graduate who lives in Kabul with her parents and has been unable to find a job since the Taliban came to power. She told the BBC that it is “concerned that surveillance cameras can be used to monitor women’s hijabs (veils).”

The Taliban said only city police can access CCTV systems, and the virtues of the moral police in the Taliban and the transmission of the Deputy Prevention Department were not used.

But Fariba is concerned that the camera will further harm those who oppose Taliban rule.

“Many people, especially former military members, human rights advocates and protest women, who strive to live freely and often live in secrecy,” she said.

“People’s surveillance cameras will also be used to monitor female hijacks,” she said.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch said that Afghanistan does not have appropriate data protection laws to regulate the preservation and use of CCTV videos collected.

Police said the data were kept for only three months, and according to the Home Office, the cameras would not pose a threat to privacy because they were “involved in special and completely confidential room operations by specific and professional persons in charge.”

The camera seems to be made in China. The control room monitors and brands on feed seen by the BBC, under the name Dahua, a company linked to the Chinese government. Earlier reports said the Taliban was in talks with China’s Huawei technology, which was rejected by the company. Taliban officials declined to answer questions from the BBC about their procurement of equipment.

Some of the costs of installing a new network fall on the average Afghans who are monitored by the system.

The BBC spoke with Shell* at a house in central Kabul, who was asked to pay for some of the cameras installed on the streets near her home.

“They ask every family for thousands of Afghans,” she said. In a country where women with jobs may only earn about 5,000 Afghans ($68; £54) a month, that’s a huge amount.

After many years of war, the humanitarian situation in Kabul and Afghanistan remained unstable. The country’s economy is in a state of crisis, but international aid funds have been greatly stopped since the Taliban regained power.

According to the United Nations, 30 million people need assistance.

“If families refuse to pay (for cameras), they will be threatened by water and cuts within three days,” Shella added. “We have to borrow a loan to pay for the fee.

“People are hungry – what are the benefits of these cameras for them?”

The Taliban said that if people don’t want to contribute, they can make formal complaints.

“The participation is voluntary, and donations are hundreds, not thousands,” Taliban police spokesman Khalid Zadran insisted.

Despite the assurance, inside and outside Afghanistan, rights activists are still worried about how to use this powerful surveillance system.

Jaber, a vegetable seller in Kabul, said the cameras represent another way to make Afghans feel powerless.

“We are seen as trash, denying the opportunity to make a living, and the authorities see us as worthless,” he told the BBC.

“We do nothing.”

*For safety

Other reports by Peter Ball