NARRATOR: Now two stories on
this special edition of FRONTLINE.
First as the United States withdraws from a 20-year
conflict... It’s time to end America’s
longest war. NARRATOR: There are signs Iran
is stepping in... And the Taliban is gaining
ground... Correspondent Najibullah
Quraishi investigates the consequences of leaving
Afghanistan. The most likely scenario is a
civil war. There is no one to stop it
anymore. NARRATOR: And later...
In India allegations of rape and political cover up...
The girl tried to burn herself, obviously she wanted
media attention, she wanted someone to listen.
NARRATOR: Correspondent Ramita Navai investigates...
There have been allegations that the chief minister has been
trying to protect the accused. NARRATOR: These two stories
on this special addition of FRONTLINE.
Good morning... U.S. and NATO troops begin pulling out of
Afghanistan. News that all U.S. and NATO
troops will soon leave their country, many Afghans are
feeling anxious about their future.
NARRATOR: Journalist Najibullah Quraishi is heading
into Afghanistan as the U.S. military is leaving.
It's time to end America's longest war.
It's time for American troops to come home.
NARRATOR: 20 years after an American-led coalition drove the
Taliban from power, the group has now regained control of as
much as 80 percent of the country.
There's a chance a Taliban insurgency could topple the
U.S.-backed government. The Afghan Government has
warned that the withdrawal could lead to a civil war.
Open a new, more turbulent chapter in this country's bloody
history. NARRATOR: Fears of a Taliban
takeover and civil war are increasing.
With the Taliban making advances almost by the day,
Najibullah is going into one of the group's strongholds, where
an extreme faction has their base near the Iranian border.
He's been promised an interview with one of the Taliban's
original leaders, and one of its most feared warlords, Mullah
Abdul Manan Niazi. QURAISHI: Mullah Niazi is
tough, frightening, and a very dangerous man.
But I took a risk, of course it was a big risk.
I had some doubt, if he would do something bad against me.
NARRATOR: Niazi's base is over 500 miles west of Kabul,
deep in Taliban country, where factions regularly clash with
government forces. The white flags of the Taliban
mark the end of the road for Najibullah and his team.
(speaking Arabic) NARRATOR: The last of a dozen
checkpoints. QURAISHI: The people who are
in the checkpoint, they were coming and looking to us
because probably they are seeing journalists for the first
time. ♪ ♪
NARRATOR: The only approach to Niazi's camp is on foot.
It's a 90-minute hike over rough terrain.
QURAISHI: Mullah Niazi sent some troops back from the
mountain to escort us. And these people were heavily
armed. ♪ ♪
It was quite scary. You know, once you're inside,
you cannot do anything. You have no way to come back.
NARRATOR: At the summit, Najibullah and his colleagues
are ordered into a holding cell. QURAISHI: I saw a sign
saying welcome to the Taliban court.
At the side of the room I saw a bunch of sticks.
They punish some people. When I saw these sticks, I said,
"You're a goner." (man calling for prayer)
As soon as I heard they were calling for the prayer, I
immediately I thought this is the moment to come out of this
cell. I wanted to show that I'm a
proper Muslim and I am not a spy, I am a journalist.
(man praying in Arabic) NARRATOR: After prayers,
everyone gathers on the roof. Najibullah is brought out onto
the top of the compound to wait. (speaking Arabic):
NARRATOR: Then the Mullah arrives.
QURAISHI: If you meet Niazi in person, he's smiling, he's
very friendly. You think he's the best person.
But behind all these smiles, he's a really, really dangerous
man. NARRATOR: Niazi invites
Najibullah and the team into the main room.
He launches into a victory speech for what he sees as the
Taliban's defeat of America. (speaking Arabic):
QURAISHI: (speaking Arabic):
NARRATOR: Then Niazi says something surprising: with the
U.S. leaving, a new enemy is moving in... Iran.
(speaking Arabic): NARRATOR: The Fatemiyoun
Brigade is an Iranian-backed Afghan militia.
It's drawn from Shia Afghan refugees in Iran and also from
members of the Hazara Shia minority inside Afghanistan.
The Fatemiyoun were deployed in Syria to fight for Bashar al
Assad. Now, Niazi claims Iran has been
sending them back to Afghanistan in anticipation of a civil war.
