Taliban crack down on protests during Afghanistan’s 102-year independence | At least 12 dead since last Sunday

Two people died on Thursday in the city of Asadabad whereas the mobilizations for the independence of Afghanistan vis-à-vis British domination took place 102 years ago. Protesters held up the tricolor emblem of the Republic of Afghanistan, now replaced by the white flag and with inscriptions of the Islamic faith. While Kabul airport evacuations slowly progressing amid gunfire and tear gas canisters thrown at desperate crowds of people arriving at the Hamid Karzai terminal. As the Taliban’s promises of a general amnesty and a regime other than the one that ruled between 1996 and 2001 dissipate after a confidential UN report revealed that insurgents roam towns with a list of people who worked for the United States and NATO in Afghanistan. According to Taliban and NATO officials, there are already 12 people who died from Sunday to Thursday last.

Events

At least two people lost their lives in Asadabad, located about 230 kilometers east of the Afghan capital and close to the border with Pakistan, when the Taliban fired on a crowd celebrating the independence of Afghanistan (1919), according to Qatari news outlet Al Jazeera, who noted that it has not yet been determined whether they died from the stampede caused by the gunfire or whether they died from the impact of the bullets. The Taliban regime has not commented.

The protests were repeated in the city of Jalalabad, where the Taliban also retaliated with fire. Two people, a man and a teenager, were injured and taken to nearby hospitals, Al Jazeera reported. As In the city of Khost, the insurgents have established a curfew to stop the mobilisations against the regime established last Sunday. Near Wazir Akbar KhanOn the outskirts of the capital, protesters came across a Taliban van which slowed down and then drove away, ignoring the protest.

Also in the city of Acceptance they registered events linked to the tricolor of Afghanistan. According to Qatari media, the women took to the streets of the capital waving the flag in front of the Taliban and chanting “Our flag is our identity”. While in the streets of Kabul, images of women in shops have been vandalized or directly deleted. A television reporter, Shabnam Dawran, said she could no longer work at her station.

“Hurry up”

Meanwhile, German channel Deutsche Welle (DW) reported on Thursday that “Taliban fighters shot dead one of journalist’s relatives” from German media. DW director Peter Limbourg condemned the attack and called on the government of Germany to act. “The killing of a close relative of one of our editors by the Taliban is incredibly tragic and demonstrates the grave danger in which all of our employees and their families are in Afghanistan.. It seems, Taliban already conduct organized search for journalists in Kabul and also in the provinces. Hurry up“.

The DW further detailed that “Taliban raided the homes of at least three DW journalists”. He also reported that journalists from other media “have been kidnapped or killed”. “Nemutullah Hemat from the emisora ​​privada Ghargasht TV, he was would have been kidnapped by the Taliban; Toofan Omar, director of the private station Paktia Ghag Radio, according to the authorities, it was killed by Taliban fighters ”, German media reported. The DW also referred to assassinations committed before the seizure of power, as in the case of Amdadullah Hamdard, translator and contributor to the German weekly The weather, what was assassinated “in an open street in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, in eastern Afghanistan, on August 2”. The Taliban government and NATO officials have reported 12 dead in and around Kabul since last Sunday, Al Jazeera reported.

Evacuations and chaos

At Hamid Karzai International Airport, chaos continues due to the evacuations of thousands of people. Gunfire and tear gas have been constant near the terminal since the Taliban seized power in the capital Kabul.

Yesterday, the Directorate General of Physical Education and Sports of Afghanistan reported the death of Zaki Anwar |me, an afghan footballer who played for the national youth team. Anwari, 19 years old, suffered a fatal fall last Monday as he tried to cling to a US C-17 plane that was evacuating people out of the country. “Anwari, like thousands of young Afghans, wanted to leave the country but fell from an American plane and died,” said a statement from the institution.

Evacuations continue to be delayed by both the insurgent regime and the US military, which maintains control of the airport. On the one hand, as the German Press Agency (DPA) reports, American soldiers detained employees of German organizations at the entrances to the terminal. “American soldiers only let their people through”witnesses told the DPA. On the other hand, according to American diplomacy, it is the Taliban that is slowing down. “They are preventing Afghans who want to leave the country from reaching the airport”, said the Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman.

According to an official of the insurgent movement Crowds of people crammed into the airport terminals are urged to return home if they do not have the documents to travel. “We don’t want to hurt anyone at the airport”the Taliban official told Al Jazeera.

Despair

Thousands of people arrive at the airport leaving all their belongings behind. Many families arrive after being summoned by the embassies of the countries that will receive them, which summons people at one time and at one of the doors of the terminal. However, to get to the point indicated by the diplomatic offices they have to push hours to try to get there. Between shots in the air, tear gas and jostling, desperate people are waiting to leave the country. In many videos released, we see how mothers and fathers, seeking to save their children, seek to allow them to enter the airport and pass them on to the military guarding the entrance.

At each entrance there are “three belts” and their respective doors, and in each of these belts there are hundreds of people waiting to enter.“I came to the airport with my children and my family”a former employee of an international NGO told DW. “US soldiers and the Taliban were firing” although that does not stop the crowd waiting to leave the country “Because they know that a situation worse than death awaits them in front of the airport”added. Another crowd showed up outside the city’s embassies, German media reported.

Until Germany evacuated around 900 people, including diplomats, German citizens and Afghan collaborators. The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel said on Thursday that her government was working “with great pressure” to evacuate “as many people” as “possible” from Afghanistan. The UK, France, Italy and Spain, among other countries, are also carrying out the evacuations.

The United States sent 6,000 troops to provide security at Kabul airport and evacuate the 30,000 Americans and Afghan civilians who worked for them. Just over 7,000 people have already been evacuated since August 14.

Disarming promises

The Taliban are stepping up their search for people who worked with US and NATO forces, according to a confidential UN document., which warns against the possibility of “torture and executions”, despite the fact that activists last Tuesday promised a general amnesty for all and assured that they would not take revenge on their opponents. However, according to the document dated Wednesday, there are reports that the Taliban have a list of people and addresses and have been going door to door. “Stop and / or threaten to kill or arrest family members of those targeted unless they surrender to the Taliban.”

Members of the Afghan armed forces and police at particular risk, according to confidential report, as did the people who worked for the investigative units of the government of Ashraf Ghani. The report cites an example of a letter sent by the Taliban to an anti-terrorist agent.. In the letter responsible for reporting to the Armed Forces and Intelligence Commission of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in Kabul O otherwise, their relatives “will be treated in accordance with Sharia law.“.

The Panshir valley

While the Taliban are advancing in the constitution of their government with the return to Afghanistan of one of the founders of the Taliban movement, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. The insurgent leader also met with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai in talks to form a government that includes all ethnic groups and Islamic political parties. Meanwhile, in the Panshir valley, former vice-president of Ashraf Ghani, the former vice president called for resistance against “Amrullah Saleh proclaimed himself president and called for resistance against the Taliban. Saleh is also accompanied by the son of Commander Masud, a famous anti-Taliban leader who died in 2001. According to Russian diplomacy, resistance is organizing in the isolated valley. “The Taliban do not control all of Afghanistan. There is information coming from Panshir,” northeast of Kabul, “where the resistance forces of Vice President Saleh and Ahmad Masud are concentrated,” Sergei said. Lavrov, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs.