“Complete Troop Withdrawal by August 31 or Face Consequences:” Taliban to US

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Aug 23: Even as Britain is urging the United States to extend its evacuation effort in Kabul beyond the current August 31 deadline, the Taliban said it would not agree to any extension of the deadline for the United States to withdraw troops and a delay would “bring consequences.”

“You can say it’s a red line,” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said in an interview. “If the US or UK were to seek additional time to continue evacuations — the answer is no. Or there would be consequences.”

The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to press President Joe Biden at an emergency meeting of Group of Seven leaders on Tuesday convened by Britain. The British government has said without the Americans other countries will have no choice but to stop their own operations to help people fleeing the Taliban takeover.

Britain’s Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said on Monday that “there is a hard reality that there would be no international airlift without the way that the U.S. are underpinning it.” He said “whether or not the U.S. can be persuaded to stay is a matter for the Prime Minister tomorrow in the G-7 meeting.” He added that an agreement from the Taliban would also be needed for an extension. James Cleverly, a foreign office minister, also said Britain was pushing for the deadline to be pushed beyond August 31 to increase the number of people it can help who want to flee the Taliban.

Biden has not ruled out extending the airlift beyond the August 31 deadline he set before the Taliban’s swift takeover in Afghanistan, but he said he hoped it would not be necessary.

Reports emanating from Kabul said there were unending queues of people waiting at the airport to leave the country at the first available opportunity. “Heading towards every single plane are long queues of Afghans. The lines don’t seem to end. They have been told they can only bring one suitcase and the clothes they are wearing, as they leave their country behind – the country now controlled by the Taliban. But it’s not just the country they are leaving. They are leaving behind the life they lived – and for the young, educated generation, the life they built up, the dreams they cherished over 20 years,” media reports said from the Kabul airport.

One Afghan guard was killed and three others injured in a firefight that broke out between unidentified gunmen, Western security forces and Afghan guards at the North Gate of the Kabul airport on Monday.

The Taliban is also claimed to have liquidated the resistance building up in the Panjshir valley in Baghlam province and has retaken the three districts reportedly captured by the anti-Taliban forces led by Ahmad Massoud, son of the famed Mujahideen leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, and the former Afghan vice president Amrullah Saleh.

“Taliban forces have recaptured three districts in northern Afghanistan that fell to local militia groups last week,” a Taliban spokesman said on Monday. The districts of Bano, Deh Saleh, Pul e-Hesar in Baghlan province were taken by local militia groups in one of the first signs of armed resistance to the Taliban since their seizure of the capital Kabul on August 15. The resistant forces, however, refuted the Taliban claims of having re-taken the three districts.

Earlier, the Taliban said their fighters had surrounded resistance forces holed up in Panjshir Valley but were looking to negotiate rather than take the fight to them. The announcement follows scattered reports of clashes overnight, with pro-Taliban social media accounts claiming gunmen were massing, and Afghanistan’s former vice president saying resistance forces were holding strong.

Taliban fighters “are stationed near Panjshir”, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted, saying they had the area surrounded on three sides. “The Islamic Emirate is trying to resolve this issue peacefully,” he added.

Pro-resistance accounts on social media had dismissed earlier claims of being pushed back, saying Taliban fighters had been ambushed and routed. Claims from either side were impossible to independently verify from a remote mountainous region that is largely inaccessible.

Panjshir — famous for its natural defences never penetrated by Soviet forces or the Taliban in earlier conflicts — remains the last major holdout of anti-Taliban forces. The valley is guarded by a narrow gorge, making entry — or escape — extraordinarily difficult for outsiders, who can be picked off by entrenched forces positioned on higher ground.

A spokesman for Massoud’s anti-Taliban National Resistance Front told the media that the group was prepared for “long-term conflict”, but would prefer to negotiate for an inclusive government. “The conditions for a peace deal with the Taliban are decentralisation, a system that ensures social justice, equality, rights, and freedom for all,” spokesman Ali Maisam Nazary said.

Following the collapse of the US-backed government last week, the Taliban are consolidating their control over the country and holding a series of meetings with old foes — including opposition politicians and warlords.

Meanwhile, the prime minister Narendra Modi has convened an all-party meeting on August 26 to discuss the Afghanistan issue. The External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will brief parliamentary leaders of various political parties on the developments in war-torn Afghanistan. “Floor Leaders of Political Parties would be briefed by EAM @DrSJaishankar on the present situation in Afghanistan, on 26th August, 11am in Main Committee Room, PHA, New Delhi. Invites are being sent through email. All concerned are requested to attend,” Parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi tweeted.

Jaishankar said Prime Minister Narendra Modi instructed the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)) to brief the floor leaders of the political parties. “In view of developments in Afghanistan, PM @narendramodi has instructed that MEA brief Floor Leaders of political parties. Minister of Parliamentary Affairs @JoshiPralhad will be intimating further details,” Mr. Jaishankar tweeted earlier.

The government’s briefing is expected to focus on its evacuation mission from Afghanistan as well as its assessment of the situation in that country.

India on Monday brought back 146 Indian nationals in four different flights from Qatar’s capital Doha, days after they were evacuated from Afghanistan by NATO and American aircraft in view of the deteriorating security situation in the war-torn country.

On Sunday, 392 people including two Afghan lawmakers were evacuated in three different flights under the evacuation mission.

