Pul-e-Charkhi prison (Dari: زندان پل چرخی), also known as theAfghan National Detention Facility, is amaximum-security prison located next to theAhmad Shah Baba Mina neighborhood in the eastern part ofKabul,Afghanistan. It has the capacity to house 14,000inmates,^[1][2] but as of October 2024 it only has around 5,000 inmates,^[3] most of whom have been arrested and convicted within the jurisdiction ofKabul Province.^[4] It is considered thecountry's largest prison.

Pul-e-Charkhi prison

Aerial view of the Pul-e Charkhi prison complex, January 2012
Location	Kabul
Coordinates	34°31′11″N69°20′51″E / 34.5196°N 69.3476°E /34.5196; 69.3476
Status	Operational
Security class	Maximum
Capacity	14,000[1]
Opened	1980s
Managed by	Directorate of Prisons Affairs

Construction of Pul-e-Charkhi prison began in the 1970s by order of former presidentMohammed Daoud Khan and was completed during the 1980s. It became notorious fortorture and executions after the 1978Saur Revolution as well as during the ten-yearSoviet-Afghan War that followed.^[5][6] Some claim that between April 1978 and December 1979, thecommunistPeople's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) underNur Muhammad Taraki,executed around 27,000 political prisoners at Pul-e-Charkhi.^[7] More recently, theAfghan National Army's 111th Capital Division was based near Pul-e-Charkhi prison.

In December 2006, a communist-era mass grave, close to the Pul-e-Charkhi prison, was discovered by theNATO-ledInternational Security Assistance Force. It is believed that the grave held some 2,000 bodies.^{[8][9][10][11]} Officials of theAfghan 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 andBabrak Karmal were in power.

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.^[12] There are also about 70 female prisoners who are housed in a special female section of the prison.

In December 2004, foreign prisoners attacked guards withrazor 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 theInternational 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.^[13][14]

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 theAfghan National Army (ANA). The hostage-takers threatened to kill the ANA members unless mediators were sent in to resolve the conflict.^[15]

The prison has been renovated in recent years with assistance from the United States,^[1] including theUnited States Army Corps of Engineers. In 2007, theU.S. military began transferring some of its detainees fromBagram Air Base in Afghanistan to the Pul-e-Charkhi prison. By January 2008, as many as 125 detainees from theParwan Detention Facility and 32 detainees from the U.S.Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been transferred to Pul-e-Charkhi.^[16] This was followed by the transfer of some 250 more detainees.^[17]

The United States repeatedly announced that it will be shutting down its Guantanamo Bay detention camps, inCuba.^[16] The Americans planned to transfer most of the captives held inextrajudicial detention in Guantanamo, and in its less well knownParwan 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.^[16] 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.^[16] 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, ColonelJames W. Harrison Jr. and Master SergeantWilberto Sabalu, part of the oversight team, were shot dead by one of the Afghan guards.^[16] 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.^[16]

By January 2008, 32 captives from theGuantanamo Bay detention camp and 125 captives from the Parwan Detention Facility had been transferred to Pul-e-Charkhi.^[16] TheCenter for Constitutional Rights reported that all of the Afghans repatriated to Afghanistan from April 2007 were sent to the Pul-e-Charkhi prison.^[18]

In February 2009, a team from the United Kingdom'sChannel 4 toured the American wing of the prison.^[19] By September 2009 the United States had transferred some 250 former detainees from itsGuantanamo Bay detention camp to Pul-e-Charkhi, often to the shock of their waiting families, according toHuman Rights First.^[17]

On August 15, 2021, management of the prison was taken over by forces of theTaliban after thefall of PresidentAshraf Ghani's government. TheTaliban released most inmates from the jail, including many of their fellow members.^[20]

• List of prisons in Afghanistan

• 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