As I was searching for a car on the streets, I saw five dead bodies lying around and five wounded people. One of the wounded was a young man who wanted to bring medicine from the hospital. He was shot in the shoulder, but he had a bag full of medicine in his hand. He was lying on the ground and no one paid attention. I couldn’t do anything — I had to find a car and save the family. The bodies smelled.

I tried to find water before we left for Kabul. It was very difficult. I kept searching for open shops. Finally I found one shop that had six small bottles of water. When I asked the price, the shopkeeper said I could only take two bottles, and each bottle was 35 afghani. On normal days, it is 15 afghani.”

Ghulam Ghaws, 45, a laborer in Ghazni city

“The whole city was under the control of the Taliban, and they had many check points. We left everything to just save our lives. We left everything behind. I don’t even remember whether I locked the gate or not. It was difficult to find a car; people were fighting with each other over a car.

The Ghazni River is near my home. The river was full of dead bodies, and they smelled. It was hard to breathe. I saw more than 200 bodies in the river and on the streets.

The city was out of power, food, water and medicine. Hospitals got full with bodies on the first day of fighting and after that there wasn’t any space for new victims. We left because if the Taliban and the Afghan forces don’t kill us, we might die of hunger. Markets, shops, homes were burned down and little has remained. If you go there, you won’t be able to recognize the city.”

A female police officer in Kabul, who is not being identified because of concerns for her safety

“It was Friday that my boyfriend sent me a message and said the situation is critical in Ghazni city. He has been a police officer for nine years and he was out on a patrol when a friend called him to say that he shouldn’t return to the headquarters because the Taliban have attacked. So he went to hide in a hotel.