PRISONS AND PRISONERS
Kotwal and Kotwali (magistrate and police court)—Policemen as
thieves—Description of prisons—Description of how prisoners
are treated and their irons—The old well in Bala Hisar—The spy
system—Cutting a man’s throat—False reporting—Fanah (wedge)
tortures.
The position of Kotwal (city magistrate) has from time immemorial been
an office of high standing in the East. In some countries, the Kotwal
has the power of ordering death, but in Afghanistan only the Amir can
punish by the extreme penalty. One of the duties of the Kotwal, however,
is to see that all executions, public and private, are carried out,
also to conduct those tortures which are inflicted to make men confess
their crimes, or the names of their confederates, and to see that all
punishments for offences committed are properly administered. In addition
he has to look after all city arrangements, to superintend the police, to
try all cases brought before him, either criminal or civil, to receive
the reports of and supervise the street kalanturs (headmen), and keep a
record of births and deaths.
The Kabul Kotwali office is built alongside the dome of the Arak bazar,
the newest bazar in the city, which is close to the Arak palace, and
where the best goods in Kabul are to be obtained. There are, besides the
chief Kotwali office, several Kotwali (police) stations in the different
streets in Kabul, and other police stations, which are principally for
the purpose of stopping runaways, and to collect the custom duties on all
goods entering the country, are placed along all the chief roads right
up to the borders of neighbouring states, and in this way the police are
able to keep a check on all persons leaving or entering the country. In
Kabul itself all custom duties are collected by a special department
appointed for that purpose. In each police station is a guard of seven
Kotwali sepoys (policemen), including the havildar or sergeant, who is
supposed to be a man who can write but very often cannot, and so has a
friend or relation among the men with him who writes all reports. There
are other officers higher in rank than the havildar, and all of them,
officers and sepoys (police), follow the usual custom of the country in
taking advantage of their position, in order to abstract money or goods
from all the people they are brought into official contact with, and to
invent excuses to do so in other cases. It is a common occurrence for
a person caught in the act of committing an offence against the law to
bribe the Kotwali sepoys to let him go free, and any of the sepoys will
do this, provided there are no witnesses who can give information to a
higher officer and so make trouble.
The policemen are themselves the greatest thieves in Kabul, and take
anything they can get, great or small; but they become most indignant
when they see others stealing, considering it, perhaps, an encroachment
on their privileges. In going along the bazar a policeman will take a
handful of grain or fruit from a shop as he passes and eat it, and the
shopkeeper must say nothing. If a shopkeeper should make a fuss over
anything a policeman does in that way, it is more than probable that
a case will be trumped up against him very shortly afterwards, and if
there is nothing else to accuse him of, he is accused of giving short
weight, and as there are few correctly made sets of metal weights in
Kabul, those there are being made and used in the Government workshops
and stores, the shopkeepers have to take stones of different sizes, and
after matching them against the Government weights use them for weighing
out the articles they deal in. These stones are therefore readily changed
by the policeman for others lying on the street, when taking a shopkeeper
through the bazars to the Kotwal for trial, and when such convincing
evidence is forthcoming, the shopkeeper is of course heavily fined, and
for the future treats a Kotwali sepoy with every respect. In most of the
robberies committed in Kabul, some of the Kotwali sepoys are concerned,
their duties as policemen enabling them to mark the most likely shop or
house, and also to obtain correct information of the movements of the
people in them.
The Kotwali guards at the different stations are supposed to be changed
every two weeks; but when on guard at those places which give little
work for them, or where they can more readily add to their income, they
endeavour to be kept on there, and those who possess the favour of the
Kotwal, manage to do this at times. These sepoys are the men employed by
the Kotwal in the carrying out of executions and punishments, and those
who happen to be on guard at the time are appointed for the work. Some
of the younger sepoys are very sick after assisting in some horrible
punishment, but use hardens them, and after a time they become callous
to suffering in others, in some cases even to the extent of gloating
over the death or tortures they are ordered to inflict on some miserable
wretch.
