Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 19: Protest against Taliban rule have started breaking out in several Afghan cities allowing the gun-trotting militants to open indiscriminate firing on people as the Taliban celebrated “Independence Day” on Thursday.
Eye-witness accounts said flag-waving protesters took to several Afghan cities on Thursday and several people were killed when Taliban fighters fired on a crowd in the first popular opposition to the militants since they seized the capital. “Our flag our identity,” a crowd of men and some women waving black, red, and green national flags shouted in Kabul, a video clip posted on social media showed.
At least two people were killed on Thursday in the Afghan city of Asadabad after Taliban fighters fired on people waving the national flag at an Independence Day rally, witnesses told the media persons. At least eight people were wounded in the violence. The incident occurred a day after three people were killed in a similar protest in Jalalabad.
Earlier the Taliban celebrated Afghanistan’s Independence Day, declaring it had beaten “the arrogant of power of the world” in the United States though challenges to their rule ranging from running the country’s frozen government to potentially facing armed opposition began to emerge. Afghanistan’s Independence Day commemorates the 1919 treaty which ended British rule in the central Asian nation.
From ATMs being out of cash to worries about food across this nation of 38 million people reliant on imports, the Taliban face all the challenges of the civilian government they dethroned without the level of international aid it enjoyed. Meanwhile, opposition figures fleeing to Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley now talk of launching an armed resistance under the banner of the Northern Alliance, which allied with the U.S. during the 2001 invasion. The Taliban so far have offered no plans for the government they plan to lead, other than to say it will be guided by Shariah, or Islamic, law. But the pressure continues to grow.
The deposed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in a message from the United Arab Emirates defended his decision to flee from Kabul in the wake of the Taliban taking over the national capital claiming that he left the country only to prevent bloodshed. He also denied claims by his country’s ambassador to Tajikistan that he had stolen millions of dollars from state funds. Ghani posted a video on his Facebook page late on Wednesday conforming that he was in the UAE.
The International Monetary Fund on Thursday said new Taliban government in Afghanistan would not ‘at the current time’ be allowed to access loans or other resources. In a statement the IMF said it would be guided by the views of the international community. “There is currently a lack of clarity within the international community regarding recognition of a government in Afghanistan, as a consequence of which the country cannot access SDRs or other IMF resources,” the statement said.
The United States president Joe Biden said the Taliban must decide whether it wanted to be recognized by the international community adding that he did not think the group had changed its fundamental beliefs.
When the Taliban swept over Afghanistan, Russia was ready for the rapid developments after working methodically for years to lay the groundwork for relations with the group that it still officially considers a terrorist organisation.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasised this week that Moscow was “in no rush” to recognize the Taliban as the new rulers of Afghanistan, but he added there were “encouraging signals” of their readiness to let other political forces join the government and allow girls into schools.
The Taliban was added to the Russian list of terrorist organizations in 2003, and Moscow has not yet moved to remove the group from the list.
Any contact with such groups is punishable under Russian law, but the Foreign Ministry has responded to questions about the seeming contradiction by saying that its exchanges with the Taliban are essential for international efforts to stabilize Afghanistan.
Noting that India’s national security challenges are increasing and becoming “complex” in view of the changing geopolitical situation globally, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh strongly pitched for a strong, capable and completely ‘self-reliant’ defense industry in the country. Singh’s comments came amid growing concerns in India and elsewhere over the Taliban sweeping across Afghanistan this month, seizing control of Afghanistan following the collapse of the US-backed government. “Today, the security scenario in the whole world is changing very fast. Because of this, the challenges to our national security are increasing and becoming complex. There are constant changes in the global geopolitical situation,” Singh said, without making specific references.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his British counterpart Dominic Raab have exchanged views on the developments in Afghanistan and agreed to work together to tackle shared security threats, support refugees and ease the humanitarian plight of ordinary Afghans.
Jaishankar arrived in New York on Monday to chair meetings in the UN Security Council on technology and peacekeeping and on counter-terrorism under India’s current presidency of the Council. During his visit, he held bilateral meetings and discussions with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and other foreign ministers, focusing on the situation in Afghanistan.
“Welcome the conversation today with UK Foreign Secretary @DominicRaab. Exchanged views on the Afghanistan developments and the immediate challenges,” Jaishankar tweeted after his meeting with his British counterpart on Wednesday.
