Afghan nationals, former detainees of Bagram prison, recounted details of their torture during the Americans’ administration of the infamous prison.

After the United States launched its comprehensive military operations in Afghanistan, it built many prisons to detain what it described as “terrorists”, especially members of the “Taliban” movement.

One of the most prominent of these prisons is “Bagram”, located 50 kilometers north of the capital, Kabul. It was built by the Americans in 2002 inside the Bagram Air Base, and it includes 120 cells.

The prison, which was run by the US Central Intelligence Agency “CIA”, witnessed the arrest of thousands of Afghan citizens on various allegations, where they were subjected to interrogation and torture by various means, until it became known as “Guantanamo Afghanistan”.

In this context, Anadolu Agency met 3 Afghan citizens who were former inmates of “Bagram”, where they recounted the details of what they lived through in the prison known by them as the “black cell”.

Mawlawi Abdel Halim Shadim (33 years old), spent 3 years in Bagram prison, during which he was subjected to various types of torture.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Shadim said that he was arrested on false allegations, as they accused him of belonging to the armed Haqqani Network, and that he was one of its leaders.

Washington and the cable accuse the “Haqqani Network” of deep-rooted ties to the Pakistani intelligence agency, and of orchestrating deadly attacks from its strongholds, including the siege of the US embassy in September 2011, which lasted 19 hours.

The Afghan citizen added that the Americans sent advertisements to newspapers in the state in which he was residing, stating that “Mawlawi Shadim is a terrorist from the leaders of the Haqqani network.”

He confirmed that he was subjected to various types of torture, to the extent that he was deprived of food for 3 continuous days.

He explained that the prison guards were spraying a substance on them from the opening of the cell, which caused a burning sensation in the eye.

He pointed out that the prison administration used to give them a piece of bread not the size of half the palm of one hand.

Shadim recounts that among the types of psychological torture they were subjected to inside “Bagram,” they were photographed through surveillance cameras, while taking a shower and urinate.

He said that the prison administration forbade them from hanging a cloth jacket in front of the place designated for showering.

For his part, Afghan Ahmad Daoud Mansouri believes that the mask of “the United States’ defense of human rights” has fallen in Bagram prison.

Mansouri, 32, said he spent seven years in Bagram prison for “incitement against the United States.”

“Those who defend human rights have imprisoned us in this place,” he added.

And he added, “We stayed here for several years. Is it possible for human rights to be like this?!”

Mansouri pointed out that the prison atmosphere was very cold in the winter, and very hot during the summer.

He explained that despite this, the prison administration used to raise the temperature of the air conditioners in the summer, and reduce it in the winter, in another form of torture of inmates.

He expressed his happiness for the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, stressing that “it is difficult to define the taste of freedom.”

He described the United States as “an occupying force that has kept the Afghan people under difficult conditions.”

As for Shukrullah Beg, a school teacher, he said that the United States had designed Bagram prison in such a way that it would be impossible for a person to live in it.

He explained that the prison cells housed large numbers of Quran memorizers and scholars.

He added that the Bagram prison inmate could only die, lose his mind, or become disabled.

“That’s what they were aiming for,” Beck continued. It is a place where it is impossible for even an animal to live.”

He tells how the prison administration once kept them on a layer of cement in cold weather, for 13 days.

“We were subjected to different types of torture,” he added.

He pointed out that among the prisoners were elderly and sick people who found it difficult even to walk alone.

He stated that the Bagram administration neglected even these inmates, indicating that they were rioting to force it to bring doctors and take care of the health of those prisoners.

In mid-August, the Taliban managed to take control of Afghanistan, coinciding with the completion of the US withdrawal from the country at the end of the same month.

(Anatolia)