Outside the city are also soldier guards from various regiments, but
these are mostly posted about Arak and the new part of the city. Both
these guards and the Kotwali guards have, in the present Amir’s time,
been much increased, so that in some places one is challenged every
hundred yards or so at night. Kotwali stations have also been lately
placed on all roads about four miles out of the city to prevent any one
leaving without a road pass, so that no one can now travel even five or
six miles out into the country without permission. At times, on distant
stations, the Kotwali sepoy on guard is attacked and killed at night
for the sake of his rifle, and the body of one of them who was killed at
Baber (which is only two miles south of the city), was hacked to pieces,
possibly because he made a good fight for his life and injured some of
his assailants.
The prisons in Kabul are not buildings erected for that purpose, but any
house belonging to the Government which is suitably situated is used
as a prison, and continues in such use. Strong bars are fixed across
the windows to prevent the escape of those who are confined there, and
the outer door is made strong and padlocked, and has a guard of Kotwali
sepoys stationed inside it. The space at disposal in such houses is very
inadequate to the number of prisoners; but that is not regarded at all
by the authorities, who would laugh at the idea of properly housing such
animals as prisoners, nor do they insist on the prisons being kept clean,
or in any way healthy. There is absolutely no thought of sanitation, and
the prisoners are herded together in a house that has perhaps been used
as a prison for twenty or thirty years, and never cleaned. Consequently,
typhus and other diseases are common among prisoners, and typhus alone
will very often sweep off seventy to eighty per cent. of the men confined
there, and the wonder is that all do not die.
A man who was in prison for some years described it to me. He and his
father and some other relations were chained together, and so brought
from a distance to Kabul, charged with some political offence, and put
in prison there. It is very seldom that prisoners charged with such
offences are tried at once, if at all, so they lay in prison for some
years, and had no hope of ever getting out, for their relations and
friends feared to bring the matter to the notice of the Amir in case they
should themselves incur his displeasure. The room they were confined in
was a small one, and they, with the other prisoners, were about thirty in
number, and, when lying down at night, there was only sufficient space
for them to lie in rows, side by side. Sanitary arrangements there were
none, and at length typhus broke out, and one after another succumbed to
it, his father and some of his brothers and cousins being carried out for
burial among others. He himself was ill with the fever for weeks, but
recovered, and when the disease at last stopped, there were only five
of them left out of the original number. Other prisoners were, however,
brought in, and the room was packed again very shortly, and some of these
got the fever from time to time and died.
At that time also, a number of prisoners were being secretly disposed
of, and almost every night a man would be called from their number, and
going away with his jailers, was never heard of again. This made the
rest of them live in terror, for no man knew but what his turn might
come the next night. Eventually the strain was too much for them, and
they determined on revolt and escape, as death in trying to escape was
no worse than sitting and waiting for it to come to them. So one night,
about three o’clock, when the guard was known to be lax and most of the
soldiers asleep, they got out of the room and made their way to the gate.
Here the man on guard saw them and fired, dropping one man, but before
he could reload, a huge Afghan who led the prisoners, took him across
his knee and broke his back, and then seized the rifle and bayonet. The
rest of the guard were roused by the noise, and a short fight ensued,
and several of the guard being killed, the others fled; but some of the
prisoners also suffered during the struggle. The door of the prison was
now unguarded, and the prisoners escaped, but the guards who had run away
had warned others, and they had not gone far along the streets before
these were upon them, both in front and behind, and after a struggle they
were overpowered and taken back to the prison. For this several were
hanged, the big Afghan among them, and the rest had such heavy chains
put on them that they could hardly move. It was not until several years
had elapsed that the man who told me the foregoing was released; but
eventually his friends brought his case to the notice of the Amir, and as
there was no proof against him, and the governor who had imprisoned him
had been hanged, he was released, but his health was shattered, and he
died a few years later.
