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The Taliban have decided to tighten their crackdown on escalating protests against his regime, banning any protest that does not have official approval both for the rally itself and for any slogan that might be used.
In the first decree issued by the new Home Office of the die-hard Islamist group, led by Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is wanted by the United States on terrorism charges, the Taliban warned opponents that they must obtain authorization before any demonstration or face “serious legal consequences”.
Wednesday’s formal ban follows violent and sometimes deadly clashes between Taliban fighters and protesters in several cities since the group came to power, with women often at the forefront of protests.
In the capital Kabul, a small rally was quickly dispersed by armed Taliban security, while Afghan media reported that a protest in the northeastern city of Faizabad was also dispersed.
Hundreds of people demonstrated on Tuesday, both in the capital and in the city of Herat, where two people at the protest site were shot dead.
The move follows other signs that the new all-male Afghan interim cabinet – made up entirely of Taliban loyalists – is rapidly moving away from earlier promises of moderation and inclusiveness.
The ban on protests came as the Taliban quickly consolidates their grip on power after their recent conquest of the last areas that oppose them in the Panshjir Valley, north of Kabul.
Further indication of the deteriorating human rights situation, another senior Taliban official said on Wednesday that Afghan women, including the country’s women’s cricket team, would be banned from playing sports.
The ban was announced as the international community responded with suspicion to the new Taliban government, which began working on Wednesday. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed other international figures as he said the Afghan interim cabinet was not the inclusive government the Taliban had promised and the Islamist group must gain legitimacy international and the support it seeks.
Blinken, who made his remarks alongside German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on a visit to a US air base in Germany that has been a transit point for evacuees from Afghanistan, also called on the Taliban to allow charter flights carrying Americans and Afghans at risk from the country.
Maas and Blinken had chaired a virtual meeting with as many as 20 countries supporting US efforts to pressure the Taliban to cooperate in the free passage of foreign nationals and Afghans who want to leave.
Maas said the composition of the new government was “not the signal for increased international cooperation and stability in the country.” It must be clear to the Taliban that international isolation is not in their interests, and especially not in those of the Afghan people.
The EU has also joined in criticism of the new government for its lack of inclusion, saying it has not honored the new leaders’ wishes to include different groups.
“Based on the initial analysis of the names announced, this does not sound like the inclusive and representative formation in terms of Afghanistan’s rich ethnic and religious diversity that we were hoping to see and that the Taliban were promising in recent weeks,” said an EU spokesperson. .
Germany, China and Japan also gave the interim Taliban government in Afghanistan a lukewarm reception on Wednesday, following the flash storming of Kabul by Islamist militants last month.
The protest ban joins other recent disturbing signs that the Taliban has little interest in taking a softer line on issues ranging from women’s rights to free speech than during its previous period in power, which was marked by his harsh diet.
In an interview with Australian broadcaster SBS, the deputy head of the Taliban Culture Commission, Ahmadullah Wasiq, said women’s sport was neither considered appropriate nor necessary.
“I don’t think women will be allowed to play cricket because it is not necessary for women to play cricket,” Wasiq said. “In cricket, they may be faced with a situation where their face and body will not be covered. Islam does not allow women to be seen like this.
“It’s the media age, and there will be photos and videos, and then people will look at them. Islam and the Islamic Emirate [Afghanistan] do not allow women to play cricket or participate in the kind of sport in which they are exposed.
Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled Kabul as Taliban forces reached the outskirts of the city last month, apologized on Wednesday for the brutal fall of his government but denied taking millions of dollars with him .
In a statement posted on Twitter, Ghani said he left at the behest of his security team who said if he stayed there was a risk of “the same horrible street-to-street fighting as the city. suffered during the civil war of the 1990s ”.
“Leaving Kabul was the most difficult decision of my life, but I thought it was the only way to silence the guns and save Kabul and its 6 million citizens,” he said.
The statement largely echoed a message Ghani sent from the United Arab Emirates the day after his departure, which drew sharp criticism from former allies who accused him of treason.
Ghani, a former World Bank official who became president after two bitterly contested elections marred by widespread allegations of fraud on both sides, again dismissed reports that he left with millions of dollars in cash as being “Completely and categorically false”.
“Corruption is a scourge that has paralyzed our country for decades and the fight against corruption has been at the center of my efforts as president,” he said, adding that he and his wife of Lebanese origin were “Scrupulous in our personal finances”.
He thanked the Afghans for the sacrifices made during the last 40 years of war in their country.
“It is with deep and deep regret that my own chapter ended in a tragedy similar to that of my predecessors – without ensuring stability and prosperity. I apologize to the Afghan people for not being able to make this end differently.
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