Grandson of Notorious Warlord: My Family Is Celebrating the Taliban, I Fear for My Friends’ Lives

As the United States has begun the final phase of evacuations of U.S. citizens and Afghan allies from the Kabul airport, DN speaks with Obaidullah Baheer, an Afghan academic who has decided to stay in Kabul despite the risks.

Baheer’s grandfather, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, is a former mujahideen fighter once nicknamed the “Butcher of Kabul,” now among the senior political figures in the country attempting to shape a post-U.S. government with the Taliban. “This country needs more educated people,” says Baheer.

“They’re not going to have enough technocrats for a functioning government to be in place. That’s why some of us have to stay behind.”

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