The food given by Government to the prisoners is bread, two nans (flat
loaves weighing about half a pound each) being given daily, one in the
morning and one at night. This is far from sufficient, and if a prisoner
has no friends or relations to send him either food or money, he is in
a bad way. Towards each other, however, the prisoners, and all the poor
people generally, are very good, and a man who has food to eat, however
little, will offer some of it to another who has none. Prisoners have
leg-irons fastened round their ankles to hamper their movements and
render any attempt at escape more difficult, but the hands, except in
case of a man being taken to execution or as a special punishment, are
free. In all cases prisoners are treated by their guards with great
severity, and the prisoner who does not do at once as he is ordered, gets
the butt-end of a rifle in the small of his back as a reminder. From what
I have seen I should imagine that a street dog’s life is a happy one
compared to theirs.
Of all the prisons, the worst and most dreaded is the old well in Bala
Hisar. This is an old well which has been excavated through rock, with
the bottom part widened out to some fifteen or twenty feet in diameter,
and having over the mouth of the well a hut, in which a guard of sepoys
is kept. In this underground hole men are imprisoned for life for very
heinous offences (in the eyes of the authorities), and live and die
there, the bodies of the dead being left where they lie together with
the living. There are no sanitary arrangements of course, for none but
prisoners are lowered down, and those who are put down stop there. Food
(bread and water) is lowered by a rope once a day to those below, but
there are few whose minds or health do not give way in a short time, and
most of the men imprisoned very soon end their days by dashing themselves
against the rock, until they become unconscious and die, for the solitude
and horror of it all drives them mad. The bottom of the well is dark, and
the only light which penetrates is from the mouth above, and no sound
from the outer world can reach those imprisoned there, while the stench
and foulness of the atmosphere is horrible, and is itself sufficient to
cause death. There is a man, however, who is said to have been there
for fifteen years or more, but he is quite mad, and unconscious of his
surroundings. When the Amir died, the present ruler gave orders that
those in the well should be taken out, and brought before him. There were
three who were alive, and their appearance was not prepossessing, for
their faces had a dead, white look, and their eyes seemed to be blind in
the daylight, while their hair and beards were long and matted, and the
hair falling over their faces gave them a wild, animal look, which their
finger-nails increased, for they were long and more like talons. The Amir
ordered the men to be released, but some three weeks after again ordered
them to be taken back to the well, the representations of others having
convinced him that his father’s action in so imprisoning them was just.
When the late Amir came to the country from Russia, he brought with him
an admiration of the Russian spy system, and incorporated it into his
system of government. Consequently, every fourth man was a “reportchee”
(spy), who sent in his private reports to the Amir. These spies were
of all classes and ranks, and every large house had one or two spies
among the servants who reported all they saw and heard, and as it is
the custom of the country for servants to sit in the same room as their
master, where they sit near the door to show their inferior position,
and as they are allowed to express their opinion on any subject which
their master and his friends may be discussing, they of course hear all
that is said at any time, and should they be sent out of the room while
their master speaks to any guest in private, then that itself would be
unusual and suspicious enough to warrant reporting to the Amir. The Amir
had spies in the houses of his sons, and among the women of their harems,
and spies in his own harem too, while his wives and his sons in their
turn, had their spies among his servants, who informed them of all that
concerned themselves. It was an expensive system, and one of which the
spies unscrupulously took advantage to make false reports against those
they hated or feared, and have them put out of the way. Also for monetary
considerations they would similarly dispose of another man’s enemy.
The offence which in the eyes of the late Amir was the most deadly and
unforgivable was the writing by any one of reports concerning himself
and his country to the Indian Government, and this was the favourite
accusation of those of his spies who had an enemy to dispose of, and they
showed a good deal of cunning in the preparation of the plot whereby
their victim should be doomed, without chance of escaping the Amir’s
vengeance, and devoted to it much thought and time. Their schemes were
usually outlined on the plan of following up their own report to the
Amir, which gave details of how they became cognizant of the fact of the
accused reporting to the English Government, and gave as proof the bogus
letter or report alleged to have been found by them, by other reports,
which they obtained by sending to their friends in India, and elsewhere,
a draft of what they wanted written to the Amir, with instructions to
copy it and send on to him a few weeks later. By these means they managed
to get letters to the Amir from different places, each accusing their
victim of being an English spy. And when one letter after another came,
each one confirming the other, naturally the Amir was deceived, and it
was not long before the accused was in prison, and there became lost, for
his fate, though guessed at, was seldom known; the custom being to remove
such men at night, either by poison, bayonet, or cutting the throat.