(speaking Arabic): NARRATOR: Niazi says that
almost every night he sends men to the Iranian border, where
they ambush Fatemiyoun fighters sent from Tehran.
(speaking Arabic): NARRATOR: He shows gruesome
pictures on his phone of what he claims are dead Fatemiyoun
fighters. ♪ ♪
(speaking Arabic): NARRATOR: There's no way to
confirm the pictures he was showing, but to further
demonstrate his faction's power, Mullah Niazi wanted Najibullah
and his team to see his bomb makers at work.
(conversing speaking Arabic) QURAISHI:
(speaking Arabic): QURAISHI:
(speaking Arabic): NARRATOR: Outside on the
mountaintop, Mullah Niazi issues a chilling threat, aimed at Iran
and the Hazara. (speaking Arabic):
NARRATOR: To show he means what he says, he invites
Najibullah to film his men on a mission.
They're setting an ambush for the Fatemiyoun fighters coming
over the border from Iran. (music playing on radio)
(speaking Arabic): (speaking Arabic):
NARRATOR: The men plant
I.E.D.s along the roadside. (speaking Arabic):
NARRATOR: As night falls, they take Najibullah out of the
area, before the long trip back to Kabul.
(speaking Arabic): ♪ ♪
NARRATOR: In Najibullah's 20 years covering the war here,
Iran's influence has always been a complex factor.
It has long viewed Afghanistan as a safe haven for Sunni
extremists. But it also cultivated ties with
the Taliban to extend its influence in the country.
Mullah Niazi's claims signal a dangerous turn.
QURAISHI: When Niazi was talking about Iran, I was
doubting. This was spinning in my mind
all the time while I was on the way to Kabul.
Then I couldn't sleep for days, for nights, and I tried to find
some other sources to support what Niazi says.
(horns honking) NARRATOR: Through his
contacts, he meets a man who says he recruited Afghan Shias,
most of them Hazara, to fight with the Fatemiyoun in Syria.
QURAISHI: (speaking Arabic):
NARRATOR: He agreed to talk if we concealed his identity and
disguised his voice. (speaking Arabic):
QURAISHI: (speaking Arabic):
(horns honking) NARRATOR: Another Fatemiyoun
source, a veteran of the war in Syria, tells Najibullah that
Iranian officers ordered them to prepare for fighting in
Afghanistan. Like the recruiter, we're
concealing his identity. ♪ ♪
(speaking Arabic): QURAISHI:
(speaking Arabic): NARRATOR: It's hard to
verify the men's claims about the number of Fatemiyoun in
Afghanistan, but it has been estimated that between 10,000
and 20,000 fought in Syria and several thousand returned home.
The Iranian foreign minister was asked about their role in
Afghanistan in a television interview.
He said that while they had supported Afghan fighters in
Syria, he denied they are active in Afghanistan now.
(speaking Arabic): NARRATOR: But the foreign
minister said that it was possible that they could be
deployed in Afghanistan, if needed.
(speaking Arabic): NARRATOR: No one in the
Afghan government would talk to Najibullah about the militia or
the role of Iran in the country. QURAISHI: Either they don't
want to talk about this issue, or either they don't know
anything about this. NARRATOR: Whatever the extent
of Iran's involvement here, one group is increasingly in the
line of fire: the Hazara. Najibullah heads to central
Afghanistan, where most of the Shia minority group live.
They've long been the target of Taliban persecution and attacks.
Now their association with Iran and Fatemiyoun makes them a top
target for Taliban warlords like Mullah Niazi.
At a Hazara cemetery, Najibullah meets a woman who
says the Taliban has been launching deadly attacks on
their community. Her grandson was killed in the
fighting. (speaking Arabic):
QURAISHI: (speaking Arabic):
NARRATOR: Nooria's husband was killed by the Taliban just
weeks earlier, leaving five children behind.
(speaking Arabic): NARRATOR: Like other ethnic
groups, the Hazaras are forming militias, hoping to protect
their communities from the advancing Taliban.
A local reporter got a brief interview with a senior
commander, Abdul Ghani Alipur, who is currently in hiding.
(speaking Arabic): NARRATOR: Alipur claims to
have thousands of fighters at his command.
