Anti-Taliban protests continue on Afghanistan Independence Day, are met with violence



Anti-Taliban protests in Afghanistan continued Thursday and were met with violence from the Islamist militants, who opened fire on crowds and reportedly killed several people.

According to Reuters, the protests that began Wednesday have spread to more cities and even parts of the capital, Kabul. Hundreds of people flocked to the streets to wave the tricolor Afghanistan flag in a patriotic demonstration for the country's Independence Day.

A video posted on social media showed a crowd of men and women waving the black, red, and green national flag and shouting "Our flag, our identity" in the streets of Kabul.

Marchers also chanted "God is greatest."

Several protesters in the eastern city of Asadabad were killed after Taliban soldiers fired on a crowd, triggering a stampede. It was unclear whether the casualties were caused by gunfire or by the stampede, a witness said.

Yesterday, at least three people were reportedly killed in the city of Jalalabad when Taliban soldiers opened fire on a crowd of protesters.

Since Kabul fell to the Taliban on Sunday, spokesmen for the new regime in Afghanistan have repeatedly insisted that they seek peace, will respect the rights of women, and will form an "inclusive, Islamic government."

But videos of the violent treatment of protesters contradict the Taliban's public claims and serve as a reminder of the oppressive conditions the Afghan people lived under when the Taliban previously ruled the country.

Footage obtained by Fox News shows people running and cyclists and motorists charging down the streets of Asadabad while flying the Afghanistan flag. Gunshots can be heard in the background.

Fox News reported that elsewhere in Kabul, a crowd of people took cover near the international airport as gunmen opened fire. As seen in the video, a woman and her child crouched as guns roared and people fled.

It is not clear what prompted the violence.

"Salute those who carry the national flag and thus stand for dignity of the nation," said Afghanistan First Vice President Amrullah Saleh, an ousted leader of the Western-backed government who is working to rally resistance to the Taliban.

از حرکت شجاعانه و میهن دوستانه مردم با عزت کشورم در نقاط مختلف بخاطر برافراشتن پرچم ملی برضد گروه نیابتی طالب اب… https://t.co/9EHHsxQEAg

— Amrullah Saleh (@AmrullahSaleh2) 1629349429.0

Saleh on Tuesday declared himself the "legitimate caretaker president" of Afghanistan after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country to the United Arab Emirates.

Other leaders are trying to build opposition to the Taliban.

Ahmad Massoud, the leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post calling on Western governments to continue to support the fight against the Taliban.

"I write from the Panjshir Valley today, ready to follow in my father's footsteps, with mujahideen fighters who are prepared to once again take on the Taliban," Massoud wrote. His father, Ahmad Shah Massoud, was a veteran guerrilla leader who was killed by suspected al Qaeda terrorists in 2001.

Massoud asked for Afghanistan's supporters in the West to rally their governments to send weapons, ammunition, and supplies to continue the fight against the Islamist regime.

"The Taliban is not a problem for the Afghan people alone. Under Taliban control, Afghanistan will without doubt become ground zero of radical Islamist terrorism; plots against democracies will be hatched here once again," Massoud wrote.

"America and its democratic allies do not just have the fight against terrorism in common with Afghans. We now have a long history made up of shared ideals and struggles. There is still much that you can do to aid the cause of freedom. You are our only remaining hope."

Taliban militants fire into crowd to disperse protests, reportedly kill at least three people and injure dozens



Anti-Taliban protests have broken out in Afghanistan as the radical Islamist military organization works to establish a new government, having overthrown the one backed by the United States. At least three people were reportedly killed in the eastern city of Jalalabad when Taliban militants opened fire at a protest against the removal of the Afghan national flag.

Reports indicate hundreds of protesters also took to the streets in Khost province, according to Al Jazeera.

In Jalalabad, street demonstrators and journalists were beaten by Taliban soldiers, who squashed the public display of dissent. The Taliban seized control of the city, which is about 80 miles east of the capital Kabul, four days ago after negotiating a surrender from local leaders. Taliban soldiers are patrolling the city streets with pickup trucks seized from the police force, which has been disbanded, the New York Times reports.

The protesters were carrying large flags of the Afghan Republic and shouting their defiance at the new government. Taliban soldiers first fired warning shots into the air, but the protesters would not disperse. Then the Taliban used violence, reportedly killing at least three people and injuring dozens more.

Publicly, spokesmen for the Taliban maintain that the reinstated Islamist regime will not have the same despotic character as the last Taliban government that ruled Afghanistan. The new government will be an "inclusive, Islamic government," one that will respect women's rights and invite them to participate in government as long as they follow Sharia law, the Taliban claims. But Afghans who remember the old regime, which carried out public executions by stoning at a soccer stadium; barred women from work and girls from school; and banned television, videos, and music; those Afghans have sought to flee the country.

Images and video of the Taliban violently breaking up public dissent has undermined their claims of forming a new, peaceful government.

The violent response to these protests follows reports of executions and forced marriages in parts of Afghanistan the Taliban seized before taking control of Kabul. Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen has denied the accuracy of these reports, claiming that if such atrocities are happening, they are "not Taliban."

Taliban leaders are reportedly meeting with former Afghanistan officials, including former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, a senior official in the deposed government, to negotiate the establishment of a new Islamic government, according to the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Afghan citizens are still flocking to the international airport in Kabul, seeking to leave the country. The Taliban has established a checkpoint and is demanding that would-be evacuees show documents before being let inside the airport. When a passenger is let through, which happens rarely, dozens of people attempt to rush through the gate, which provokes more warning shots from Taliban soldiers to disperse the crowds.