The method of cutting a man’s throat is simple but effective; two men
hold the man’s arms, and force his head back, while another, or two more
if the man is a strong one, hold his legs. The officer in charge then
slices with his sword backwards and forwards across the man’s throat
until the gash is considered deep enough, and then the man is thrown on
the ground and left to kick, as a fowl does under similar circumstances,
until death occurs. In some cases the head is severed from the body in
the same way, when the Amir’s orders are to that effect.
In other cases, when a man is ordered to be executed by having his throat
cut, his grave is dug ready, and when the knife has done its work, he
is thrown into it, and the earth is shovelled in at once, so that he is
buried before death occurs.
False reporting, when found out, was a great crime in the eyes of the
Amir, and such men were speedily punished with death. In some cases where
a man has been wrongly killed, the old well was given the offenders to
consider their crimes in. I was once in the Amir’s durbar, when fifteen
or sixteen prisoners and others were brought in. Those who were prisoners
were accused of false reporting, and the other men were their accusers,
and six or seven of the prisoners had been submitted to the torture of
the “fanah,” which is administered as follows:—A post, about six inches
in diameter, is split into two pieces in the direction of its length,
and the two halves are put together again, and bound with rope for one
half of the length, so that when finished it somewhat resembles a huge
clothes-peg. The bound end of the post is firmly fixed in the ground,
with the split part projecting above the surface, and the foot of the
person to be tortured is tied to the upper end of it with thin cords,
which pass round both the foot and the post, and a V-shaped wedge is
inserted in the slit at the top. Then, when the wedge is hammered down,
it makes the two halves of the post widen out, and puts a strong tension
on the cord, which binds the foot and post together. When using this
instrument of torture the wedge is tapped down until the cord exercises a
slight pressure on the foot, and then the questions concerning the matter
requiring confession are asked, and if the tortured one refuses to speak,
the wedge is hammered down a little further, making the pressure of the
cord still tighter on the foot, and so the wedge continues to be hammered
down until the sufferer reveals all he knows (and sometimes much that
he does not know, in order to save further torture), or until the toes
are practically severed from the foot, when the other foot is similarly
treated. There are many who have lost their toes through mortification
setting in afterwards, under the torture of the “fanah,” without
confessing what they knew, and this speaks well for the endurance of the
average Afghan, but the boast of the true Afghan is that he can endure
pain, even to death, without a sigh or sound, and some do so. Another
form of torture is to cover the top of the head with dough, which is
turned up at the edges to form a cup, and into the cup so formed, boiling
oil is poured; the agony as the brain begins to bake may be imagined.
There are other forms of torture also, but these cannot be described.
In this case the men who were brought before the Amir, after undergoing
the “fanah” torture, were hardly able to stand, and their feet were
swathed in bandages and rags, and one of them fell in a faint while the
examination was on, but the Amir said he was shamming, and told the
guards with them to make him stand up; so they struck him savagely with
the butt ends of their rifles, and kicked him back to consciousness, but
he looked ghastly ill, and swayed about as he stood. Eventually, after
the hearing of much contradictory evidence, several were ordered to be
hanged, and the others to be imprisoned, pending decision as to their
punishment. One of the condemned men stopped as he was being led away,
and cursed the Amir, wishing him every evil he could think of; but the
guards struck him across the mouth several times, and dragged him out.
The Amir looked at the man with his teeth showing in the savage grin he
had when angered, but, after a few moments, smiled and turned to me, and
spoke on other matters, apparently having dismissed all thought of what
had taken place from his mind. But to sentence a few men to death, and
listen to their views on the matter as they were led away, was no new
experience for the Amir. Many men cursed him as they were being executed,
for one of the national traits of character is vindictiveness.