Written by Mark Santora, Carlota Gall, Ruhollah Khapalwak and Nick Cumming-Bruce
As the Biden administration is pressured to do more to evacuate thousands of Afghan allies for fear of their lives, the Taliban on Tuesday sought to present themselves to the world as the responsible manager of Afghanistan.
But with both the Biden administration and the Taliban promising to provide security, the future for millions of Afghans only promised more uncertainty. While the US military restored order inside Kabul’s international airport on Tuesday, it was unclear whether Afghans could make it there.
Despite assurances of a safe passage, the Taliban are not only known for acting with brutality, but also have a dismal history of managing a vast nation largely dependent on foreign aid.
The group’s leaders took to Twitter, appeared on international cable networks and held a news conference – all to assure they would not engage in systemic retaliation and to provide vague reassurances to women.
“Give us time,” a spokesman said at a news conference in Kabul.
On Tuesday, the chairman of the Taliban’s military commission, Mullah Yacoub, reiterated orders that fighters in Kabul should not enter homes or seize property.
“No one is allowed to enter anybody’s house, especially in Kabul, where we have entered recently and the situation is new,” he said.
But he combined it with a caveat, saying the Taliban would collect weapons and government property in an organized manner and that looting state property was a betrayal of the country.
He said that if anyone is caught, action will be taken against him.
There were other indications that the Taliban were now trying to move from being insurgents to a new legal authority in the country.
Mullah Baradar, the head of the Taliban’s political office, arrived in the southern city of Kandahar on Tuesday for the first time in a decade that is believed to be returning to Afghanistan.
A Taliban delegation was also in Kabul on Tuesday to discuss the formation of an interim government with political leaders, according to Maulvi Kalamuddin, a former Taliban minister who had reconciled with the Afghan government long ago. .
The delegation, led by Amir Khan Muttaki, who served as Minister of Higher Education in the previous Taliban government, met with a coordination council headed by former President Hamid Karzai. He said more senior Taliban leaders would arrive in Kabul on Wednesday and possibly announce a new government.
“They have been in the city for the last three days, and if the Taliban wanted a unilateral government, they would have declared the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan at the Rashtrapati Bhavan yesterday itself,” he said. “He would have announced his cabinet, but no. Actually, that’s what they were waiting for.”
Yet, there were also ominous signs that the Taliban’s promises did not match the situation on the ground.
Taliban fighters spread through the streets of the capital, Kabul, driving motorbikes and police vehicles and Humvees who had been confiscated from government security forces. Armed fighters captured Parliament and some visited the homes of government officials, confiscating property and vehicles, while others demonstrated to direct traffic.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday that his organization is receiving “horrifying reports of severe sanctions on human rights” across the country. “I am particularly concerned about the increasing human rights violations against women and girls in Afghanistan,” she told an emergency meeting of the Security Council.
In some areas of Afghanistan, women have been told not to leave their homes without their male relatives, and girls’ schools have been closed.
UN children’s organisation, UNICEF, said the Taliban has appointed coordinators in different parts of the country to act as contact points for humanitarian groups. UNICEF representatives met a health commissioner in Herat on Monday and said they had urged female health department employees to return to work.
But the agency reported receiving mixed messages on education for girls: in some areas, local Taliban officials said they were waiting for guidance from leaders, and in other areas they said they were better for girls and for boys. wanted school.
“We are cautious as we proceed,” Mustafa Ben Messoud, UNICEF’s head of operations in Kabul, said via video link.
The collapse of the Afghan government has left the Taliban in control of not only security but also basic services in an already drought-stricken country that has left a third of its 38 million people out of food. In danger of being left.
While there have been no confirmed killings of widespread retaliation, many have taken refuge in their homes.
Hoping to bring people back to essential jobs, the Taliban on Tuesday issued a “general apology” for all government officials, saying they can return to work with “full confidence”.
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