Fahim, three, and Narges*, two, are playing in the courtyard of their family home when their father walks in, an AK-47 slung over his shoulder.<\/p>\n
His face is barely visible under a tightly wrapped bandana \u2013 the \u201cTaliban burqa,\u201d he jokes later, referring to the traditional gown often worn in rural Afghanistan that covers women from head to toe.<\/p>\n
The children come running excitedly as Qary Khalid bends down to hug them with one arm, their colourful clothes pressed against his white tunic, his left hand holding on to the weapon.<\/p>\n
Khalid is a Taliban commander, but at home, the 25-year-old is a father, not a fighter. In his village deep in a Taliban area, he is well respected as one of the group\u2019s local leaders and everyone knows his son and daughter.<\/p>\n
Fahim and Narges\u2019s reality \u2013 a fighter father \u2013 is shared by thousands of children in Afghanistan amid an increasingly deadly war for non-combatants. The UN said 927 boys and girls were killed in 2018, the highest number of child deaths in a single year since it began recording casualties in 2009.<\/p>\n
Many families, including those of Taliban fighters, have left the country for just this reason over past decades. The Afghan refugee population of 2.5 million is the world\u2019s second largest, surpassed only by Syria.<\/p>\n
Khalid’s family lives in a small brick house near the bazaar of a farming village in eastern Afghanistan, reached by dirt roads lined with tall trees and green fields of growing wheat. Along the main road, shaggy-haired Talibs with long beards set up frequent checkpoints, controlling who comes in and out of their territory. None of the group\u2019s white flags have been put up.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the front line and we\u2019re afraid of US-surveillance,\u201d Khalid says. \u201cIf they find anything, they might attack.\u201d The fighter has no alternative but to stay here, the village he grew up in. \u201cIt\u2019s home,\u201d he says, but admits that the fear sits deep, especially at night, especially for his children.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s dangerous for them,” he says. \u201cLast year, our compound was raided by the government and seven people were killed. At night, we hear the drones fly above our houses. An air strike hit close-by last week.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the man with warm, dark brown eyes and a short-trimmed beard says there is little alternative; he has to fight both the foreign-backed government and the \u201cinfidel invaders\u201d.<\/p>\n
And if it was not for his job and the weapons stored in his house, the family\u2019s life would look little out of the ordinary. Khalid\u2019s house is cosy, with a tree shading the courtyard where his wife sits on a small rug chatting with neighbours, sewing small beads on to a silky scarf.<\/p>\n
The son of an aid worker, Khalid joined the Taliban 10 years ago, when he was still a child himself, after attending a madrassa \u2013 a religious school \u2013 in Peshawar, Pakistan. For the past four years, he has worked as a group commander, planning and carrying out terrorist attacks and helping to mobilise new recruits.<\/p>\n
Having his own children join the militant group later is however out of the question for the young fighter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest change I\u2019ve seen in the Taliban is a quest for education, and that\u2019s what I want for my children,” he says. “As for me, I will fight. This is not the war of the Afghan people, it\u2019s a foreign war. If they decide to finish this conflict, they will. We can fight, but we can\u2019t end the war.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Taliban and the United States have been holding talks on a peace deal, but little progress has been made in recent months. The Afghan administration has been largely left out. Despite the talks, the Taliban have continued \u2013 even increased \u2013 deadly attacks across the country.<\/p>\n
And while the war rages, many of the Taliban\u2019s children live a double life.<\/p>\n
At his school in north-east Afghanistan, 11-year-old Adeel pretends to be the son of a local businessman; at home, he is the child of a commander in the Taliban who has close ties with Al Qaeda. His family lives undercover in a government-controlled area.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was born in Swat Valley in Pakistan, but I can\u2019t go back. Our family would be killed,\u201d Adeel explains matter-of-factly, sitting on a cushion next to his father, a slim man with an infectious white-toothed smile.<\/p>\n
The living room they sit in is largely empty, with big windows on two sides and only an old laptop resting in a corner. None of the Taliban commander\u2019s meetings are held here, ensuring their home remains a safe space for Adeel and his four siblings.<\/p>\n
Like most people in his village, Adeel speaks Pashto, and with his orange shalwar kameez and his rusty bicycle that he rides to school every day, he blends in perfectly. Nobody in the town knows that he is not Afghan. Nobody knows about the weapons his father hoards or the secret meetings he attends regularly.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring cricket matches, I cheer for Afghanistan with my friends, but for Pakistan at home,\u201d he grins.<\/p>\n
Yet his secret is not always easy to keep. Adeel often worries about his father and misses his extended family, wishing he was not different from the other boys in class.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrandma came to visit four years ago,\u201d he says. \u201cWe went for walks and played games and Dad was with us the whole time.\u201d<\/p>\n
His father\u2019s frequent absences make the sixth-grader uneasy. \u201cI know he fights and kills. He says he does it for our people,\u201d says Adeel, who wants to become a doctor to help people in a different way.<\/p>\n
At school, he learns that the Taliban is bad and the government good, while he hears the opposite at home. Adeel has made it easy for himself. \u201cI like them both,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He enjoys English classes the most. \u201cIt\u2019s my favourite subject because it\u2019s an international language,\u201d he says, shifting on his cushion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t like fighting,\u201d he explains. \u201cI want to build relationships even with the foreigners. If I learn English well, I can speak to them and get to know them well.\u201d<\/p>\n
*\u00a0Names in this story have been changed to protect the children\u2019s identity.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fahim, three, and Narges*, two, are playing in the courtyard of their family home when their father walks in, an AK-47 slung over his shoulder. His face is barely visible under a tightly wrapped bandana \u2013 the \u201cTaliban burqa,\u201d he jokes later, referring to the traditional gown often worn in rural Afghanistan that covers women …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2777],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbbJo6-3fI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ehsasnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ehsasnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ehsasnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ehsasnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ehsasnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ehsasnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ehsasnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ehsasnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ehsasnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ehsasnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}