Afghanistan's government is running an aggressive campaign to remove drug users from the streets.
Mohamed Omar says he travelled the world as a flight attendant but lost his job when the Taliban returned to power"I was under the bridge trying to get some drugs when I felt a hand grab me from behind. It was the Taliban. They had come to take us away."
In recent months, the Taliban have been rounding up hundreds of men across the capital - from the bridge, from parks and from the hilltops. Most have been taken to a former US military base, which has been turned into a makeshift rehabilitation centre. The stench beneath the bridge is overwhelming, with dogs rummaging through piles of litter, looking for scraps of food. Overhead, traffic flows, street vendors hawk goods, and commuters rush to catch buses at the local depot.
"They used pipes to whip and beat us," says Omar. "I broke my finger because I didn't want to leave the bridge and I resisted. They still forced us out."Footage later released by the Taliban government showed their soldiers clearing the area of addicts who had died from an overdose - their lifeless bodies being carried away wrapped in dark grey shawls. Others, still living, had to be taken out on stretchers because they were unconscious.
When the Taliban were in power in the 1990s, they all but stamped out poppy cultivation. But the drugs trade became a major source of income for them throughout their 20-year insurgency. For the doctors at the centre, this is a rudimentary operation. The Taliban continue to deliver more people and the staff are struggling to find space for them.
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