Kabul airport reopens to receive aid
BATTLE FOR PANJSHIR RAGES; PAKISTAN SPY CHIEF FLIES TO AFGHANISTAN
atar’s ambassador to Afghanistan said a technical team was able to reopen Kabul airport to receive aid, according to Qatar’s Al Jazeera news channel, which also cited its correspondent as saying domestic flights had restarted.
The airport’s runway has been repaired in cooperation with authorities in Afghanistan, the ambassador said, according to Al Jazeera.
The channel said two domestic flights were operated from Kabul to the cities of Mazar-iSharif and Kandahar.
Kabul airport had been closed since the end of the massive US-led airlift of its citizens, other Western nationals and Afghans who helped Western countries.
Abrupt end to protest
North of Kabul, Taliban and opposition forces battled to control the Panjshir Valley, the last Afghan province holding out against the Islamist group, with both sides claiming to have the upper hand without producing conclusive evidence.
Taliban special forces, meanwhile, in camouflage fired their weapons into the air, bringing an abrupt and frightening end to the latest protest march in the capital by Afghan women demanding equal rights from the new rulers. News agencies said at least 17 people were killed and 41 hurt in the firing.
Also yesterday, the chief of Pakistan’s powerful intelligence agency, made a surprise visit to Kabul.
In the US, the United Nations said it will convene an international aid conference on September 13 to help avert what UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called a “looming humanitarian catastrophe”.
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The Taliban have so far issued no public declaration that they have taken the valley, which resisted their rule when they were last in power in Kabul from 1996 to 2001. The group regained power three weeks ago.
Taliban and opposition forces were fighting yesterday for control of the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, the last province in Afghanistan holding out against the hardline Islamist group, according to reports.
Taliban sources said on Friday the group’s fighters had taken the valley, although the opposition denied it had fallen.
The Taliban have so far issued no public declaration that they have taken the valley, which resisted their rule when they were last in power in Kabul from 1996 to 2001. The group regained power three weeks ago.
The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, which groups opposition forces loyal to local leader Ahmad Massoud, said Taliban forces reached the Darband heights on the border between Kapisa province and Panjshir but were pushed back.
“The defence of the stronghold of Afghanistan is unbreakable,” Front spokesman Fahim Dashty said in a tweet.
In a Facebook post, Massoud insisted his forces would resist and said Panjshir “continues to stand strongly in the fight”.
Praising “our honourable sisters”, he said demonstrations by women in the western city of Herat calling for their rights showed Afghans had not given up demands for justice and “they fear no threats”.
Celebratory gunfire
A Taliban source said fighting was continuing in Panjshir but the advance was slowed by landmines placed on the road to the capital Bazarak and the provincial governor’s compound.
“Demining and offensives are both going on at the same time,” the source said.
It was not immediately possible to get independent confirmation of events in Panjshir, which is walled off by mountains except for a narrow entrance.
Celebratory gunfire resounded in Kabul on Friday as reports spread of the Taliban’s takeover of Panjshir, and news agencies said at least 17 people were killed and 41 hurt in the firing.
Pakistan’s spy chief Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed flew into Kabul on Saturday, sources in both capitals said. It was not clear what his agenda was, but a senior official in Pakistan had said earlier in the week that Hameed, who heads the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, could help the Taliban reorganise the Afghan military.
Washington has accused Pakistan and the ISI of backing the Taliban in the group’s twodecade fight against the USbacked government in Kabul, although Islamabad has denied the charges. Analysts have said Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan will be much enhanced with the Taliban in power, although the Pakistani government has said that its influence over the movement has waned.
In Kabul, Taliban fighters broke up a demonstration by about a dozen women urging the group to respect women’s rights to education and jobs, according private broadcaster Tolo news.
Footage showed women confronted by armed militants covering their mouths and coughing, and one demonstrator said the fighters had used tear gas and tasers against the participants, who had been carrying banners and a bouquet of flowers.