>> NARRATOR: After 20 years of
conflict...
>> The Taliban are back in
charge...
>> The United States and
Taliban are holding their first
face to face talks in Doha...
>> NARRATOR: For over a decade,
reporter Najibullah Quraishi...
>> (bang bang)
>>...has gained unprecedented
access to the group and its
fighters.
>> I never believed twenty years
later I could come back with the
Taliban with me.
I never imagined that one day
this could happen.
>> NARRATOR: FRONTLINE
investigates how we got here.
>> Their future is dark.
This is not the moderate
Taliban.
>> NARRATOR: The threats from Al
Qaeda and ISIS.
>> Takfir! Allahu Akbar!
>> ISIS always wanted to show
their power.
>> The explosion has happened
just by the airport everybody is
running.
>> ISIS-K has claimed
responsibility for the Kabul
attack.
>> NARRATOR: The fear among the
Afghan people...
>> I cannot protect her.
I cannot protect any woman.
>> Does it make you feel sad?
>> Makes me feel angry.
>> NARRATOR: And the
consequences - of the Taliban
Takeover.
♪ ♪
>> I've concluded that it's time
to end America's longest war.
It's time for American troops to
come home.
>> Afghanistan's government has
fallen to Islamist militants
who make up the Taliban.
>> Afghans are thronging to
Kabul's airport, desperate to
get on planes and leave the
country.
>> The situation is growing
increasingly dire for thousands
of Afghans trying to flee the
Taliban.
>> Pentagon just announcing
that the last U.S. troops have
withdrawn from Afghanistan,
marking the end of America's
longest war.
>> NARRATOR: Kabul, August 31,
2021.
The last American flight had
left the night before, after
weeks of chaos.
♪ ♪
>> The U.S. troops left last
night at 1:00, and today at
8:00, Zabihullah Mujahid called
us to come for a press
conference here inside the
airport.
>> NARRATOR: With the Americans
gone, "Frontline" correspondent
Najibullah Quarishi is on his
way to hear from the spokesman
for the new Taliban regime.
>> Look at the mess they left
here.
People were desperately trying
to go inside the airport.
They preferred to die inside the
airport rather than being
outside and seeing the Taliban.
These poor people, they
couldn't take anything with
them... they just left everything
behind.
(sighs): It, it broke my, my
heart, it made me really, really
emotional.
♪ ♪
>> NARRATOR: Surrounded by
Taliban special forces, the new
government spokesman, Zabihullah
Mujahid, ushered in a new era.
>> (speaking Pashto and Dari):
(man and crowd, responsively):
♪ ♪
(horns honking)
>> NARRATOR: In the days just
after the American withdrawal,
the Taliban were trying to
impose order and quell violence
that had been skyrocketing for
months.
In the streets of Kabul, some
expressed a sense of relief.
>> (speaking Dari):
(man):
(man, shopkeeper repeats):
>> NARRATOR: The Taliban were
eager to project a new, more
moderate image to the world.
(guns firing)
But on the ground, there were
signs of the extremism that
characterized their rule 20
years ago.
>> (chanting in Dari)
>> NARRATOR: Women were among
the first to rise up on the
streets of Kabul.
(guns firing, women screaming)
After one protest, Najibullah
met up with one of the women.
>> (speaking Dari):
>> NARRATOR: Young Afghans like
Wahiza make up more than 60% of
the country's population.
>> (speaking Dari):
♪ ♪
>> NARRATOR: With most of the
journalists leaving the country,
it wasn't long before Najibullah
himself was confronted by the
Taliban.
>> (speaking Dari):
>> NARRATOR: He was shut down
when he tried to film at one of
the protests.
>> (speaking Dari):
♪ ♪
>> NARRATOR: He was shut down
again soon after he sat down to
interview a young woman at a
restaurant.
>> (speaking Pashto):
>> (speaking Dari):
>> NARRATOR: The men appeared to
be working undercover for the
Taliban to enforce their new
rules.
>> (speaking Dari):
>> NARRATOR: The next day, the
woman, whose name is Nargis,
agreed to meet Najibullah in a
less public place outside the
city so she could speak freely.
>> (speaking Dari):
>> NARRATOR: As well as being a
student, Nargis is also a model.
>> (speaking Dari):
♪ ♪
>> NARRATOR: With fears rising,
Najibullah sought out one of the
most prominent advocates for
women's rights in Afghanistan,
Mahbouba Seraj,
who had recently passed up the
chance to leave the country.
>> Once I was forced to leave
this country.
And I couldn't really help it in
those days.
And that was 1978.
And I was young.
And I couldn't, because they
were going to kill me.
The communists were going to
kill me.
Today, I want to, I want to give
it to the Afghan people,
whatever, whatever I have... my
time, my love, my belief, my
knowledge...
Everything.
>> NARRATOR: She said despite
the Taliban's quick moves to
clamp down on women's rights,
she wants the new government to
engage with her on the issue.
>> I cannot tell you how much I
want to really talk to them.
I am here in Afghanistan I want
to tell them and I'm not going
anywhere.
I'm sitting right here.
Because the women, the 18
million women of Afghanistan,
are not dead, and 18 million
women of Afghanistan, they
really need a voice.
And I will be that for as long
as I can.
And I would love to sit down
with them and talk to them.
I would really love to.
>> NARRATOR: While Najibullah
was at her office, a visitor
came in seeking help.
She was concerned her
granddaughter had been abducted
by the Taliban.
(phone ringing)
>> (speaking Dari):
>> NARRATOR: She told Najibullah
that her granddaughter had been
hoping to leave the country
before the Taliban took over.
>> (speaking Dari):
>> You can't do anything?
>> No, nothing.
What am I supposed to do?
>> NARRATOR: She was worried the
woman would be out after dark
and encouraged her to stay home.
>> (speaking Dari):
>> I cannot protect her,
Najibullah!
I cannot protect any woman.
>> In the previous regime, you
had power?
You could have do something?
Before the Taliban, if...
>> Yeah!
>> If somebody had such problem?
>> Yeah, of course!
I could have called, I could
have got them in touch.
I could have called the
minister of interior.
I could have called the chief of
police.
I could have called everybody
and said, "What is going on?"
Now there's nothing I can do.
>> If you see such type of
cases every day, they're coming
to you.
They think there's only one
hope.
It's you, and you're hopeless.
>> I'm hopeless.
>> This make you feel sad?
>> Makes me feel angry.
Not sad.
This is not the time to be sad,
this is the time to be angry, if
I can do something... I want to
do something!
There's nothing I can do.
♪ ♪
>> NARRATOR: The fear and
desperation was spreading beyond
women.
Najibullah had also started
hearing that the police were
becoming increasingly violent.
♪ ♪
He met a student who told him
he had been stopped by the
police on his way home from
university.
>> (speaking Dari):
♪ ♪
>> NARRATOR: At that time, no
one in the government would talk
to Najibullah about the specific
allegations he had been hearing.
>> (greeting in Arabic)
>> NARRATOR: But in an interview
before the Americans left, the
Taliban's chief spokesman
insisted they were not going to
govern like the Taliban of the
1990s.
>> (speaking Dari):
>> NARRATOR: Najibullah wanted
to see how the Taliban were
ruling in other parts of the
country.
The Taliban invited him to the
northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif,
where, in August, they'd scored
a key victory on their way to
taking over.
>> News in Afghanistan, sources
saying the Taliban have taken
the northern city of
Mazar-i-Sharif.
It is a major blow to the
government, which had promised
to defend Afghanistan's fourth-
largest city.
>> The key of the North is
Mazar-i-Sharif.
If you take over Mazar-i-Sharif,
it's mean you can take Kabul
without anything, peacefully.
This is what has happened with
the Taliban.
They took over the North
because they knew, once they
took the North, it's mean they
took the entire country.
>> NARRATOR The Taliban's new
head of media for the North
escorted Najibullah through the
region.
He was quick to convey optimism.
>> (speaking Pashto):
♪ ♪
>> NARRATOR: This region holds
special significance for the
Taliban.
They fought fierce battles
against the U.S. here 20 years
ago.
Najibullah was taken to a
fortress outside the city, where
they were eager to show him
something.
>> (speaking Pashto):
(men speaking Dari)
>> (speaking Dari):
>> NARRATOR: It was a trip back
in time for Najibullah, who was
here filming in 2001 when the
U.S. controlled the fort and
Taliban prisoners staged a
bloody uprising.
It lasted three days and ended
in the deaths of hundreds of
Taliban.
>> This area was, all the
Taliban were lying everywhere.
They're handcuffed and killed.
I was filming from there.
The U.S. forces came there and
they were literally shooting the
Taliban, who, they were here,
where I'm standing.
So I was just on the top of that
hill.
>> NARRATOR: The bloodshed that
took place here 20 years ago
marked the beginning of the end
for the Taliban regime.
>> The Pentagon says the
leadership of Taliban forces in
Afghanistan has been effectively
broken by the military action
there.
>> The defeated Taliban militia
can no longer play host to the
Al Qaeda network in Afghanistan.
>> Large numbers of Taliban and
Al Qaeda leaders are still on
the run.
>> I never believed one day, 20
years later, I could come back
to the same area with the
Taliban with me.
I never believed that.
I never imagined that one day
this could happen.
♪ ♪
>> NARRATOR: In the years after
the Taliban's defeat, Najibullah
returned time and time again to
Afghanistan.
(gunshots)
He would chart the group's
resurgence, as they fought to
regain control and restore
hardline Islamic rule.
>> (speaking Afghan language):
>> I have filmed with the
Taliban so many times over the
last 20 years.
I've tried to document how they
think, how they operate, how
they rule over areas they
control.
And I think to make sense of the
Taliban now, you have to look
back.
>> Fire!
(mortar fires)
>> This past year in
Afghanistan was the deadliest
yet for American troops.
(gunshots)
>> For American soldiers, this
war will get worse before it
gets better.
>> To succeed, we and our
friends and allies must reverse
the Taliban's gains.
I've already ordered the
deployment of 17,000 troops.
These soldiers and Marines
will take the fight to the
Taliban in the south and the
east.
>> Angle the Vic north!
>> NARRATOR: By 2009, the U.S.
had spent nearly a decade trying
to support the Afghan government
and keep the Taliban at bay,
deploying tens of thousands of
troops.
(explosion)
But on the ground, Najibullah
was seeing the determination of
the group, and the depths of the
insurgents' sway with the
population.
On a trip through villages in
the north, he visited a hospital
and a school built and paid for
by the United Nations, but under
the control of fighters aligned
with the Taliban.
And throughout the region, the
villagers were paying their
taxes directly to the
insurgents, not the U.S.-backed
Afghan government.
>> (conversing in Dari):
>> NARRATOR: At the time,
Najibullah also got a rare view
into how the Taliban continued
to maintain its ties to Al
Qaeda and other extremist
factions.
>> Al Qaeda was inside and they
were monitoring.
It was very clear to me.
They were giving order to them.
And they were following whatever
they were saying, especially on
the bigger decisions.
>> NARRATOR: The fighters were
from a faction called
Hezb-e-Islami, led by this man,
Commander Mirwais.
He claimed to have 4,000
fighters under his control.
>> (speaking Dari):
>> NARRATOR: Najibullah was with
them as they prepared for a
mission.
And possible martyrdom.
>> (speaking Afghan language):
>> NARRATOR: Over his time
embedded with the group,
Najibullah watched as fighters
built the homemade bombs known
as I.E.D.s.
>> (speaking Dari):
>> NARRATOR: That would become a
signature of their insurgency
against American forces.
>> (speaking Dari):
>> NARRATOR: And the fighters
took him to the frontlines where
they targeted Afghan government
forces as well.
(rocket-propelled grenade fires)
(gunfire)
>> Most of the characters we
had on the film has been
killed, simply because they
didn't have much experience.
In another hand, they were
ready to die.
>> NARRATOR: Last month,
Najibullah found one of the
fighters who did manage to
survive... Commander Mirwais.
>> (speaking Dari):
♪ ♪
>> July was the deadliest month
for U.S. troops in Afghanistan
since the war began in 2001.
43 American service members were
killed.
>> NARRATOR: During the years of
the Obama administration, the
U.S. would continue to try to
combat the Taliban and bolster
the Afghan Army.
>> As commander-in-chief, I have
determined that it is in our
vital national interest to send
an additional 30,000 U.S. troops
to Afghanistan.
>> NARRATOR: But the Taliban
continued to grow.
>> The Taliban have been
unprecedented in their numbers
this year.
>> NARRATOR: As would the other
extremist forces that have
continued to destabilize
Afghanistan.
>> For the first time, Islamic
State has moved into
Afghanistan.
♪ ♪
>> NARRATOR: In 2015, Najibullah
was among the first to document
ISIS's challenge to the Taliban
and Al Qaeda for territory and
influence.
>> Once ISIS took footholds in
Afghanistan, they captured more
areas, and they were offering
the Taliban, as well, to join
them.
Afghanistan is a really poor
country.
If you have money, if you have
wealth, then you can have
everything.
So that group was very, very
wealthy, and they were receiving
money from different parts of
the world.
>> NARRATOR: An ISIS cell had
granted Najibullah access to
their territory in the district
of Saigal, which they had
seized from Al Qaeda and the
Taliban.
>> I was waiting for over eight
months to get access to ISIS.
I was very excited as a
journalist that I was going to
meet this group, but I was
remembering my wife, my sons.
Then I was thinking, "Maybe you
won't come back again.
They might kill you.
They might kidnap you.
They might do something wrong."
>> NARRATOR: The local commander
told Najibullah that he'd been
in the Taliban, but defected
after ISIS declared a caliphate.
>> (conversing in Pashto):
>> NARRATOR: Najibullah saw how
ISIS fighters lived among the
locals and seemed to control
every aspect of village life.
They had local wives, collected
taxes, and even ran the village
school.
The fighters claimed that all
local children were educated by
the Islamic State from the age
of three.
>> (speaking Pashto):
>> It was a really, really
shocking moment for me to see
the childrens of Afghan learning
jihad, learning AK-47.
>> (conversing in Pashto):
>> Learning how to shoot with
pistol.
(dry fires)
They were trying to make them
ready for the for the future of
Afghanistan.
So now these children could be
15, 16 years old, I'm sure now
they have weapon, they are ready
to fight.
>> (speaking Pashto):
♪ ♪
>> NARRATOR: After leaving the
ISIS village, Najibullah
traveled to Nangarhar Province,
just a few miles from a
Pakistan border.
>> (conversing in Dari):
>> NARRATOR: He saw how even
back then in 2015, Afghan
forces were struggling against
ISIS and the Taliban.
He went to the frontlines with a
local police unit.
>> (speaking Dari):
>> NARRATOR: The police chief
said resources and equipment
were scarce.
Enemy lines were just a few
hundred yards away.
>> (speaking Dari):
>> NARRATOR: He said he was
willing to use brutal tactics
against the Taliban and ISIS.
>> (speaking Dari):
>> NARRATOR: The Afghan
government would eventually
claim it had done the job, and
driven ISIS out of the country.
But on his repeated trips here,
Najibullah documented the
group's continued presence.
>> (speaking Dari):
>> (speaking Afghan language):
>> NARRATOR: While ISIS would
remain a threat...
>> In the past few months, the
ministry has lost control of
more than 20 areas to Taliban
fighters, who seem able to
strike anywhere.
>> NARRATOR: By 2019, the
Taliban claimed to control more
of Afghanistan than at any point
since the U.S. invasion in 2001.
Two years before their
takeover, Najibullah saw the
extent of the Taliban's
reemergence on a trip to the
city of Ghazni.
>> (speaking Afghan language):
>> (speaking Dari):
>> (speaking Afghan language):
>> NARRATOR: They let Najibullah
and his team fly a drone over
the valley as the fighters
performed military drills out
in the open.
>> (speaking Afghan language):
>> NARRATOR: Another commander
led them to one of the villages
under Taliban control.
There were few people on the
streets.
But after the Taliban escort
left, one resident approached
him.
>> (speaking Dari):
♪ ♪
>> NARRATOR: For Najibullah,
what he saw on the trip in 2019,
was a turning point in the
Taliban's insurgency.
>> This specific group I met,
they were completely different
than previous groups I have met
before.
Normally, when I was embedding
with a group of the Taliban,
they were preparing for
fighting, to block the road.
But this group was completely
different.
They didn't have anything to
make them worry.
Because the entire area was
belonged to them.
>> NARRATOR: The trip was also
a vivid confirmation of what
U.S. military leaders had
privately been conceding for
years... that they'd lost the
war.
>> Tonight, newly released
documents raise serious
questions about whether the
American people were lied to
about the progress of the war in
Afghanistan.
>> NARRATOR: An assessment that
would finally go public in late
2019.
>> For the last 18 years,
senior U.S. officials have been
misleading the American public
about the war in Afghanistan.
>> NARRATOR: The Trump
administration was now facing
the harsh reality of defeat and
directly negotiating a peace
agreement with the Taliban.
>> It's a war Washington is
struggling to finish, and
Donald Trump says peace lies in
the hands of the Taliban.
>> U.S. and Taliban negotiators
met in Qatar for peace talks
aimed at ending America's
longest war.
>> NARRATOR: As the peace talks
were going on, Najibullah got
an exclusive interview with the
Taliban's top negotiator,
Mullah Baradar, who was widely
seen as a future leader in a
Taliban government.
>> Mullah Baradar is a very,
very big person within the
Taliban rank.
He was the co-founder of the
Taliban, the person who has been
very, very close to Mullah Omar,
the main leader of the Taliban
who died some years ago.
He has been in prison for eight
years in Pakistan and he has
been released in 2018.
>> NARRATOR: Najibullah pressed
the Mullah about whether the
Taliban would moderate its
hardline practices, especially
against women.
>> (speaking Dari):
>> NARRATOR: His answer was
ambiguous, but foreshadowed what
was soon to come... women would
have rights, he said, but only
according to the Taliban's
interpretation of Islamic
sharia law.
>> (speaking Afghan language):
>> NARRATOR: Mullah Baradar also
promised that the Taliban would
uphold the key component of a
peace deal with the U.S.
That they'd prevent ISIS and
Al Qaeda from using Afghanistan
as a haven.
>> (speaking Dari):
>> (speaking Afghan language):
(explosion)
>> NARRATOR: Mullah Baradar's
promise evaporated a few days
before the last U.S. troops left
on August 31.
>> The Pentagon confirming
there has been an explosion
outside Kabul Airport.
>> The explosion has happened
just by the airport.
>> NARRATOR: Najibullah was
nearby when an ISIS suicide
bomber struck a gate outside the
Kabul airport.
>> Everybody is running.
I got myself away.
Like, I'm literally a kilometer
away now.
>> We can confirm that a number
of U.S. servicemembers were
killed at the Kabul Airport.
A number of others are being
treated for wounds.
A number of Afghans fell victim
to this heinous attack.
>> ISIS-K, or the Islamic State
in the Khorasan, has claimed
responsibility for the Kabul
attacks.
>> ISIS in Khorasan always
wanted to show their power.
Even in the last moment, they
managed to kill 13 American
forces.
This is a big succeed for them.
This is a big threat again for
the Taliban.
They are showing how brutal are
they, how prepared are they.
>> NARRATOR: The bombing fueled
clashes between Taliban forces
and ISIS.
(explosion)
And heightened U.S. concerns
about the country once again
becoming a staging ground for
terrorists.
(phone dialing out)
>> NARRATOR: In the wake of the
airport attack, Najibullah
sought out an expert on ISIS,
or ISIL, and other terror
groups.
>> Hi, Najibullah.
>> Hi, hello, sir, how are you
doing?
>> I'm very well, thanks.
How are you?
>> NARRATOR: Edmund Fitton Brown
coordinates the United Nations
monitoring team that assesses
the global threat from ISIS and
Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
>> ISIL has been a strategic
rival of the Taliban.
It's obviously much smaller than
the Taliban.
But I think what ISIL is
intending to do is to present
itself as the party that wants
to continue the fight, that
makes no compromises.
And they want to accuse the
Taliban of having, in some way,
sold out.
And ISIL is clearly making an
effort to embarrass and attack
and harass the Taliban.
And that will be obviously a
challenge to the Taliban, it
will be... I'm not certain how
easily the Taliban will be able
to suppress that challenge.
>> NARRATOR: Fitton Brown also
told Najibullah that Al Qaeda,
despite being weakened over the
years, remains a threat too.
>> Al Qaeda has a very close
historic and trusting
relationship with the Taliban
and Al Qaeda is present in
Afghanistan.
I think the Taliban have
signaled very clearly that they
are not going to do anything to
break with or suppress Al Qaeda.
What's been difficult for Al
Qaeda has been to have a stable,
uninterrupted place where they
could regroup, recruit, train,
raise money.
And it may be that this change
in Afghanistan presents them
with a new and better
opportunity than they have
elsewhere.
♪ ♪
>> NARRATOR: A recently surfaced
video has only added to the
concerns about Al Qaeda.
Osama bin Laden's former
security chief, Amin al Haq, was
seen returning to eastern
Afghanistan.
(horn honks)
Publicly, the Taliban have
continued to insist they will
not harbor terrorists.
(man speaking Afghan language)
But when the new government was
formed in early September, key
posts went to some of the most
extreme figures closely
associated with Al Qaeda.
Like Sirajuddin Haqqani, now the
interior minister, whose
infamous Haqqani network was
behind suicide bombings and
attacks on coalition forces.
He is still on the State
Department's most wanted list,
with a $10 million reward for
information leading to his
capture.
His uncle, Khalil Haqqani, also
part of the new cabinet, has
been linked to Al Qaeda terror
operations.
>> (speaking Afghan language):
>> NARRATOR: Even Mullah
Baradar, the co-founder of the
Taliban, appears to have been
sidelined by the Haqqanis.
Neither side would talk to
Najibullah about the power
struggle, but the rift has
intensified concerns that
Afghanistan could erupt in
factional violence.
♪ ♪
Those fears are especially high
among the millions of Shia
Muslims, known as the Hazara,
who've long been the target of
Taliban attacks and have been
forming their own armed
militias, some supported by
neighboring Iran.
Shortly before the takeover,
Najibullah went to central
Afghanistan, where most of the
Hazara live.
At a Hazara cemetery, Najibullah
met a woman who said the Taliban
had been launching deadly
attacks on their community.
Her grandson was killed in the
fighting.
>> (conversing in Dari):
>> NARRATOR: Nooria's husband
was killed by the Taliban just
weeks earlier, leaving five
children behind.
>> (speaking Dari):
>> NARRATOR: The Hazara's
desperation has only increased
in recent weeks.
(car horns honking)
In Kabul, Najibullah met a
Hazara journalist and human
rights activist, Ishaq Akrami,
who had fled the countryside.
>> (speaking Afghan language):
>> NARRATOR: He described an
event just days earlier where 13
Hazaras, most of them Afghan
security forces, were killed.
>> NARRATOR: Amnesty
International investigated the
incident and shared this footage
with "Frontline."
This is the first time it's been
aired.