(man speaking Arabic, crowd shouting)
NARRATOR: The militarization of the Hazara has incited not
just the Taliban; it has brought the Hazara into conflict with
the Afghan army. In January 2021, Hazara
demonstrators gathered in the town of Behsud.
Government troops ended up opening fire on the crowd.
Homes were burned, buildings destroyed, and 11 Hazaras were
killed. Najibullah attended a funeral
for some of the victims of the attack.
(crowd mourning) QURAISHI:
(speaking Arabic): QURAISHI:
(speaking Arabic): NARRATOR: Seven weeks after
the attack in Behsud, the Hazara commander, Alipur, announced his
forces had taken revenge. Video captured an Afghan
military helicopter being shot down by what was later
identified as an Iranian-made guided missile similar to this
one used in Syria. (loud explosion)
Alipur later denied his Hazara militia was involved, but an
Afghan parliamentary commission confirmed his responsibility.
The government has vowed to punish those responsible for the
attack, which left nine people dead.
♪ ♪ Back in Kabul, Najibullah meets
with the spiritual leader of the Hazara, Mohammed Mohaqiq.
He is also a member of the Afghan Parliament, and he says
he is fearful of the consequence of the U.S. withdrawal.
(speaking Arabic): Today President Biden
reaffirmed that U.S. troops are leaving Afghanistan fast.
NARRATOR: American forces are set to be out of Afghanistan by
the end of August. Staying would have meant
U.S. troops taking casualties... American men and women, back in
the middle of a civil war. NARRATOR: The country now
faces a future full of chaos, and continued war.
Only Afghan forces remain, a force already facing dire
circumstances as the Taliban sweeps through the country.
The Taliban are gaining ground.
The militants say they've taken more than ten districts...
America's longest war may soon be coming to an end here.
But Afghanistan's war is not over.
NARRATOR: Just over two weeks after Najibullah's interview
with Mullah Niazi, the Taliban warlord was killed by unknown
assassins. QURAISHI: It's more crazy
than the past. It's worse than what I've seen
in my life. NARRATOR: Niazi's eldest son
was appointed the new leader and immediately swore vengeance.
QURAISHI: I grew up in the war.
I have seen everything with my own eyes, but this time is more,
more dangerous than the past.
And I can see a civil war in Afghanistan again.
NARRATOR: Coming up next on
this special addition of FRONTLINE...
Politics and Rape in India... No rape examination is
conducted, crucial evidence is lost.
NARRATOR: Correspondent Ramita Navai investigates...
It’s incredible how strong willed this woman is.
It’s a stunning, stunning story. NARRATOR: India’s Rape
Scandal - Begins right now.
Another case has shocked the nation.
RAMITA NAVAI: India has been experiencing a wave of
shocking rape cases. There seems to be no end to
the shock and horror, with brutal rapes being reported on
a daily basis. NAVAI: The government
has vowed zero tolerance. But dozens of politicians are
facing charges of crimes against women, including nine recent
rape cases. Another woman was raped and
no case was registered despite her approach to the cops.
NAVAI: And allegations of abuse and cover-up keep
surfacing. ♪ ♪
(car horns)
I traveled into India in March 2021, just before a
lethal surge in COVID. I came to investigate two rape
cases that had drawn police, politicians, and even the
Indian prime minister into controversy.
My destination was the state of Uttar Pradesh, home to more than
200 million people. Uttar Pradesh is the most
populous state in India and the most electorally significant.
It also holds a less impressive statistic... it has the second-
highest reported number of rapes in the whole country.
This is the woman behind one of the cases.
She told us that she's been receiving death threats and is
under 24/7 police protection, making it impossible to do an
on-camera interview with her. She's not been publicly
identified, and we've agreed to call her Jaya.
The man she accused of rape is Kuldeep Singh Sengar, then a
powerful politician in India's ruling BJP party.
He's now in prison for Jaya's rape, but still has a loyal
following. ♪ ♪
We've pieced together the story of what happened from court
records and our own reporting on the ground.
We're following some local guides... they're on motorbikes
up here ahead. We're trying to get into Jaya's
village. Jaya and her family are from
Unnao, the area Kuldeep Sengar represented in the state
legislative assembly. They lived in the same village
and were neighbors. What's happening?
