18″ Aug” 2021
At least three people are reported killed in Jalalabad during the city’s protests against the Taliban banner replacing Afghanistan’s national flag.
Anti-Taliban protests in the eastern city of Jalalabad over the removal of the Afghan flag have now spread elsewhere in Afghanistan.
Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from Kabul, said there were reports of hundreds of protesters taking to the streets over the same issue in Khost province.
In Jalalabad, at least three people have been reportedly killed and a dozen others wounded after shots fired at protest against removal of Afghan flag by Taliban.
McBride said that “a fairly sizable part” of Jalalabad’s residents were resisting the replacement of Afghanistan’s national flag in the city by the Taliban banner.
“We have seen uploaded on social media, protests in the streets of hundreds if not thousands of people waving the national flag,” he said.
“We know that they have put the flag back up again in an important square in Jalalabad and that there have been clashes with the Taliban …”
Babrak Amirzada, a reporter for a local news agency, said he and a TV cameraman from another agency were beaten by the Taliban as they tried to cover the unrest, according to The Associated Press news agency.
Meanwhile, planes carrying hundreds of evacuees from Kabul have arrived in the United Kingdom and Germany as Western nations stepped up evacuation efforts and the Taliban promised women’s rights, media freedom and amnesty for government officials in Afghanistan.
The United States said its military flights had evacuated 3,200 people from Kabul so far, including 1,100 on Tuesday alone.
In Kabul, the Taliban sought to strike a conciliatory tone at its first press conference since its lightning seizure of the Afghan capital, promising to respect the rights of women “within the framework of Islam” and expressing a desire for peaceful relations with other countries.
Anti-Taliban protests spread beyond Jalalabad
Al Jazeera’s Charlotte Bellis, reporting from Kabul, says that the anti-Taliban protests have expanded beyond Jalalabad to several other provinces.
“People are very upset that the national flag was taken down and that the Taliban flag has been raised,” said Bellis.
She added: “That isn’t the only flashpoint in Afghanistan today. There is ongoing chaos at the airport where the Taliban is still trying to hold people off from reaching the airport, breaching the security perimeter and having a repeat of what happened on Monday when thousands of people made their way onto the tarmac and disrupted evacuation flights.”
Taliban should explain Islamic law it wants to apply: NGO
The chairperson of the Afghanistan Women’s Council has asked the Taliban to explain the version of sharia the group is hoping to apply as soon as possible.
“I am not afraid from the Taliban, but I want from the Taliban … is security, to stop the war in Afghanistan … for the Afghan woman this is very, very important,” Fatana Gailani told Al Jazeera from Kabul.
“Second, the Taliban should explain which kind of Sharia they are bringing … we are not afraid from but by the name of Sharia, but we want to be sure what they say about women’s right. Right now they are talking very nicely about women’s rights … but we want to know what is the future for Afghan women.”
Situation for women, children in Afghanistan ‘very concerning’: aid organisation
Save the Children is warning that the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan is exacerbating what was already an extremely dire situation in the country.
The aid organisation’s regional director for Asia, Hassan Noor, says the aid group paused its Afghanistan operations and closed its offices as of Sunday, pending an assessment of the security situation.
Speaking to journalists at an online press briefing, Noor said the future of Afghanistan’s population, particularly women and children, was “very concerning,” particularly with regards to how their humanitarian needs will be met.
Dutch efforts to evacuate Afghan staff fails
Dutch Foreign Minister Sigrid Kaag says Dutch evacuation efforts in Afghanistan were unsuccessful on Tuesday night as chaos outside Kabul airport made it impossible to get eligible people on a plane.
The Netherlands aims to get up to 1,000 local embassy workers, translators and their families out of the country.
US armed forces securing the airport did not allow any Afghans to enter the gates even if they had the right credentials, and the plane was only on the ground in Kabul for about half an hour, Kaag said.
“It’s awful. Many were there at the gates of the airport with their families,” Kaag told Dutch news agency ANP.
Afghan envoy says hold-out Panjshir province can resist Taliban rule
The Afghan ambassador to Tajikistan rejected Taliban rule of his country and said hold-out Panjshir province, north of Kabul, would serve as a stronghold for resistance led by self-proclaimed acting president Amrullah Saleh.
Lieutenant General Zahir Aghbar, who held senior positions in Afghan state security including chief of police before becoming ambassador, said Ghani was a traitor.
“I cannot say that the Taliban have won the war. No, it was just Dr Ashraf Ghani who gave up power after treacherous talks with the Taliban,” he told Reuters news agency in an interview.
Protests in London to speed up Afghan evacuations
Protesters gathered outside UK’s Parliament calling on the country’s government to do more to evacuate residents in Afghanistan.
The demonstrators, many of whom have family members living in Afghanistan, held signs with images of those who were stranded in the country. In recent days, the UK government has deployed around 900 troops to help evacuate UK nationals and Afghan troops who helped UK forces during their time there.
Millions of Afghans ‘starving’: Norwegian Refugee Council
The head of the Norwegian Refugee Council has raised the alarm over then number of displaced people in Afghanistan, warning that “millions” in the country were “starving”.
“Our [NRC] concern are the millions and millions who are now starving … who are very afraid of their existence in the future,” Jan Egeland of the NRC told Al Jazeera from Oslo, Norway.
“There is also remember, millions of refugees in Iran and Pakistan, that are also watching the the drama of Afghanistan,” he added.
However, Egeland said the end of fighting between the Taliban and the Afghan forces was now over, that should “enable people to return to their homes
Where does the world stand on Afghan refugees?
The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan is raising fears of a possible humanitarian crisis that could see huge numbers of people try to flee the country.
The group, which took control of Kabul on Sunday following a rapid nationwide offensive, has pledged not to seek retribution against officials who served in the now-deposed government headed by Ashraf Ghani.
Read more here.
UAE says hosting Afghan president ‘on humanitarian grounds’
The United Arab Emirates said that it is hosting Afghan president Ashraf Ghani “on humanitarian grounds”, after he fled his country amid a Taliban takeover.
“The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation can confirm that the UAE has welcomed President Ashraf Ghani and his family into the country on humanitarian grounds,” it said in a brief statement.
Read more here.
