Friday, March 29, 2024

Violence engulfs Afghanistan as Talibans resort to firing on protestors





The Independence Day of Afghanistan ended in tragedy as Talibans, seemingly in control of the unfortunate nation, fired on people waving flags, killing several in the city of Asadabad on Thursday. 

This came on the heels of three people killed on Wednesday as Talibans fired of people, waving the Afghan flag, as a sign of protest against its occupation of the nation. 

Talibans had moved swiftly in the last week, capturing Kabul on Sunday. 

It was unclear if the casualties in Asadabad resulted from the firing or from the stampede that it triggered, witness Mohammed Salim said from the eastern city, the capital of Kunar province

“Hundreds of people came out on the streets,” Salim said. “At first I was scared and didn’t want to go but when I saw one of my neighbours joined in I took out the flag I have at home

Several people were killed and injured in the stampede and firing by the Taliban.

There were also protests but no reports of serious violence in the eastern city of Jalalabad and a district of Paktia province, media reported

Afghanistan celebrates its 1919 independence from British control on August 19.

On Wednesday, Taliban fighters fired at protesters waving the black, red and green national flag in Jalalabad, killing three, witnesses and media reported

Media reported similar scenes in Asadabad and another eastern city, Khost, on Wednesday with protesters in some places tearing down the white Islamic banner of the Taliban

The crackdown on protests will raise new doubts about Taliban assurances they have changed since their 1996-2001 rule when they severely restricted women, staged public executions and blew up ancient Buddhist statues

While Kabul has been generally calm since Taliban forces entered on Sunday, the airport has been in chaos as people rushed for a way out of the country

Twelve people have been killed in and around the airport since then, a NATO and a Taliban official said. The deaths were caused either by gun shots or by stampedes, the Taliban official said

He urged people who do not have the legal right to travel to go home. “We don’t want to hurt anyone at the airport,” said the Taliban official, who declined to be identified

The United States and other Western powers pressed on with the evacuation of their nationals and some of their Afghan staff from the capital’s airport, from where about 8,000 people have been flown out since Sunday, a Western security official said

Under a pact negotiated last year by former President Donald Trump’s administration, the United States agreed to withdraw its forces in exchange for a Taliban guarantee they would not let Afghanistan be used to launch terrorist attacks

President Joe Biden said U.S. forces would remain until the evacuation of Americans was finished, even if that meant staying past a Aug. 31 U.S. deadline for withdrawal.

 


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