>> (speaking Afghan language):
>> NARRATOR: Shortly after the
interview, Ishaq was able to get
out of the country.
>> In the wake of the Taliban
takeover, the country is
struggling through severe food
shortages and the collapse of
basic public services.
>> The Afghan people are in
desperate need of support.
>> NARRATOR: Najibullah is now
among the few journalists
continuing to report on the
deteriorating situation inside
Afghanistan.
>> Washington now closing off
its support pipeline to the
Taliban.
Other major Western governments
also plan to stop sending aid.
>> The consequences are on track
to devastate the population,
especially its most vulnerable
residents.
>> NARRATOR: Amidst economic
freefall and a growing
humanitarian crisis, the Taliban
have continued to tighten
restrictions on women.
>> Day by day, women in
Afghanistan have been learning
they are less free.
>> In many ways have been
completely erased from public
life.
>> Schools reopened for boys;
middle school and high school
girls are still at home.
>> NARRATOR: Girls over 12 are
effectively banned from
attending school for now.
Outside a school in Kabul,
Najibullah attended a protest of
the ban by a small group of
women.
Carrying guns and whips, the
Taliban threatened the
protestors.
They fired their guns in the
air...
(gunfire)
...and ordered journalists to
leave.
>> Even for me it has been
changed.
Now they got really strict.
You cannot film certain areas.
They are not agree for the
interviews.
Whatever you do they just show
you their weapons, their AK-47,
they just point it on you.
(student speaking Afghan
(language)
>> NARRATOR: A few days later,
Najibullah visited an elementary
school.
A class of 4th grade girls were
facing the prospect of being
near the end of their education.
>> (speaking Afghan language):
>> NARRATOR: With the conditions
worsening, Najibullah wanted to
check back in with the women's
rights activist Mahbouba Seraj.
(conversing in Afghan language)
She told him not to come to her
office.
She wanted to talk by phone
instead.
Despite the situation, she
remains unbowed but diplomatic.
>> So let's see what happens.
I mean, right now, what the
Taliban wants is that they want
to get, you know, they need
time, which I told one of them
that time is not something that
they have, because we are almost
like a runaway, runaway train
going towards a human disaster.
I am hoping that they also
understand that with the way
they are going, treating the
women, that's not going to last
long.
And that's not going to be
accepted by the world.
And I want the world to know
that.
Because, you know, Afghanistan
as... it's really a changed
country now.
So, you know, we'll see, we'll
see what we can do, how much we
can take, how much we can live
with.
There some compromises we can
make.
There are some compromises we
cannot.
>> Are you worried about the
civil war in Afghanistan?
>> Uh, yeah.
As always, yeah.
>> I'll be leaving Afghanistan
very soon.
Why don't you just leave the
country?
>> Well, you know, I'm sure by
leaving Afghanistan, you know,
you can do a whole lot.
A lot of work out from outside
much better than inside.
The same way I believe that I
can do a whole lot of work much
better from inside than outside.
So I think we are both doing
something for the love of this
land.
You're doing it in one way and
I'm doing it another way.
>> So you are committed to
stay in Afghanistan?
>> I am committed to staying in
Afghanistan, absolutely.
The reason is the love of... my
love for this land.
I'm not going to leave it again.
I'm going to have a say and I'm
going to have a do as far as
making it a beautiful place for
the people of Afghanistan.
♪ ♪
>> NARRATOR: Najibullah left the
country while Siraj stayed,
one of millions of Afghans
waiting to see what life will
be like now that the Taliban
have taken over.
>> Go to pbs.org/frontline for
more of our reporting on
America'’s longest war.
>> I was filming from there, the
US forces came there and they
were literally shooting the
Taliban...
>> And with talks resuming in
Doha, a look at how the Afghan
people are impacted by the
freezing of foreign aid.
>> The consequences are on track
to devastate the population...
>> Connect with FRONTLINE on
Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
And watch anytime on the PBS
Video App, YouTube 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,
"Taliban Takeover" is
available on Amazon
Prime Video.
♪ ♪