Rebel fighters and demonstrators have bravely defied Talibanacquisition of Afghanistan – Waving flags of resistance across the country in protest against Islamists.
Soldiers loyal to Vice President Amrullah Saleh today waved the flag of the ‘Northern Alliance’ – the anti-Taliban league of warlords and politicians – through the Panjshir Valley, just 80 miles north of Kabul, which jihadists never won.
Meanwhile protesters marched through the cities of Jalalabad and Khost, which sit equidistant from the Afghan capital, waving the national flag in defiance of the Taliban, which replaced it with their own white emblem.
Images taken in Khost show students – abandoned by the Afghan army but unwilling to submit to the Taliban – removing the group’s flag from the main square and replacing it with national colors.
Subsequent videos showed Taliban gunmen opening fire at crowds at both locations, although there were no immediate reports of casualties.
The Taliban has worked hard to present itself as Afghanistan’s legitimate government as US and NATO troops withdrew after a massive meltdown of security forces, handing them back control of the country.
At a news conference on Tuesday, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid laid out his vision for the country – promising to guarantee women’s rights and stopping all retaliatory attacks in eyebrow-raising comments.
Image: Protesters march on Wednesday through the cities of Jalalabad and Khost, which is located about 80 miles from Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Image: Jalalabad scenery
Image: Protesters march on Wednesday through the cities of Jalalabad and Khost, which is located about 80 miles from Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Image: Khost. scenes of
Meanwhile, the Taliban blew up a statue of a Shia militia leader who fought against them during Afghanistan’s civil war in the 1990s, according to photos circulated on Wednesday, raising further doubts about his claims of being more liberal .
Every move of the rebels who suddenly came to power is being closely monitored. They insist that they have changed and will not impose the same harsh sanctions that they imposed last time when they ruled Afghanistan, apart from abolition of women’s rights, public executions and banning television and music.
But despite assurances from the Taliban, many in Afghanistan have made desperate attempts to flee, while there are others who do not seem to be taking a stand.
Pictured: People on an overpass wave the Afghan national flag in defiance of the Taliban on Wednesday. The Taliban are believed to have opened fire during the protests, but no casualties were immediately reported
Soldiers loyal to Vice President Amrullah Saleh today paraded the flag of the ‘Northern Alliance’ – an anti-Taliban league of warlords and politicians – through the Panjshir Valley, an area just 80 miles north of Kabul.
Vice Presidents Amrullah Saleh and Ahmed Masood, his former mentor and son of renowned anti-Taliban fighter Ahmed Shah Masood, are leading a guerrilla movement in the Panjshir Valley – not the only area controlled by the Taliban.
Saleh said on Tuesday that he was in Afghanistan after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and was a “legitimate caretaker president” as it emerged he was mobilizing troops and planning retaliation against the Taliban. .
Amarullah Saleh made this comment on Twitter on Tuesday. He mentioned that the Afghan constitution was empowering him to declare it. He wrote that he is “reaching out to all leaders to seek their support and consensus.”
So far, Afghan leaders including former President Hamid Karzai and peace council chief Abdullah Abdullah have been in talks with the Taliban since the fall of Kabul.
Footage surfaced on Tuesday shows Masood, accompanied by a heavily armed crew, aboard an Afghan Air Force Mi-17, a Soviet-designed military helicopter.
At least 15 people on board the plane were seen helping each other to board the military helicopter, believed to be taking off from within the Panjshir area.
Many in the group wore military uniforms, while others were seen in pakol – the traditional round-top woolen cap preferred by Ahmed Shah Masood.
Saleh, a resident of North Panjshir Valley, fled to his hometown on Sunday. The region is known as a mountainous insurgency nestled in the Hindu Kush, which never fell into the hands of the Taliban during the 1990 civil war or was conquered by the Soviet Union a decade earlier.
He vowed not to surrender to the extremist group, writing on Twitter on Sunday: ‘I will not disappoint the millions of people who listened to me. I will never be under one roof with the Taliban. Never’.
In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Saleh said it was “futile” to argue with US President Joe Biden, who has decided to pull out the US military.
He called on Afghans to show that Afghanistan is “not Vietnam and the Taliban are not even remotely like the Viet Cong”.
More to follow…
.