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Taliban saved us from terrorizing police: Afghans
[Al Arabiya Latest] As British troops moved into the village newly freed from Taliban control, they heard one message from the anxious locals: for God's sake do not bring back the Afghan police.

American and British troops have launched a campaign to seize control of Helmand province, about half of which was in Taliban hands, and restore Afghan government institutions.

As the troops advance, they are learning uncomfortable facts about their local allies: villagers say the government's police force was so brutal and corrupt that they welcomed the Taliban as liberators. "The police would stop people driving on motorcycles, beat them and take their money," said Mohammad Gul, an elder in the village of Pankela, which British troops have been securing for the past three days after flying in by helicopter. He pointed to two compounds of neighbors where pre-teen children had been abducted by police to be used for the local practice of "bachabazi," or sex with pre-pubescent boys.
It's so common it has a name? It sounds like it might be better to be a girl, in some ways.
It's a Pashtun thing, not a police thing. The Taliban have them, too, and the practice achieved a bit of notoriety under Mullah Omar. Likely the turbans practicing bachabazi today, whether police, government officials, or Taliban, were playthings themselves in their youth. I suppose it kept them regular.
"If the boys were out in the fields, the police would come and rape them," he said.
Unless the field was full of melons, of course...
"You can go to any police base and you will see these boys. They hold them until they are finished with them and then let the child go."
I've never quite been able to see the logic of that particular perversion. Why only boys? Pre-pubescent girls have backsides, too. I think it has something to do with the fact that the boys grow up to wear turbans and lug automatic weapons around and swear Dire RevengeĀ™ and such. Girls just grow up to work in the fields and carry heavy loads and wear burkas.
The Interior Ministry in Kabul said it would contact police commanders in the area before responding in detail.
Yes, please.
When the Taliban arrived in the village 10 months ago and drove the police out, local people rejoiced, said Mohammad Rasul, a toothless elderly farmer who keeps a few cows and chickens in a neatly tended orchard of pomegranate trees, figs and grape vines. Although his own son was killed by a Taliban roadside bomb five years ago, Rasul said the Taliban earned their welcome in the village by treating people with respect. "We were happy (after the Taliban arrived). The Taliban never bothered us," he said.
Never? Seriously??
Guess they brought their own bachabazis from Pakistain.
Before the Taliban arrived, the police had come to his house with a powerful landlord he called a "tyrant," who put a rifle in his face, searched through his compound and demanded money. "If (the British) bring these people back, we can't live here. If they come back, I am sure they will burn everything," Rasul said.
Posted by: Fred 2009-07-13
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=274198