TALIBAN MILITANTS WHIP WOMEN PROTESTING AGAINST ALL-MALE GOVT
Taliban fighters used whips and sticks against a group of women protesting in Kabul on Wednesday following the announcement of a hardline, male-only interim government, in the group’s latest crackdown on dissent in Afghanistan, CNN reports.
Videos and images received by CNN show the women chanting, “Long live the women of Afghanistan.”
Some held placards declaring, “No government can deny the presence of women” and “I will sing freedom over and over.”
Others held placards with the image of a pregnant police officer who was killed in Ghor province a few days ago. The Taliban told CNN they were not involved in her death, but have subsequently launched an investigation.
The fighters also beat a number of journalists covering the demonstration, according to witnesses.
This is just the latest case of female activists making a bold and public challenge to the Taliban’s rule. Women in hijabs joined protests in Kabul on Tuesday, the largest since the militant group seized power last month.
A small group of women demonstrators also took to the streets of the Afghan capital over the weekend to demand equal rights, one of at least three small protests across the country last week.
One woman at Wednesday’s protest said: “We have gathered here to protest the recent announcement of the government where there are no women representation within this government.”
She said a few of the protesters were “hit with whips and they tell us to go to our homes and recognize and accept the Emirate. Why should we accept the Emirate while no inclusion or rights have been given to us?”
As she spoke, she held a poster saying: “A cabinet without women is a loser, a loser.”
FIRE KILLS 41 INMATES AT INDONESIAN PRISON
At least 41 inmates at an Indonesian prison are dead after a fire broke out in the overcrowded facility early Wednesday morning.
A spokesperson for Indonesia’s justice ministry said the blaze started in Block C of Tangerang prison, located on the outskirts of the capital, Jakarta.
Rika Aprianti said the fire was extinguished after several hours. At least 80 prisoners were injured, including eight who were transported to a hospital in Tangerang.
More than 2,000 inmates are housed at Tangerang prison, which was built to hold just 600, with 122 inmates housed in Block C.
Aprianti said the cause of the deadly fire is under investigation.
120 KILLED IN ETHIOPIA’S AMHARA REGION
Doctors and local officials have said more than 120 civilians were massacred in Ethiopia’s Amhara region earlier this month, but forces from neighbouring Tigray rejected allegations they were responsible.
The killings in Chenna village, near the town of Dabat, took place in early September, according to Sewnet Wubalem, the local administrator in Dabat, and Chalachew Dagnew, spokesperson of the nearby city of Gondar told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday.
“So far we have recovered 120 bodies. They were all innocent farmers. But we think the number might be higher. There are people who are missing,” Sewnet said.
Mulugeta Melesa, head of the hospital
in Dabat, told the AFP news agency, “There were 125 dead in Chenna village … I saw the mass grave myself.”
Mulugeta added that residents were “still searching for dead bodies around the area and counting is still going on”.
Chalachew, the Gondar city spokesperson, also said he had visited the burial area in the village and that children, women, and elderly were among the dead.
He was quoted by Reuters as saying the killings were during the Tigrayan forces’ “short presence” in the area, and it was now under the control of the Ethiopian federal army.
The accounts could not be independently verified.
The Tigrayan forces later issued a statement rejecting what they called a “fabricated allegation” by the Amhara regional government and denying any involvement in the killing of civilians.
“We categorically reject claims of our forces’ involvement in the killing of civilians,” said the statement, which was posted by spokesman Getachew Reda on Twitter.
It also called for “an independent investigation into all atrocities” in the region.
WE’RE WATCHING TALIBAN GOVT CLOSELY, SAYS U.S.
The United States says it is assessing the Taliban’s announcement of a caretaker government in Afghanistan and has “made clear our expectation that the Afghan people deserve an inclusive government.”
“We will continue to hold the Taliban to their commitments to allow safe passage for foreign nationals and Afghans with travel documents, including permitting flights currently ready to fly out of Afghanistan to agreed-upon onward destinations,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA Tuesday. “We also reiterate our clear expectation that the Taliban ensure that Afghan soil is not used to threaten any other countries and allow humanitarian access in support of the Afghan people. The world is watching closely.”
The Taliban announced Tuesday a “caretaker” Islamic government, saying it will be headed by Mullah Hasan Akhund, a close associate of the Islamist movement’s late founder Mullah Omar.
The announcement came a day after the Taliban declared they had conquered the northern province of Panjshir, ending the only armed resistance to their rule in the conflict-torn country.
While sharing details of the caretaker cabinet at a news conference in Kabul, Taliban chief spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said that all the appointments were in an acting capacity and that the heads of various other ministries will be appointed soon.
I APOLOGISE FOR FLEEING, ALLOWING TALIBAN TAKE OVER – EX-AFGHAN PRESIDENT
Afghanistan’s former President Ashraf Ghani has said it was never his intent to “abandon the people” as he apologised to Afghans for the way his rule came to an end when he fled the country last month on the same day the Taliban entered the capital, Kabul, Aljazeera reports.
In a statement published on Twitter on Wednesday, Ghani said he left on August 15 at the urging of the palace security to avoid the risk of bloody street fighting, and again denied stealing millions from the treasury.
“Leaving Kabul was the most difficult decision of my life, but I believed it was the only way to keep the guns silent and save Kabul and her 6 million citizens,” he said.
Ghani took the opportunity to deny the claims that he had taken millions of dollars out of the country when he fled, even saying that he was ready to be investigated to prove his innocence.
The claims originated with a former Afghan ambassador to neighbouring Tajikistan, Zahir Aghbar, who alleged Ghani took about $169m with him when he left the country.
Ghani, who is currently in Abu Dhabi, lamented that, like his predecessors, he too had been unable to bring peace and prosperity to the war-torn country.
“It is with a deep and profound regret that my own chapter ended in a similar tragedy to my predecessors,” he said. “I apologize to the Afghan people that I could not make it end differently.”