The hospital was once Camp Phoenix, a military base established by the US army in 2003, but is now a drug treatment center that can accommodate 1,000 people.At least 150 men were taken to the district police station, where all their belongings were burned in a pile as they are forbidden from taking them to the treatment center.The Taliban arrested most of the men under a bridge in Kabul's Guzargah district before taking them to the district police station.
The militants burned all of the addicts' possessions in a pile, including drugs, wallets, knives, rings, lighters, a juice box.The addicts were stripped and had their heads and face shaved.Felipe Dana/AP Photo "These people are basically being kidnapped for three months and locked up," Mat Southwell, a British technical adviser for drug harm reduction NGOs in Afghanistan who has previously visited Avicenna, told"They will receive very little medical treatment, and their needs will not be addressed. Once released, they will just start using drugs again."A drug user detained during a Taliban raid is shaved.
The outlet said the patients float around the halls like ghosts. Although some say they aren't being fed enough, doctors say hunger is part of the withdrawal process, the outlet said.Drug users detained during a Taliban raid walk in line on their way to the detoxification ward of the Avicenna Medical Hospital for Drug Treatment."It's a brutal place surrounded by armed guards," Mat Southwell told VICE World News.