Taliban announces 'amnesty’, urges women to join government

The Taliban announced Tuesday an ldquoamnestyrdquo across Afghanistan and urged women to join its government trying to calm nerves across a nervous capital city that only the day before saw chaos at its airport as people tried to flee their ruleThe comments by Enamullah Samangani a member of the Talibans cultural commission represent the first comments on governance from a federal level across the country after their blitz across the countryWhile there were no major reports of abuses or fighting in Kabul many residents have stayed home and remain fearful after the insurgents takeover saw prisons emptied and armories lootedOlder generations remember their ultraconservative Islamic views which included stonings amputations and public executions during their rule before the USled invasion that followed the Sept 11 2001 terror attacksldquoThe Islamic Emirate doesnt want women to be victimsrdquo Samangani said using the militants term for Afghanistan ldquoThey should be in government structure according to Shariah lawrdquoHe added ldquoThe structure of government is not fully clear but based on experience there should be a fully Islamic leadership and all sides should joinrdquoMeanwhile Tuesday Stefano Pontecorvo NATOs senior civilian representative to Afghanistan posted video online showing the runway empty with American troops on the tarmac What appeared to be a military cargo plane could be seen in the distance from behind a chainlink fence in the footageThe runway is openrdquo he wrote on Twitter ldquoI see airplanes landing and taking offrdquoOvernight flighttracking data showed a US Marine Corps KC130J Hercules plane at the airport and later taking off for Qatar home to AlUdeid Air Base and the US military Central Commands forward headquartersThere were no other immediate flights seen in Afghan airspace which has been taken over by the American military as commercial flights have been halted in the countryAcross Afghanistan the International Committee of the Red Cross said thousands had been wounded in the fighting Security forces and politicians handed over their provinces and bases without a fight likely believing the twodecade Western experiment to remake Afghanistan would not survive the resurgent Taliban The last American troops had planned to withdraw at the end of the monthldquoThe world is following events in Afghanistan with a heavy heart and deep disquiet about what lies aheadrdquo United Nations SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres saidA resolute US President Joe Biden on Monday said he stood ldquosquarely behindrdquo his decision to withdraw American forces and acknowledged the ldquogutwrenchingrdquo images unfolding in Kabul Biden said he faced a choice between honouring a previously negotiated withdrawal agreement or sending thousands more troops back to begin a third decade of warldquoAfter 20 years Ive learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forcesrdquo Biden said in a televised address from the White HouseTalks appeared to be continuing between the Taliban and several Afghan government officials including former President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah who once headed the countrys negotiating council President Ashraf Ghani earlier fled the country amid the Taliban advance and his whereabouts remain unknownAn official with direct knowledge of the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasnt authorized to brief journalists said senior Taliban leader Amir Khan Muttaqi had arrived in Kabul from Qatar Muttaqi is a former higher education minister during the Talibans last rule Muttaqi had begun making contact with Afghan political leaders even before Ghani fledThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever