Witnesses said that on Wednesday (August 18), armed members of the Taliban prevented people desperate to flee Afghanistan from reaching the Kabul airport, while President Joe Biden vowed to keep American troops in the country until All Americans are evacuated.
Since the Taliban entered Kabul over the weekend, chaos has unfolded as thousands of people seek to leave, worrying about returning to the harsh interpretation of Islamic laws imposed during the Taliban rule that ended 20 years ago.
“Everyone wants to go out,” a member of an Afghan family said after arriving in Germany. “Every day is worse than the day before. We saved ourselves, but we couldn’t save our family.”
Witnesses said that Taliban members prevented people from entering the airport compound, including those with necessary travel documents.
“This is a total disaster. The Taliban are firing into the air, pushing people and beating them with AK47s,” said one person trying to pass.
“Help! The Taliban is here. The Taliban is here.”
Young Afghan woman outside the door at #accept The airport begged American soldiers to let her and other civilians in. pic.twitter.com/HfhMW5DS1F
-Frud Bezhan فرود بيژن (@FrudBezhan) August 18, 2021
A Taliban official said that the commander and soldiers shot into the air to disperse the crowd outside the Kabul airport, but told Reuters: “We have no intention of hurting anyone.”
As the airlift of Western citizens and Afghans working for foreign governments increases, Biden stated that the US military will continue to stay until the American evacuation is completed, even if it means that the withdrawal will be completed after the United States’ August 31 deadline.
The president who has been criticized for the departure of the United States says that chaos is inevitable. In an interview with ABC News, Biden was asked if he could better handle the withdrawal of US troops. Biden said: “No… There is a way to get out without causing confusion, I I don’t know how this happened.”
US officials told the Taliban, “We hope they will allow all American citizens, all third-country nationals, and all Afghans who want to leave safely and without harassment,” US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told reporters in Washington. .
But U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said at a press conference in Washington that the 4,500 U.S. troops in Kabul could not help bring people to the airport for evacuation because they focused on ensuring the safety of the airport and admitted that the evacuation had not yet reached the goal.
General Mark Milli, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated that the security situation at Kabul Airport is stable and the Taliban have not interfered in US military operations.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven countries are scheduled to discuss evacuation and seek coordination of flights at a virtual meeting on Thursday.
A Western official told Reuters that approximately 5,000 diplomats, security personnel, aid workers and Afghans have been evacuated from Kabul in the past 24 hours, and military flights will continue around the clock.
A sort ofAnti-Taliban protests in Jalalabad
Witnesses said that at least three people were killed in anti-Taliban protests in Jalalabad, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) east of Kabul. The protests were an early test of the Taliban’s promise of peaceful rule.
After the Taliban seized power, they said they would not retaliate against their old enemies and would respect women’s rights within the framework of Islamic law.
Two witnesses and a former police official told Reuters that when residents tried to install the Afghan flag on a square in the city, Taliban fighters opened fire, killing three people and injuring more than ten others.
A Taliban spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
A senior member of the organization said that the new government may replace Ashraf Ghani, the President of the United Arab Emirates in exile, in the form of a governing committee, and the Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Ahhunzada will be fully responsible.
Afghanistan will not be a democracy. “This is Islamic law, nothing more,” Waheedullah Hashimi told Reuters.
The “lack of clarity” by the Afghan government prompted the International Monetary Fund to suspend the country’s access to resources, including US$440 million in currency reserves. The U.S. Treasury Department pushed for action to ensure that the funds scheduled to be allocated to Afghanistan on Monday do not fall into the hands of the Taliban.
Ghani was severely criticized by former ministers for leaving Afghanistan by sweeping Taliban forces in Kabul on Sunday. He said he followed the advice of government officials. He denied reports that he took away large sums of money.
“If I stay, I will witness the bloodshed in Kabul,” Ghani said in a video broadcast on Facebook.
The Taliban have stated that their law enforcement will be lower than during the rule of their predecessors, and a senior official said on Wednesday that the leaders of the organization will not live in seclusion as they did in the past.
‘TI will tell’
Hashmi said that women’s roles, including their job, education and dress rights, will ultimately be determined by a committee of Islamic scholars.
“They will decide whether they should wear a headscarf, a burqa, or just (a) a veil plus a robe or something. It’s up to them,” he told Reuters.
Under the Taliban’s rule from 1996 to 2001, women were forbidden to work, girls were not allowed to go to school, and women had to wear full-length burks to go out.
Many Afghans are skeptical of the Taliban’s promises.
“My family lives under the rule of the Taliban. Maybe they really want to change or have changed, but only time will prove everything, and it will soon become clear,” says Ferista, who runs a women’s tailoring shop. Said Ferishta Karimi.
