At least four planes were evacuated by charter flights and hundreds of people tried to escape the Taliban’s takeover of the Taliban Afghanistan Officials said on Sunday that they had been unable to leave the United States for several days, and there were conflicting statements about why these flights could not take off because the United States is facing increasing pressure and needs to help those who stay to escape.
An Afghan official at Mazar-e-Sharif Airport in the northern city of Afghanistan said the potential passengers were Afghans, many of whom did not have passports or visas and were therefore unable to leave the country. He said they left the airport after the situation was resolved.
However, the top Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives stated that the organization included Americans who were sitting on planes, but the Taliban did not let them take off and actually “held them hostage.” He did not say where the information came from. Unable to reconcile immediately.
The last few days of the US’s 20-year war in Afghanistan were marked by a tragic airlift from Kabul Airport to evacuate thousands of people-Americans and their allies-considering the history of the Taliban’s repression, especially those of the Taliban. Suppress history, they worry about what will happen in the future. female. However, when the last group of troops withdrew on August 30, many people were left behind.
The United States promised to continue to work with the new Taliban rulers to let those who want to leave, and the militants promised to allow anyone with appropriate legal documents to leave. But Texas Rep. Michael McCall told “Fox Sunday News” that American citizens and Afghan interpreters were kept on six planes.
“The Taliban will not let them leave the airport,” he said, adding that he was worried that “they will demand more and more, whether it be cash or legitimacy as the Afghan government.” He did not provide more details.
Afghan officials, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the topic, said that these were four planes, their scheduled passengers were staying in hotels, and the authorities were studying whether they could leave the country. He pointed out that the crux of the matter is that many people do not have the correct travel documents.
Residents of Mazar-i-Sharif also stated that the passengers were no longer at the airport. They said that at least 10 families were waiting in a local hotel to make a decision on their fate. None of them had passports or visas, but stated that they had worked for companies allied with the US or German military. Others saw it in the restaurant.
The small airport of Mazar-e-Sharif has only recently started to handle international flights and currently only flies to Turkey. Afghan officials said the problematic plane flew to Doha, Qatar. It is not clear who chartered them or why they were waiting in the northern city. The large-scale airlift took place at Kabul International Airport, which was initially closed after the U.S. withdrawal, but now domestic flights have resumed.
Just a few weeks after the Taliban fighters regained the country with a lightning attack, the scorching image of the chaotic evacuation-including people holding on to the plane as it took off-defined the final days of the longest war in the United States.
Since taking over, the Taliban have been trying to transform themselves into an incarnation different from that of the 1990s, when they last ruled the country and imposed repressive restrictions throughout society. Women and girls were deprived of jobs and education, men were forced to grow beards, and television and music were banned.
Now, the whole world is waiting for the face of the new government, and many Afghans are still skeptical. In the weeks after they came to power, the signals were mixed: government employees, including women, were required to return to work, but some women were later ordered to return home by the lower-level Taliban. Universities and schools have been ordered to open up, but fear has discouraged students and teachers.
The leader of Panjshir’s Afghan resistance says he is ready to hold talks with the Taliban
Women demonstrated peacefully, and some even had dialogues with Taliban leaders about their rights. But some have been dispersed by Taliban special forces firing in the air.
Some normal signs have also begun to recover. The streets of Kabul were once again blocked by traffic, and Taliban militants patrolled pickup trucks and police cars-waving automatic weapons and waving the white Taliban flag. School is open, and money changers are working on the corner of the street.
One of the Taliban’s promises is that once the country’s airport is completed and operational, Afghans holding passports and visas will be allowed to travel. More than 100 countries have issued a statement saying that they will pay close attention to whether the new ruler keeps its promises.
Technical teams from Qatar and Turkey arrived in recent days and are working hard to put the civilian airport into operation.
On Saturday, the state-run Ariane Airlines conducted its first domestic flight and continued operations on Sunday. Airport official Shershah Stor said that the airport does not have radar facilities, so flights are limited to daytime to allow visual landings.
Some countries have also been introducing humanitarian supplies. Qatar, a Gulf country, has been the political office of the Taliban since 2013. It has daily flights to Kabul to provide humanitarian assistance to this war-torn country. Bahrain also announced the provision of humanitarian assistance.
At the same time, the Taliban intensified their attacks on the last resistance group led by fighters opposed to their rule.
Anti-Taliban fighters in Panjshir Province in the northern Afghan capital are led by former Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who appealed for humanitarian assistance to help thousands of people displaced by the fighting.
A senior Taliban spokesperson said on Twitter on Sunday that the Taliban army had occupied the Roka area, one of the largest of Panjshir’s eight regions. Several Taliban delegations tried to negotiate with diehards there, but the negotiations failed to make progress.
According to the organization’s Twitter account, Fahim Dashti, a spokesman for the organization fighting the Taliban, was killed in a battle on Sunday. Dashti is the spokesperson of the organization and a well-known media figure in previous administrations.
He is also the nephew of Abdullah Abdullah, a former senior government official, and he was involved in negotiations with the Taliban on the future of Afghanistan.
When the Taliban marched toward the capital, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani withdrew from Afghanistan, and Saleh fled to Panjshir. Combatants surpassed about 300,000 government troops in a nationwide blitzkrieg in less than a week, and most of them surrendered or fled.
© 2021 Canadian Press
