For Afghanistan’s new enemies of the state, a life in hiding
His anonymity protected only by a surgical facemask – and fogged car windows on a frozen winter day – the young Afghan man was suddenly within arm’s reach of the gun-toting jihadists whose presence on the streets has trapped him behind closed doors for months.
It was the former bodyguard’s first extensive drive in Kabul since he went into hiding in August, after the Taliban toppled the American-backed government he used to serve.
Amid Kabul’s heavy traffic, clusters of bearded Taliban fighters wave the car through, unaware that its passenger is a wanted man.
Rows of white Taliban flags, and concrete blast walls newly painted with slogans that boast of the Islamist victory over the United States, signify at every turn control by the new regime.
They remind Mr. A – who asked that his name not be used, for his own security – why he remains in hiding, with no
