Three killed as protests test Taliban vow of peaceful rule
PROTESTERS REPLACE MILITANTS’ FLAG
Taliban militants shot dead at least three people after protesters in three cities pulled down the group’s banner and raised the Afghan national flag in its place.
Witnesses said more than a dozen were also wounded after gunmen dispersed a protest in the eastern city of Jalalabad Wednesday. The deaths appeared to signal a hard line on dissent that marred the militants’ promise not to exact reprisals and cast further doubt on their offer of a general amnesty.
In Jalalabad, one man who called himself Wahid said the incident began when protesters replaced the Taliban’s flag with the national tricolour near the city’s Pashtunistan square. He said: “Living is not possible any more. These youngsters here, I understand they hate the Taliban but changing the flag has caused trouble for all of us in Jalalabad. One of our dear men was killed.”
Footage showed one young man carrying the national flag, yelling “they can shoot me, I will die for this flag.”
Protesters also gathered in the eastern cities of Khost and Asadabad to take down the Taliban’s white flag, which is emblazoned with Islamic scripture in black, and replace it with the black, red and green banner of the Afghan Republic which features the same verse but less prominently.
A group of women took to the streets of Kabul on Tuesday demanding the Taliban respect their rights.
But Shabnam Dawran, a presenter for Afghan TV station RTA Pashto, said she was prevented from entering her office by militants.
Taliban spokesmen have gone to great lengths to reassure Afghans and foreign governments that they will not return to the brutal methods of government they employed in the 1990s, when public floggings and beheadings were common.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the group’s co-founder, arrived in Kandahar on Tuesday but has yet to make any public declarations. Other leaders are returning from exile.
One Taliban official has suggested the country may be run by a ruling council, while Haibatullah Akhundzada, the movement’s supreme leader, remains in overall charge.
Waheedullah Hashimi said: “There will be no democratic system at all because it does not have any base in our country.” Asked about female education, he said: “Our ulema (scholars) will decide whether girls are allowed to go to school or not.”
The deposed Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday evening, three days after he fled Afghanistan.
Ghani said he was “in consultation with others” and intended to return to his homeland “so that I can continue my efforts for justice for Afghans.”
In Kabul, life appeared to be returning to some semblance of normality, with ice cream vans playing music and more shops slowly opening.
Taliban fighters were still highly visible on the streets and there were continued reports of search parties looking for government officials and journalists.
But chaos continued at the city’s international airport, where Western governments are trying to evacuate their citizens and Afghans who worked with troops and diplomats.
Thousands of people crowded into gridlocked roads while some attempted to tunnel under or climb over the fence.
Many said they had arrived without visas or tickets in the belief, or hope, that the British and American troops would help them leave the country.
At the airport’s east gate, one woman was heard screaming “the Taliban are coming for me” as she begged soldiers to let her in.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday that Canada will accept 21,000 Afghans. But he said the Taliban are putting up barriers on the ground that make it difficult to coordinate their safe exit.
The Netherlands on Wednesday complained that Dutch embassy staff, translators and family members missed an evacuation flight because U.S. troops refused to let them into the airport.
By Wednesday afternoon Taliban fighters had set up rudimentary checkpoints on some approach roads in an apparent effort to impose some order.
They fired shots into the air and used whips to disperse crowds near the main entrance to the airfield.
But there are fears Taliban checkpoints controlling access to the airport could further complicate efforts to rescue others still hiding in the city.
“I can manage (to go to the airport) as long as they let me get into a U.K. plane,” said a senior Afghan official.
“I can’t risk my life going there and then coming back. I won’t have another chance.”
OUR ULEMA (SCHOLARS) WILL DECIDE WHETHER GIRLS ARE ALLOWED TO GO TO SCHOOL OR NOT.