Pul-e-Charkhi prison (
Dari
Dari (; endonym: ), Dari Persian (, , or , ), or Eastern Persian is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the Afghan government's official term for the Persian language;Lazard, G.Darī – The New Persian ...
: زندان پل چرخی), also known as the Afghan National Detention Facility, is a
maximum-security prison located next to the
Ahmad Shah Baba Mina neighborhood in the eastern part of
Kabul
Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...
,
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
. It has the capacity to house 14,000
inmates
A prisoner, also known as an inmate or detainee, is a person who is deprived of liberty against their will. This can be by confinement or captivity in a prison or physical restraint. The term usually applies to one serving a Sentence (law), se ...
,
but as of October 2024 it only has around 5,000 inmates, most of whom have been arrested and convicted within the jurisdiction of
Kabul Province. It is considered the
country's largest prison.
History
Construction of Pul-e-Charkhi prison began in the 1970s by order of former president
Mohammed Daoud Khan and was completed during the 1980s. It became notorious for
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...
and executions after the 1978
Saur Revolution as well as during the ten-year
Soviet-Afghan War that followed. Some claim that between April 1978 and December 1979, the
communist
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) under
Nur Muhammad Taraki,
executed around 27,000 political prisoners at Pul-e-Charkhi. More recently, the
Afghan National Army
The Islamic National Army (, ), also referred to as the Islamic Emirate Army and the Afghan Army, is the army, land force branch of the Afghan Armed Forces. The roots of an army in Afghanistan can be traced back to the early 18th century when th ...
's 111th Capital Division was based near Pul-e-Charkhi prison.
Mass grave
In December 2006, a communist-era mass grave, close to the Pul-e-Charkhi prison, was discovered by the
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
-led
International Security Assistance Force
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was a multinational military mission in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014. It was established by United Nations Security Council United Nations Security Council Resolution 1386, Resolution 1386 ac ...
. It is believed that the grave held some 2,000 bodies. Officials of the
Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture believe that the massacre took place between 1978 and 1986 when the Moscow-backed communist presidents,
Nur Muhammad Taraki,
Hafizullah Amin and
Babrak Karmal were in power.
Living conditions
Living conditions of the prisoners have been criticized by several human rights groups. The prison had been cited as overcrowded and the living conditions as sub-par. There had been eight cell blocks but only three were being used which has caused overcrowding. There are also about 70 female prisoners who are housed in a special female section of the prison.
Riots and escapes
In December 2004, foreign prisoners attacked guards with
razor blades. A subsequent shoot-out left one Iraqi and three Pakistani prisoners and four Afghan police dead.
In January 2006, seven prisoners escaped by mingling with visitors. A month later, a riot was sparked by a new prison policy forcing prisoners to wear bright orange clothing, a rule enacted to avoid events similar to the January escape. The February 2006 riot resulted in six deaths and 22 injured, according to the
International Committee of the Red Cross. The rioters used makeshift weapons to attack guards, then ignited furniture on fire, and smashed doors and windows. They eventually took over a wing of the prison and held it for a few days. The riot finally ended on the first of March.
On 16 March 2008, after a two-week dispute over arrests following an attempted jail-break, inmates rioted and took over sections of the building. Gunfire was heard in the complex and inmates claimed to be holding hostage two members of the
Afghan National Army
The Islamic National Army (, ), also referred to as the Islamic Emirate Army and the Afghan Army, is the army, land force branch of the Afghan Armed Forces. The roots of an army in Afghanistan can be traced back to the early 18th century when th ...
(ANA). The hostage-takers threatened to kill the ANA members unless mediators were sent in to resolve the conflict.
Renovation and expansion

The prison has been renovated in recent years with assistance from the United States,
including the
United States Army Corps of Engineers
The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wo ...
. In 2007, the
U.S. military began transferring some of its detainees from
Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan to the Pul-e-Charkhi prison. By January 2008, as many as 125 detainees from the
Parwan Detention Facility and 32 detainees from the U.S.
Guantanamo Bay detention camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp, also known as GTMO ( ), GITMO ( ), or simply Guantanamo Bay, is a United States military prison within Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (NSGB), on the coast of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It was established in 2002 by p ...
had been transferred to Pul-e-Charkhi.
This was followed by the transfer of some 250 more detainees.
The United States repeatedly announced that it will be shutting down its Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in
Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
.
[ The Americans planned to transfer most of the captives held in extrajudicial detention in Guantanamo, and in its less well known Parwan Detention Facility to Afghan custody.
The initial plan called for reducing the maximum number of men held per cell from the current eight, to just two.][ For security reasons every cell would be equipped with its own toilet, replacing the current insecure method of letting all the captives leave their cells and share a single toilet at the end of each cell block.
Under this initial plan, the modernization of this wing cost $20 million, and would have a maximum capacity of 670 captives.][ However, after a tour of the facility, during its modernization, it was realized that, for cultural reasons, captives could not be expected to share a toilet with another man. Afghan cultural modesty would not allow a captive to use a toilet with another man present, cutting the capacity of the modernized facility in half.
On May 6, 2007, two American soldiers, Colonel James W. Harrison Jr. and Master Sergeant Wilberto Sabalu, part of the oversight team, were shot dead by one of the Afghan guards.][ This forced a delay on construction as all the guards underwent new security checks. Finally, there was controversy within the Afghan government as to which ministry would be responsible for the modernized part of the prison.][
By January 2008, 32 captives from the ]Guantanamo Bay detention camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp, also known as GTMO ( ), GITMO ( ), or simply Guantanamo Bay, is a United States military prison within Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (NSGB), on the coast of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It was established in 2002 by p ...
and 125 captives from the Parwan Detention Facility had been transferred to Pul-e-Charkhi.[ The Center for Constitutional Rights reported that all of the Afghans repatriated to Afghanistan from April 2007 were sent to the Pul-e-Charkhi prison.][
]
In February 2009, a team from the United Kingdom's Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
toured the American wing of the prison. By September 2009 the United States had transferred some 250 former detainees from its Guantanamo Bay detention camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp, also known as GTMO ( ), GITMO ( ), or simply Guantanamo Bay, is a United States military prison within Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (NSGB), on the coast of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It was established in 2002 by p ...
to Pul-e-Charkhi, often to the shock of their waiting families, according to Human Rights First.
2021
On August 15, 2021, management of the prison was taken over by forces of the Taliban
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* Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016)
* Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...
after the fall of President Ashraf Ghani's government. The Taliban
, leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders
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* Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013)
* Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016)
* Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...
released most inmates from the jail, including many of their fellow members.
See also
* List of prisons in Afghanistan
There are between 24 and 77 prisons in Afghanistan. As of 2023, the total number of prisoners in the country is approximately 14,000 of which up to 1,100 are females. The following is an incomplete list of prisons in Afghanistan:
See also
* ...
References
External links
150 foreigners currently in prison in Afghanistan
Ariana News, Sept. 1, 2024.
Mawlawi Kabir: Kabul Aware of Intelligence Objectives of Other Countries
TOLOnews, May 22, 2024.
* Human Rights First
Undue Process: An Examination of Detention and Trials of Bagram Detainees in Afghanistan in April 2009 (2009)
* Human Rights First
Arbitrary Justice: Trial of Guantánamo and Bagram Detainees in Afghanistan (2008)
Lyse Doucet's (BBC Newsnight, Afghanistan) full film from inside Pul-e-Charkhi prison
{{AfghanPrisons
Prisons in Afghanistan
1980s establishments in Afghanistan
Afghanistan–Soviet Union relations
Soviet chemical weapons program