Afghanistan-Taliban Crisis Highlights: The Taliban urge Afghans to stay to help rebuild their country, according to the Islamist group's main spokesman, expecting foreign evacuations from Kabul to be completed by the end of August. The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan after the US-backed Afghan government collapsed and President Ghani fled the country, bringing an unprecedented end to a two-decade campaign in which the US and its allies had tried to transform the war-ravaged nation. In a Facebook post, Ghani said he had left the country to avoid clashes with the Taliban that would endanger millions of residents of Kabul. In a recent development, the Taliban has issued the first 'fatwa' after its swift takeover of Afghanistan last week, in which their officials in the restive Herat province have banned co-education in government and private universities. Days after vowing to respect women's rights in Afghanistan, the Taliban have described co-education as the 'root of all evils in society'. Taliban co-founder Mullah Baradar has arrived in Kabul for talks with other leaders to hammer out a new Afghan government, according to a Taliban official. The official said that the group planned to ready a new model for governing Afghanistan within the next few weeks, with separate teams to tackle internal security and financial issues. "Experts from the former government will be brought in for crisis management," he told news agency Reuters.
Former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Wednesday urged the Centre to make changes in the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) to facilitate the rehabilitation of Sikhs and Hindus coming from war-torn Afghanistan to India. She also said the holy books of the Sikh faith there should be brought to India safely. (PTI)
The Taliban will continue to allow Afghans who have the right documents to leave Afghanistan after the United States' withdrawal deadline on August 31, Germany's ambassador to Afghanistan said Wednesday.
Markus Potzel said on Twitter he had met with Taliban deputy chief negotiator Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, who had "assured me that Afghans with legal documents will continue to have the opportunity to travel on commercial flights after 31 August". (AFP)
The Russian Defence Ministry says four planes sent to evacuate more than 500 people from Afghanistan have taken off from Kabul and are en route to Russia. The Defence Ministry said Wednesday the planes would carry the nationals of Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine from Kabul. The flights marked the first such airlift for Russia since evacuations from Kabul began.
Teams of medical workers are present on each plane to provide assistance to the evacuees if necessary. The evacuations will be carried out upon orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The evacuations will be carried out upon orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin. (AP)
The Taliban have asked Turkey for technical help to run Kabul airport after the departure of foreign forces but insist that Ankara's military also withdraw fully by the end-August deadline, two Turkish officials told Reuters.
The conditional request by the Islamist Taliban, who swept back to power in Afghanistan 20 years after they were ousted in a U.S. invasion, leaves Ankara with a difficult decision over whether to accept a hazardous job, one official said.
Mainly Muslim Turkey was part of a NATO mission in Afghanistan and still has hundreds of troops at Kabul airport. The officials say they are ready to withdraw at short notice. But President Tayyip Erdogan's government has said for months that it could keep a presence at the airport if requested. After the Taliban seized control of the country Turkey offered technical and security assistance at the airport.
"The Taliban have made a request for technical support in running Kabul airport," a senior Turkish official said, adding however that the Taliban demand for all Turkish troops to leave would complicate any prospective mission. "Ensuring the safety of workers without the Turkish Armed Forces is a risky job," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Reuters
Mexico received 124 media workers and their family members from Afghanistan, including New York Times journalists, the government said on Wednesday, as people flee after the Taliban militant group's takeover.
They arrived at Mexico City's international airport early on Wednesday morning, where Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard waited to greet them.
"Mexico has decided to support human rights applications for refuge, asylum and humanitarian visas for people in Afghanistan who have asked to have this humanitarian condition," Ebrard said. (Reuters)
Afghanistan's Taliban have appointed senior veterans to the posts of finance minister and defence minister, two members of the group said, as it switches focus from a stunning military conquest to how to run a country in crisis.
The movement's unexpectedly swift victory has left it struggling to govern, and alongside established Taliban names at the top, it has turned to several lower-level administrators to keep Kabul running.
The Taliban have not formally announced the appointments, which a commander said were provisional, but Afghanistan's Pajhwok news agency said on Tuesday that Gul Agha had been named as finance minister and Sadr Ibrahim acting interior minister.Former Guantanamo detainee Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir was named acting defence minister, Al Jazeera news channel reported, citing a Taliban source.
Reuters
Senior Muslim League MLA and former Kerala minister M K Muneer on Wednesday received an anonymous threat letter for posting on the social media a message against the brutality allegedly committed by the Taliban against the people of Afghanistan. Muneer said the letter he received this morning said that if he failed to withdraw the anti-Taliban post from his Facebook page in 24 hours, he and his family would be eliminated. (PTI)
Germany will try to help Afghans who worked with its soldiers and aid organisations and wish to leave Afghanistan even after an Aug. 31 deadline to end a U.S.-led military evacuation operation, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday.
"The end of the air bridge in a few days must not mean the end of efforts to protect Afghan helpers and help those Afghans who have been left in a bigger emergency with the takeover of the Taliban," Merkel told the German parliament.
"That's why we are working intensively at all levels to find how we can protect those who helped us, including through the civilian operation of the airport in Kabul," she added. (Reuters)
China has established its first diplomatic contact with the Taliban in Kabul after the militant group tookcontrol of Afghanistan and the two sides now have "unimpeded and effective communication", a Chinese official said on Wednesday.
The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan on August 15, two weeks before the US was set to complete its troop withdrawal after a costly two-decade war. "China and the Afghan Taliban have unimpeded and effective communication and consultation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a media briefing here when asked about the talks between the deputy head of the Taliban's political office Abdul Salam Hanafi and Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu in Kabul. (PTI)
Poland says it has halted airlift evacuations from Afghanistan, citing safety fears, as America's Aug. 31 deadline looms, news agency AP reported. Meanwhile,British foreign minister Dominic Raab said on Wednesday that the deadline for evacuating people from Afghanistan was up to the last minute of this month.
In the first week following the Taliban conquest of Kabul, COVID-19 vaccinations in Afghanistan have dropped by 80%, the U.N. agency UNICEF said, warning that half of the few doses delivered to the country so far are close to expiry.
The Taliban seized control of the Afghan capital on Aug. 15, having already captured most of the country earlier in the month after the United States decided to withdraw military forces after 20 years of war.
Since the Taliban takeover "there's been an 80% drop in people reached with COVID-19 vaccines," a spokesperson for UNICEF told Reuters. Read full report.