Somehow, word of our visit had reached the village.
Even though Sengar's in prison, he and his family still control
the area. They explained they didn't want
anyone associated with Sengar or his family to see them with
foreign journalists. You're scared of being killed?
He will not forgive anyone if someone's against him,
against Kuldeep Singh Sengar. NAVAI: Right.
Yeah. NAVAI: Someone who has known
Sengar for years agreed to speak to me, as long as we
concealed his identity. (speaking Hindi):
NAVAI: In June 2017, Jaya, then 16 years old, was asked to
visit Sengar's house for a job interview.
In her court testimony, she described what happened next.
The door opened. We reached the courtyard.
Sengar caught me by my hand and dragged me to his room.
He stripped me of my clothes. He closed the door and subjected
me to a sexual assault. When I opposed, he said, "If you
raise a voice, I will murder you."
NAVAI: Jaya has testified initially, she told only her
aunt. But afterwards, some men who
worked with Sengar went looking for her.
Just days after Jaya was raped by Sengar, she was kidnapped
from her village, bundled into a car, and brought here to the
town of Kanpur, where she says she was held in a house and
gang-raped for over a week. In testimony and public
statements, Jaya described what she said happened to her.
The men took turns to rape me.
I recognized two of them as Sengar's men.
They kept me on sedatives. Once, I even tried to flee, but
I was caught and sedated again. NAVAI: After eight days,
police found Jaya alone in a house.
They took down the names of the men she said kidnapped and
raped her, but they refused to register her rape allegation
against Sengar. ♪ ♪
People are petrified of Kuldeep Sengar.
He is exceptionally strong locally, financially,
politically, backed by goons, by thugs.
NAVAI: Journalist Aishwarya Iyer has investigated the rape
case and other criminal allegations against Sengar
going back years. Her allegation is that she
tried to get a complaint registered against Kuldeep
Sengar, but his name was repeatedly dropped.
NAVAI: The Uttar Pradesh police did not respond to our
requests for comment. A former head of the force told
me the case reflects a disturbing trend of politicians
interfering in police matters. ♪ ♪
NAVAI: Jaya wouldn't give up. After two months, she went to
the state capital, Lucknow, where the chief minister was
holding an open meeting for people to present their
concerns. The chief minister of Uttar
Pradesh is Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu nationalist who's also one
of the most powerful men in the country.
Within a year of becoming chief minister, he ordered the
withdrawal of thousands of criminal cases against
politicians. These cases included violence
against women. Adityanath is a senior member
of the ruling BJP party, and often touted as a future Indian
prime minister. Jaya told us she was able to
meet him and he assured her that her allegations would be dealt
with. He then asked her to leave.
(speaking Hindi): NAVAI: I.P. Singh was
expelled from the BJP in 2019 after calling its top leadership
thugs. (speaking Hindi):
(continues in Hindi): NAVAI: Court documents show
the chief minister's office passed Jaya's allegations to
the police, but no action was taken.
Meanwhile, Sengar telephoned Jaya's uncle to pressure her to
stay silent. I've been given a recording of
one of these calls, later used in evidence.
(both speaking Hindi) NAVAI: But Jaya didn't drop
the accusation. In April 2018, Jaya's father,
Surendra, was attacked by a group of men he said were led by
Sengar's brother Atul Singh. A journalist filmed Surendra
afterwards, inside the police station.
(speaking Hindi): MAN (speaking Hindi):
SURENDRA: NAVAI: Instead of helping
Surendra, local police officers arrested him, claiming he
owned an illegal weapon. Phone records show that Sengar
spoke to the officers ten times during this period.
Surendra suffered internal injuries and would later die.
♪ ♪ After the attack, Jaya, her
mother, and sister went to the chief minister's residence.
(speaking Hindi): NAVAI: Jaya doused herself in
kerosene. The girl tried to burn
herself. Obviously, she wanted media
attention, she wanted someone to listen.
(sobbing loudly) The policemen and security
put blankets on her and ensured that she wouldn't die.
But I think that's when we all woke up.
(speaking Hindi): NAVAI: Until this moment,
Jaya's case had received little publicity.
Now there was a national outcry about it.
