Posts Tagged ‘afghantribes’

Next Thursday voters in Afghanistan will decide whether to re-elect President Hamid Karzai to another five year term or choose one of 36 other candidates who say they have a plan to lead the impoverished country out of eight years of war. Mr. Karzai appears to be comfortably in the lead, but observers are mainly focused on whether Afghans will be able to carry-out a credible election.

In Kabul, even rush hour traffic is an opportunity for voter education. But since less than one-third of Afghanistan’s population lives in major cities, officials have focused on registering voters in rural areas, finding people to staff remote polling stations and educating them about the voting process.   Read the rest of this entry »

One of the towers at the haunted Afghanistan castle

Possibly the craziest and most remote haunted location I have ever visited is the Khyar Khot Castle in Afghanistan, a nation that is covered in walled cities, many bearing a medieval appearance like Khyar Khot. The Afghans are deeply religious but they are also superstitious and they believe that certain places whose walls witnessed horrible and brutal treatment of human beings sometimes hold onto that negative energy.

The Khyar Khot Forward Operating Base has towers at all four corners and it is shared today by the Americans, Romanians and Afghan National Army forces. The history the place has witnessed is unspeakable and many locals won’t go near it if they can avoid it, at least those who recall the horrors that once took place there.

I asked about the history of the old castle and what I learned was both fascinating and chilling. Khyar Khot was originally constructed by the British during their invasion in the 1870’s. The British are just one of several nations that tried, unsuccessfully, to invade Afghanistan.

Over the years the castle fell into disrepair, until the Russians reoccupied it during their invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The Russian war against the Afghans was costly in terms of life; one and a half million Afghan people died over the ten year conflict. The Russians do not fight like western forces either. They can be barbaric toward their enemies with no adherence to any rules of conduct.

As the Soviets used the castle as a fire base against Afghan Mujahadeen warlords who eventually defeated the Russians, it was also a prison for Russia’s enemies, and a center of torture.

As the story goes, Soviet soldiers would routinely kidnap local women, who were brought back to the castle and violated. Military and political enemies were abducted and brought to the castle where they would be mercilessly interrogated. They say their screams could be heard outside the castle walls, and that when it is quiet in this high mountain desert region, late at night, you can still hear them screaming.

Navy Chief Petty Officer Lucas Hooper in a haunted castle tower. Locals believe the Khyar Khot Castle is haunted by ghosts of people that were tortured and murdered there. Photo by: Tim King

The castle next occupied a host that is reputed to be even crueler to its enemies than the Russian Communists. After the Soviets were defeated, the Taliban moved into the Khyar Khot Castle and again, the base was used as a place to torture the enemies of the opposition.

It is reported that many died horrible deaths at the castle, and those who failed to cooperate with the Taliban would often end up here, never to be seen alive again. Sadly, most of their stories are lost amid the tragedy of Afghanistan’s violent history.

Locals believe the castle is haunted by the spirits of the unfortunate people who were tortured and who died here, they say these disembodied spirits roam the castle walls in agony. I did not see or experience anything, but the place did have an uneasy feeling about it. Soldiers were solemn when they talked about it. It was last Christmas when I visited Khyar Khot Castle, a strange time indeed.

Graffiti covers the walls inside one of the haunted castle’s towers. There were faded words written in English, and there was messages from the hands of Afghans, some from the Russians. I had to wonder how old it was, and if any of those scratches in the wall could yield clues about the castle’s haunted past, about the miseries and death and the haunted agony that can envelope a place.

My life as a reporter has afforded many unusual and unforgettable opportunities. Whatever the truth about ghosts and haunted houses may be, there are a startling number of similarities in the stories, regardless of the culture they evolve from, or which side of the world they occur on.