The United Nations has moved about 100 of its personnel from Afghanistan to Kazakhstan in view of the ‘security and other constraints’ in Kabul and they will return to the country as conditions permit, according to the spokesman of the UN chief. The Taliban took control of Afghanistan on Sunday.
Their sudden victory, which comes as the US withdraws from the country following a 20-year-war, has sparked chaos at Kabul’s airport, from where America and allied nations are trying to safely evacuate thousands of citizens and allies.
Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told reporters on Wednesday that the group of about 100 UN personnel from across the system travelled from Kabul to Almaty, where they will continue their work remotely. He said the UN thanks the Government of Kazakhstan for the offer to host a temporary remote office of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
Clarissa Ward described on Wednesday how a member of her CNN crew was nearly pistol-whipped by a Taliban fighter as they were covering a tumultuous scene outside the airport in Kabul.
“I’ve covered all sorts of crazy situations,” Ward said in a report that aired on CNN. “This was mayhem. This was nuts.” The network’s chief international correspondent has been probably the most visible reporter covering the rapid fall of Afghanistan to Taliban fighters.
As the blunder of the US government in making way for the Taliban to return to power becoming clear, the Democratic-led congressional committees in the US are vowing to press President Joe Biden’s administration on what went wrong as the Taliban swept to power in Afghanistan and the United States left scores of Americans and thousands who helped them over the years in grave danger.
The anger from members of both parties is palpable and will test an administration seeking to notch signature domestic policy achievements on infrastructure, health and social programs before next year’s midterm election. Several hearings are likely this summer and fall, plunging Biden’s national security team into a bipartisan cross-examination that will be unlike anything they’ve faced during the president’s first year in the office.
Sen Bob Menendez, D-N J, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said lawmakers will investigate what he described as the ‘Biden administration’s flawed execution of the US withdrawal.’
The warnings were clear: The Afghan government would likely fall once U.S. troops pulled out. But intelligence agencies and ultimately President Joe Biden missed how quickly it would happen, losing weeks that could have been used for evacuations and spurring a foreign policy crisis. Without a sense that the country could collapse so quickly, the administration heard out Afghan President Ashraf Ghani when he met face-to-face with Biden in June.
Biden says Ghani pressed him to hold off on any urgent evacuation of Americans, arguing that it would be inviting the Taliban to advance more quickly — as it turned out they did anyway — and telling the Afghan army to give up. It was an ask that Biden heeded, despite more than a decade of deep-rooted skepticism of the competence of the Afghan government and military, marred by widespread corruption and mismanagement.
Afghanistan’s International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Samira Asghari called on the US to help evacuate the country’s top female athletes and coaching staff “before it is too late” following the Taliban takeover of her nation.
During their 1996-2001 rule the Taliban had stopped women from working. Girls were not allowed to go to school and women had to wear burqas to go out and only when accompanied by a male relative. But the Taliban this time has claimed that they would respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law.
However, former basketball captain Asghari said she feared for the safety of female athletes. “Afghanistan national female athletes, coaches and their entourage need your help, we must get them out of Taliban hands … Please do something before it is too late,” the 27-year-old tweeted on Wednesday, tagging the U.S. basketball federation, U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.
While a Dutch military transport plane has arrived in Amsterdam carrying people evacuated from Kabul, Romania’s foreign ministry said a military aircraft has evacuated a single Romanian citizen from Kabul airport to Islamabad. It said in a statement that “the particularly difficult security conditions in Kabul meant that the access of other groups of Romanian citizens to the airport could not be achieved.”
The Dutch Ministry of Defense says that a C-17 plane landed late Wednesday night at Schiphol airport. On board were 35 Dutch nationals along with citizens from Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom.
The government says it has now airlifted 50 Dutch nationals out of Kabul. A Dutch consular crisis team along with dozens of troops to protect the personnel flew into the Afghan capital on Wednesday.
Poland’s president has approved the deployment of a 100-person military contingent to Afghanistan to help secure the evacuation of Polish citizens and the citizens of other countries in coordination with allies. President Andrzej Duda signed the order late Wednesday for the mission, and which is to last until September 16.
Meanwhile, 31 Afghan refugees were arrested for allegedly raising anti-Pakistan slogans and ransacking public property in Peshawar late Wednesday night, police said.
According to an FIR registered in the Town police station, some Afghan refugees blocked the main university road at Bab-e-Peshawar in Hayatabad while protesting against Talibanisation in Afghanistan. They raised anti-Pakistan slogans and ransacked public property.