Taliban violently disperse rare protest days after takeover

The Taliban violently broke up a protest in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday quashing a rare public show of dissent as they met with Afghan officials from the Westernbacked government they toppledThe insurgents every action in their sudden sweep to power is being watched closely They insist they have changed and wont impose the same draconian restrictions they did when they last ruled Afghanistan all but eliminating womens rights carrying out public executions and harbouring alQaida in the years before the 911 attacksBut many Afghans remain deeply skeptical and the violent response to Wednesdays protest could only fuel their fears Thousands are racing to the airport and borders to flee the country Many others are hiding inside their homes fearful after prisons and armories were emptied during the insurgents blitz across the countryDozens of people gathered in the eastern city of Jalalabad to raise the national flag a day before Afghanistans Independence Day which commemorates the end of British rule in 1919 They lowered the Taliban flag mdash a white banner with an Islamic inscription mdash that the militants have raised in the areas they capturedVideo footage later showed the Taliban firing into the air and attacking people with batons to disperse the crowd Babrak Amirzada a reporter for a local news agency said he and a TV cameraman from another agency were beaten by the Taliban as they tried to cover the unrestMeanwhile videos from the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul a stronghold of the Northern Alliance militias that allied with the US against the Taliban in 2001 appear to show potential opposition figures gathering there Its in the only province that hasnt yet fallen to the TalibanThose figures include members of the deposed government mdash Vice President Amrullah Saleh who asserted on Twitter that he is the countrys rightful president and Defense Minister Gen Bismillah Mohammadi mdash as well as Ahmad Massoud the son of the slain Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud Its unclear if they intend to challenge to the Taliban who seized most of the country in a matter of days last weekThe Taliban meanwhile pressed ahead with their efforts to form an ldquoinclusive Islamic governmentrdquo They have been holding talks with former President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah a senior official in the ousted government Mohammad Yusof Saha a spokesman for Karzai said preliminary meetings with Taliban officials would facilitate eventual negotiations with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar the top Taliban political leader who returned to the country this weekKarzai and Abdullah met Wednesday with Anas Haqqani a senior leader in a powerful Taliban faction The US branded the Haqqani network a terrorist group in 2012 and its involvement in a future government could trigger international sanctionsAmid the uncertainty thousands of Afghans have tried to flee the country in recent days and the US and its allies have struggled to manage a chaotic withdrawal from the countryHundreds of people were outside the airport early Wednesday The Taliban demanded to see documents before allowing the rare passenger inside Many of the people outside did not appear to have passports and each time the gate opened even an inch dozens tried to push through The Taliban fired occasional warning shots to disperse themIn Kabul groups of Taliban fighters carrying long guns patrolled a welltodo neighbourhood that is home to many embassies as well as mansions of the Afghan eliteThe Taliban have promised to maintain security but residents say groups of armed men have been going door to door inquiring about Afghans who worked with the Americans or the deposed government Its unclear if the gunmen are Taliban or criminals posing as militantsAnother Taliban promise being closely watched is their vow to prevent Afghanistan from again being used as a base for planning terrorist attacks That was enshrined in a 2020 peace deal with the Trump administration that paved the way for the drawdown of American troops the last of whom are supposed to leave at the end of the monthWhen the Taliban were last in power they sheltered Osama bin Laden and his alQaida group which carried out the Sept 11 2001 attacks US officials fear alQaida and other groups could reconstitute themselves in Afghanistan now that the Taliban are back in powerElsewhere in Afghanistan the Taliban blew up a statue depicting Abdul Ali Mazari a militia leader killed by the Taliban in 1996 when the Islamic militants seized power from rival warlords Mazari was a champion of Afghanistans ethnic Hazara minority Shiites who were persecuted under the Sunni Talibans earlier rule That further raised concerns about whether they would make good on their promises including not seeking revenge on those who have opposed themIn a sign of the difficulties any future Afghan government will face the head of Afghanistans Central Bank said the countrys supply of physical US dollars is ldquoclose to zero Afghanistan has some 9 billion in reserves Ajmal Ahmady tweeted but most is held outside the country with some 7 billion held in US Federal Reserve bonds assets and goldAhmady said the country did not receive a planned cash shipment amid the Taliban offensiveldquoThe next shipment never arrivedrdquo he wrote ldquoSeems like our partners had good intelligence as to what was going to happenrdquoHe said the lack of US dollars will likely lead to a depreciation of the local currency the afghani hurting the countrys poor Afghans have been lining up outside ATM machines for days with many pulling out their life savingsAhmady said the Taliban will struggle to access the countrys reserves because of international sanctionsThe ldquoTaliban won militarily mdash but now have to governrdquo he wrote ldquoIt is not easyrdquoThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data 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