The Taliban, New Leaders of Afghanistan
The Taliban group’s ‘Angels of Salvation’ are reportedly going from door-to-door and dragging political opponents from their homes at gunpoint. One suspect’s neighbour reported that the Taliban said he would be hanged tomorrow, reports Daily Mail.
A journalist who raised the Afghan national flag in defiance at a protest in the northern city of Jalalabad was shot dead by the jihadists, according to local reports. Zahidullah Nazirzada had joined defiant crowds in raising the tricolor, now outlawed and replaced by the Taliban’s white banner. Footage from Kabul showed a car thief on Tuesday with his face covered in tar, strapped up to the back of a truck and his hands tied behind his back as people gathered around to gawp. A traffic cop stood nearby apparently powerless.
A young woman was shot dead for allegedly refusing to wear a burqa by marauding jihadists when they captured the northern town of Taloqan in Takhar province last week, according to a post widely shared on social media. She is seen lying in a pool of blood as her distraught parents crouch beside her body in the image which was shared by the Afghan Ambassador to Poland, Tahir Qadry, who denounced the ‘butchering of civilians.’ Other footage shows Taliban fighters outside Kabul airport on Tuesday wielding AK-47s and rocket launchers, marching towards the terrified crowds and firing warning shots into the air.
Us officials were heard in the news on Wednesday promising to evacuate 9,000 Afghans daily but evacuation flights out of Kabul are taking off near-empty after the Taliban formed a ring of steel around the airport – blocking tens of thousands of desperate Afghans from entering as westerners said they are unable to get through the crush. Those on the ground say the Taliban are blocking anyone who does not have a foreign passport from entering the airport, meanwhile foreigners including British and German expats say they have become trapped in the chaos, unable to get through the disorderly crowds to board flights home. The situation is fueling fears that the West’s Afghan allies have almost no hope of making it out of Afghanistan. And there are growing fears that the fate of Westerners could become a bargaining chip for the Taliban, and they could even end up as hostages.
Massive US cargo planes are taking off with an average of just 100 passengers from Kabul – despite being able to carry more than 600. Flights bound for Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, France and Italy – which between them have vowed to rescue thousands of people – have been taking off with just a few dozen people on board despite having capacity to take hundreds.