The Taliban seized control of Kabul on August 15. Within two days of the Taliban’s capture of Kabul, India had evacuated 200 people, including the Indian envoy and other staffers of its embassy in the Afghan capital. The first evacuation flight brought back over 40 people, mostly staffers at the Indian embassy, on August 16, while the second aircraft evacuated around 150 people including Indian diplomats, officials, security personnel and some stranded Indians from Kabul on August 17.

Amidst world-wide criticism of the US for having botched up the final troop withdrawal paving way for the return of the Taliban, the President Joe Biden has defended his move to withdraw American troops from the war-torn country saying history will record this as a “logical, rational and right decision.”

Biden said the Taliban has to make a fundamental decision.

“Is the Taliban going to attempt to be able to unite and provide for the wellbeing of the people of Afghanistan, which no one group has ever done? And if it does, it’s going to need everything from additional help, in terms of economic assistance, trades and a whole range of things,” he said.

“The Taliban has said — we will see whether they mean it or not — they’re seeking legitimacy… to determine whether or not they will be recognised by other countries. They have told other countries as well as us that they don’t want us to move our diplomatic presence completely. All of this is all just talk now,” Biden said.

The United Nations in Afghanistan flew 120 people from Kabul to Kazakhstan’s Almaty in view of the “security and other constraints,” the second such flight in the past week, the spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said.

Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the Secretary-General, said in a note to correspondents on Sunday that the 120 persons included UN personnel and members of several non-governmental organisations that serve as implementing partners of the UN in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the Afghan students studying at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) have expressed concern over the fragile socio-political situation back home and appealed to the Indian government and university administration for support.

University sources said 23 Afghan students were enrolled in different courses out of which 15 were at present in the country. “The Vice-Chancellor has assured all possible help and cooperation,” said Syed Ali Nawaz Zaidi, adviser, foreign students. “A delegation of students met the proctor and expressed concern over the political instability in the country and its impact on banking and telecommunication services. They urged the government and university administration to help the students who had gone back home during the COVID-19 lockdown in getting the visa for India so that they could continue their studies,” said Dr. Zaidi, adding that some of the students were married and were concerned about the safety of their families.

About 40 Afghan students in Karnataka have also approached the State government seeking its help in securing Indian visas for their family members so that they can migrate here.

“Everyone is worried. About 40 Afghan students studying across Karnataka have approached the State government seeking help to secure visas for their families. Since all these come under the purview of the Ministry of External Affairs and the visa process has been made online, we have asked them to seek online visas,” Additional Director-General of Police (CID) Umesh Kumar, the State’s nodal officer on the Afghan issue, said.

According to the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), 339 Afghan students are currently in Karnataka. The bulk of them are in Bengaluru (202), followed by Mysuru and Mangaluru with 64 and 35 students, respectively. Ramanagaram has 25 students, Hubballi-Dharwad 10, and Raichur and Davangere have two and one, respectively.

The US on Sunday enlisted several major airlines in its frantic evacuation of tens of thousands of Afghans, Americans and other foreigners from Kabul following its fall to Taliban extremists. Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin activated the rarely-used Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) to aid the onward movement of people arriving at U.S. bases in the Middle East, the Pentagon said.

Eighteen civilian craft, from American Airlines, Atlas, Delta, Omni, Hawaiian and United, will aid dozens of military cargo transports involved in the evacuation, the statement said.

Meanwhile, the Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday said Afghanistan was a key battlefront in the global fight against terrorism from where extremist ideas have been exported to the region, hoping that the country does not become an “epicentre of terrorism” after the Taliban seized Kabul.

Lee, at a press conference along with visiting US Vice President Kamala Harris, said America’s intervention in the region 20 years ago had stopped terrorist groups from using Afghanistan as a safe base.

The US Vice President Kamala Harris said the US was focusing on evacuation efforts taking place in Afghanistan and that there would be plenty of time to analyse the context of the troop withdrawal. “There is going to be plenty of time to analyse what has happened and what has taken place in the context of the withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Harris said during a joint news conference with Lee Hsien Loong. “But right now we are singularly focused on evacuating American citizens, Afghans who have worked with us and Afghans who are vulnerable, including women and children and that is our singular focus at this time,” said Harris.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told leaders in Central Asia on Monday it was vital to avoid any spillover of radical Islam into the region from Afghanistan and to keep Islamist extremists at bay. Putin, while addressing an online summit of regional leaders, also said it was important to keep a close eye on the Afghan drug trade. According to Kremlin, Putin and Central Asian leaders also voiced concerns that Islamic State still had a foothold in Afghanistan and was a threat. The leaders agreed to coordinate joint action on Afghanistan, it said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday that it was unable to fly 500 tons of medical supplies to the Kabul airport at present due to the ongoing evacuation efforts.

Spokeswoman Inas Hamam wrote in an email that supplies including surgical equipment and treatment for childhood pneumonia “were ready and planned to be delivered to Afghanistan to arrive this week,” however “now that the airport is closed to commercial flights, we can no longer get them in.”

The WHO is calling on empty planes to retrieve the equipment from the organization’s storage hub in Dubai before flying on to Kabul airport to assist with the evacuations.

“We hope Afghanistan does not become an epicentre for terrorism again,” said Lee, adding that Singapore had offered transport aircraft to help with evacuations.