Afghanistan ‘War’ is Virtually Over, Taliban Awaiting “Peaceful Transfer of Power”

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Aug 15: Fighting for the control of Afghanistan has virtually ended on Sunday with the Taliban militants having reached the outskirts of the national capital Kabul without much of resistance and said they were awaiting for a “peaceful transfer of power.” The insurgents also issued a statement that they have no plans to take the Afghan capital “by force” as sounds of gunshots echoed in the capital.

The Taliban expects a peaceful transition of power in the next few days, a spokesman said on Sunday, as the insurgents reached Afghanistan’s capital Kabul with little resistance.

It was even as the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani urged government forces on Sunday to maintain security in Kabul, after the Taliban paused their sweeping advance on the outskirts of the capital, causing widespread panic.

“It is our responsibility and we will do it in the best possible manner. Anyone who thinks about chaos, plunder or looting will be tackled with force,” he said in a video released to media.

But the Taliban spokesman said the militant Islamist group would protect the rights of women, as well as freedoms for media workers and diplomats.

“We assure the people, particularly in the city of Kabul, that their properties, their lives are safe,” the spokesman said. “Our leadership had instructed our forces to remain at the gates of Kabul, not to enter the city.

“We are awaiting a peaceful transfer of power,” he said adding the Taliban expected that to happen in a matter of days.

Earlier, the Taliban was on the brink of total victory in Afghanistan on Sunday, with its fighters ordered to wait on the outskirts of the capital and the government conceding it was preparing for a “transfer of power.”

The Taliban’s militants surrounded Kabul following an astonishing rout of government forces and warlord militias achieved in just 10 days.

The fall of Kabul would see the hardline Islamic group take back power two decades after US-led forces toppled it in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

“The Islamic Emirate instructs all its forces to stand at the gates of Kabul, not to try to enter the city,” a spokesman for the Taliban tweeted as residents reported insurgents on the outskirts of the city.

“Until the completion of the transition process, the responsibility for the security of Kabul is with the other side (the Afghan government)”.

The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorised to release the information, said there hadn’t been any fighting yet. The Taliban fighters were in the districts of Kalakan, Qarabagh and Paghman.

Amid a harsh Taliban offensive, the territory controlled by the Afghan government shrank further on Sunday as the Taliban took the provincial capital of Maidan Wardak, just west of Kabul. Earlier today, the key eastern city of Jalalabad fell without a fight. The fall of the last major city takes the insurgents closer to capturing the capital Kabul. The Taliban has also secured the roads connecting Afghanistan to Pakistan, a western official said.

In less than eight weeks, the hardliners have swept through the country taking all the major cities including Mazar-i-Sharif, Logar province, Kandahar, Herat among others. The takeover of cities in the last 24 hours has been virtually unopposed. As Taliban fighters entered Mazar-i-Sharif on Saturday, government security forces escaped to neighbouring Uzbekistan.

Meanwhile, thousands of civilians have streamed into Kabul, fleeing from the Taliban controlled areas. Hundreds of people have been displaced and are now staying homeless in the capital. Overcrowded tents and open areas with a lack of food and other amenities has become a common sight in the city.

An Afghan official said forces at Bagram air base, home to a prison housing 5,000 inmates, have surrendered to the Taliban. Bagram district chief Darwaish Raufi said the surrender handed the one-time American base over to the insurgents. The prison housed both Taliban and Islamic State group fighters. It came as the Taliban entered the outskirts of Kabul.

Uzbekistan’s Foreign Ministry said 84 Afghan servicemen crossed the border into Uzbekistan asking for assistance. Uzbek guards detained the group of Afghan military when they crossed the border. The group included three wounded soldiers that needed medical help, the ministry said. The men were offered food and temporary accommodation in Uzbekistan, and the ministry was in touch with Afghan officials regarding the return of Afghan soldiers to their home country.

Taliban sources said their negotiators were heading to presidential palace to prepare for a peaceful transfer of power to the Taliban.

The US President Joe Biden has rushed an additional 1,000 US soldiers to Afghanistan for an “orderly and safe drawdown” of American and allied personnel, as the Taliban insurgents moved closer to retaking full control of the war-torn country. Biden’s authorisation of 5,000 troops in his statement on Saturday included 1,000 who are already on the ground in Afghanistan, according to a defence official. A battalion of 1,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division were redirected to Kabul, instead of their original standby position in Kuwait. The Pentagon had previously announced 3,000 additional troops were on their way, the defence official said.

Taliban insurgents took control of the key eastern Afghanistan city of Jalalabad without a fight, leaving the territory controlled by the crumbling government to little more than the capital Kabul.

The fall of Jalalabad has also given the Taliban control of a road leading to the Pakistan city of Peshawar, one of the main highways into landlocked Afghanistan. It followed the Taliban’s seizure of the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif late on Saturday, also with little fighting.

“There are no clashes taking place right now in Jalalabad because the governor has surrendered to the Taliban,” a Jalalabad-based Afghan official said. “Allowing passage to the Taliban was the only way to save civilian lives.”

A second security official in the city said the Taliban had agreed to give safe passage to government officials and security forces while they leave Jalalabad. The decision to surrender was taken to avoid “casualties and destruction,” the person added.

India has put in place contingency plans to evacuate hundreds of its officials and citizens from Kabul that has been gripped by fear and panic following reports of Taliban fighters entering the outskirts of the Afghan capital city on Sunday.

Official sources said the government would not put the lives of its staffers at the Indian embassy and Indian citizens in Kabul at any risk and plans have already been finalised in case they require emergency evacuation. “The government is closely monitoring the fast-paced developments in Afghanistan. We will not put the lives of our staff at the Indian embassy in Kabul at any risk,” official sources said.

Pope Francis said he shared “the unanimous concern for the situation in Afghanistan” as Taliban fighters sweep across the war-torn country. From a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, the pope asked for prayers “so that the clamor of weapons may cease and solutions may be found at the negotiating table.” He added that “only in this way, may the battered population of the country — men and women, elderly and children — return to their homes and live in peace and safety, with full mutual respect.”

The British parliament will be recalled from its summer recess next week to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, a source at Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Downing Street office said.

Britain’s interior ministry said earlier that it was working to protect its citizens and help other eligible former UK staff to leave Afghanistan.

Russia is working with other countries to hold an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Afghanistan as the Taliban completes its military takeover of the country, foreign ministry official Zamir Kabulov said. “We are working on this,” Kabulov said, adding that the meeting would take place.

Kabulov also said Moscow did not plan to evacuate its embassy in Kabul, saying the Taliban had offered Russia and other countries — which he did not name — security assurances for their missions in Afghanistan.

Albania’s prime minister said his country would temporarily shelter hundreds of Afghans who worked with the Western peacekeeping military forces and were now threatened by the Taliban. On his Facebook page, Edi Rama said the U.S. government had asked Albania to serve as a “transit place for a certain number of Afghan political emigrants who have the United States as their final destination.”