(crowd chanting) Sengar publicly confronted the
allegations for the first time. (speaking Hindi):
NAVAI: The controversy drew in India's prime minister,
Narendra Modi, who has promised zero tolerance for rape.
(speaking Hindi): NAVAI: The prime minister
ordered in federal detectives. Within days, Kuldeep Singh
Sengar was arrested. It was ten months since Jaya
first went to the police. (speaking Hindi):
NAVAI: He was later charged with rape and manslaughter.
We asked Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for comment on how
the case was handled, but he didn't respond.
Publicly, he rejected criticisms that Sengar had been protected.
(speaking Hindi): NAVAI: A month before Jaya
was due to give evidence in Sengar's trial, there was a new
development. Jaya, her two aunts, and her
lawyer were traveling to a meeting.
That day, the police security detail protecting her wasn't
with her. (sirens, screams)
Jaya never reached her destination.
Their car was rammed by a truck with blacked-out plates.
A rape survivor who suffered critical injuries in
a car-truck collision was airlifted to New Delhi.
NAVAI: Her two aunts and her lawyer died.
Only Jaya would survive. From prison, Sengar denied he
had anything to do with the crash.
MAN (speaking Hindi): SENGAR (speaking Hindi):
(indistinct chatter) (car horn beeps)
NAVAI: India's Supreme Court ordered 24/7 police protection
for Jaya, and moved Sengar's trial from his home state to
the capital, Delhi. (horns beeping)
I really had to be there. There was heavy security
outside. Sengar was brought in.
He seemed scared, he was... He was nervous about what the
judge was going to say. I mean, at that time, we didn't
even know if the girl was going to survive or not.
They set up a makeshift court in hospital for her to give her
statement. And the judge said that her
testimony was unblemished, truthful, and of sterling
quality. This case came to the
conclusion with the finding that Kuldeep Sengar has been
convicted for rape under 376 IPC...
NAVAI: Sengar received life in prison for Jaya's rape, and
ten years for manslaughter. Seven others, including two
police officers, were also sent to prison for their roles in the
killing of Jaya's father. The men charged with kidnapping
and gang-raping Jaya are still awaiting trial.
It's incredible how strong- willed this woman is.
To see death so close, to see your family being consumed by a
complaint that you are raising, and to still be at it, how you
are, I think that's why it's significant.
It's a stunning, stunning story. ♪ ♪
NAVAI: Nine months later, another alarming rape case,
in the Hathras area of Uttar Pradesh, raised more allegations
of political cover-up. We're about to meet a
journalist, Nidhi Suresh, who's been investigating the Hathras
alleged gang rape and the alleged cover-ups, and she says
she's got information to share with us.
In September 2020, she spotted tweets from a family asking for
help because their 19-year-old daughter Manisha Valmiki said
she'd been raped by four neighbors.
When we got there, there was zero press.
Her mother and her aunt walked us to the crime scene.
It was just a small clearing. Which, by the way, the police
had not sealed, right? It was open completely.
She just kept saying, "Something bad happened to my daughter,
something bad happened to my daughter," and she spoke about
how she found her without any clothes.
(speaking Hindi, crying): (sobbing)
♪ ♪ NAVAI: We travel to
Manisha's village. The Indian caste system is
powerful here. Manisha's family is from a
lower caste. The men she said raped her are
Thakurs, an influential high caste who own the majority of
land here, and include many police officers and politicians
like the chief minister, Yogi Adityanath.
The parents of the men Manisha accused agreed to meet me.
Their sons are in jail awaiting trial.
They insisted that Manisha hadn't been raped, but that her
own family had beaten her up as punishment for having a
relationship with one of the accused men.
(speaking Hindi): (speaking Hindi):
NAVAI: After Manisha's mother found her, she was taken
to the local police station to report the attack.
She'd been strangled and her spinal cord was damaged.
A journalist happened to be there and filmed her.
MAN (speaking Hindi): MANISHA (speaking Hindi):
NAVAI: In their report, the police noted she'd been
violently assaulted, but did not include her allegation of rape.
Eventually, Manisha was taken to Aligarh Hospital.
Manisha's cousin was with her. (speaking Hindi):
NAVAI: Three days later, as the story began to get out,
Manisha was filmed by another local journalist.
