Panic and fear gripped millions of residents of Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, as Taliban fighters came knocking on the doors and searching their homes in what the group said is a security sweep in the city of almost five million people. 

The large search operation launched last week created an atmosphere of fear among the residents of Kabul, as people accused the group of conducting raids without any intimation or valid ground. In many cases, people claimed the fighters made forced entries into homes with only female occupants—a practice considered anathema in conservative Afghan society. 

The operation that began in Kabul and two of neighboring provinces will continue in the coming days, said Zabiullah Mujahid, Taliban’s spokesperson and the deputy minister for information and culture. The aim, he said, is to collect weapons and arrest suspects. 

“The operation was successful,” Mujahid was quoted as saying by The Associated Press, adding hundreds of light and heavy weapons were confiscated, including rocket launchers and grenades.

Taliban officials also recovered 60,000 rounds of ammunition, 13 armored vehicles, and 13 tons of gunpowder and explosives, Mujahid claimed. 

The search operation comes weeks before the fighting season will begin as the snow starts melting in the country. There are already scattered reports of Taliban fighters being targetted in Panjshir, a narrow valley province, 90 miles north of capital Kabul.  

In Jalalabad, the provincial center of the eastern Jalalabad province, Taliban fighters had suffered significant casualties last year in the attacks by rival ISIS militants. Experts are also warning that the ISIS would intensify its attacks on the Taliban all across the country in the upcoming fighting season. 

(SAM)