(speaking Hindi): The hospital has not asked
her if there's been a sexual assault.
No rape examination is conducted.
Crucial evidence is lost. So according to the family, the
doctors tell them that till they have a police complaint which
registers rape, they're not going to do anything about it.
NAVAI: The family went back to the police to try to get them
to record the rape allegation. (speaking Hindi):
NAVAI: No one from the police would respond to our questions
about how the case was handled. But according to official
records, it wasn't until eight days later, as media reporting
was gaining pace, that the police fully registered the rape
allegations and asked doctors at the hospital to gather forensic
evidence. They don't find semen.
But again, it's been too long after the incident.
One of the doctors we spoke to said there were quite a few
people among them, the medical staff, who were asked to sign
a statement saying she did not look raped.
NAVAI: We spoke to several doctors involved in Manisha's
treatment, but they were too frightened to appear on camera.
They told us police and local officials asked them to downplay
any evidence of rape. ♪ ♪
By now, Manisha's case had captured the attention of
Chandrashekhar Azad, who leads the Bhim Army, which fights for
lower-caste rights. (speaking Hindi):
NAVAI: Chandrashekhar recorded his journey to Hathras,
swapping vehicles to dodge the police.
(speaking Hindi): NAVAI: He reached Manisha and
began filming. (speaking Hindi):
NAVAI: Fearing Manisha would not survive, her family had a
video statement from her made that could be used in court.
MAN (speaking Hindi): MANISHA (speaking Hindi):
MAN: MANISHA:
By then, she had suffered paralysis on all four of her
limbs, she was having breathing difficulties.
There were protests outside the hospital.
And on 29th, she passed away. NAVAI: That evening,
journalists followed the police taking Manisha's body back to
her village. The family's request for an
independent postmortem were ignored.
(crowd clamoring) (speaking Hindi):
(people sobbing and wailing)
(speaking Hindi): (speaking Hindi, crying):
NAVAI: Manisha's cousin told me the family were confined to
their homes. And in the dead of night, the
police cremated her body. (speaking Hindi):
♪ ♪ NAVAI: In the aftermath, one
of Uttar Pradesh's most senior police officers denied Manisha
had ever been raped. (speaking Hindi):
NAVAI: Some BJP politicians also publicly denied any rape
had happened. (speaking Hindi):
NAVAI: The day after Manisha was cremated, her family was
visited by the district magistrate, who encouraged them
to withdraw the rape allegation. Neeraj filmed him.
(speaking Hindi): (speaking Hindi):
NAVAI: The video went viral and fueled more unrest around
the case. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath
blamed the outrage on opposition parties and an international
conspiracy to undermine him. The trial of the four men
Manisha accused has been delayed by COVID.
Their lawyer claims Manisha's video statements about the rape
were fabricated. There have been allegations
that the chief minister, Yogi Adityanath's office, has been
trying to cover up this gang rape, that he's been trying to
protect the accused. (speaking Hindi):
♪ ♪ NAVAI: Cases like Manisha's
and Jaya's continue to polarize India, pitting politics against
families' search for justice. One of India's most respected
and senior legal figures told me these cases should be a wake-up
call for more accountability when it comes to violence
against women. It's completely inexplicable.
Why should anybody, you know... (chuckling): I mean, not only
the prime minister, not only the chief minister... why should
anybody, you know, remain silent when something like this
happens, you know? They should speak out.
It doesn't matter who the perpetrator is.
The government, the state, the police machinery... everybody...
Should come out in the open and say that this is wrong.
Go to pbs.org/frontline for
an interview with Correspondent Ramita Navai.
It has the second highest reported number of rapes
in the whole country. Learn more about the
Fatemiyoun Brigade - and why it makes the Taliban nervous.
Revisit our films on nearly 20 years of war in Afghanistan.
Connect with FRONTLINE on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and
TikTok and stream anytime on the PBS App or pbs.org/frontline.
Captioned by
Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org
For more on this and other "Frontline" programs, visit our
website at pbs.org/frontline. ♪ ♪
FRONTLINE's, "Leaving Afghanistan" and
"India's Rape Scandal" are available on Amazon
Prime Video. ♪ ♪