KABUL: Hundreds of Afghans took to the streets in Kabul and demonstrated in front of the Pakistan embassy demanding Islamabad to stop meddling in international affairs of Pakistan and helping the Taliban.
The protest was led by women then a number of men joined them. They held banners and chanted anti-Pakistan slogans, Tolo News reported. “Pakistan, Pakistan, Leave Afghanistan,” a slogan on a signboard read. Pakistan and its notorious intelligence agency have been accused of supporting the Taliban in taking over Afghanistan.
Experts believe that Pakistan has been a key player in removing the elected Afghan government from power and establishing the Taliban as a decisive power in Afghanistan.
The protesters also chanted “Freedom, freedom”, ‘Death to ISI’. The Taliban fired shots into the air to disperse crowds at the protest. The protest comes a day after National Resistance Force leader Ahmad Massoud declared a national uprising against the Taliban and asked Afghans to resist the Taliban by whatever means they could.
Taliban has claimed that they have captured the Afghan province of Panjshir, the last resistance stronghold in the country.
Thousands of Taliban fighters overran eight districts of Panjshir overnight, according to witnesses from the area who spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for their safety, Tehran Times reported. As per reports, Pakistan helped the Taliban in its fight against the Resistance Force in Panjshir.
Several videos appeared on social media showing a group of Taliban dispersing women firing their weapons in the air according to participants.
It is the latest in a string of small demonstrations led by women around the country.
The Taliban forces prevented some journalists from filming today’s protest.
They detained TOLOnews cameraperson Wahid Ahmadi and confiscated his camera.
It further reported that the Taliban also prevented former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and former chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah from meeting with people of Afghanistan. (ANI)
According to AFP report, an Anti-Pakistan rally was demonstrated in Kabul today (Tuesday) and according to reports, the Taliban fired shots into the air to disperse crowds who had gathered for an anti-Pakistan rally in the capital, the latest protest since the hard-line movement swept to power last month.
The Taliban have yet to announce a government, but Afghans — fearful of a repeat of the group’s previous brutal reign between 1996 and 2001 — have staged small, isolated demonstrations in cities including the capital Kabul, Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif.
On Tuesday at least 70 people, mostly women, rallied outside the Pakistani embassy, holding banners and chanting against what they said was meddling by Islamabad, who have long been accused of having close ties to the Taliban movement. Islamabad denies this.
Pakistan’s intelligence chief Gen Faiz Hameed was in Kabul at the weekend, reportedly to be briefed by his country’s ambassador but is likely to have also met with Taliban officials.
AFP staff witnessed Taliban members firing shots into the air to disperse the crowds.
The previous day, a small group of women in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif gathered in a protest for their rights.
Defiant women also came together in Herat last week demanding they be allowed to participate in the new government.
Tuesday’s demonstration comes after the Taliban claimed total control over Afghanistan a day earlier, saying they had won the key battle for the Panjshir Valley, the last holdout of resistance against their rule.
Following their lightning-fast victory in mid-August over the former Afghan government’s security forces and the withdrawal of US troops after 20 years of war, the Taliban turned to fighting the forces defending the mountainous Panjshir Valley.
As the hard-liners claimed victory, their chief spokesman warned against any further attempts to rise up against their rule.
“Anyone who tries to start an insurgency will be hit hard. We will not allow another,” Zabihullah Mujahid said at a press conference in Kabul.
As they undertake a mammoth transition into overseeing key institutions and cities of hundreds of thousands of people, Mujahid said an interim government would be announced first, allowing for later changes.
Afghanistan’s new rulers have pledged to be more “inclusive” than during their first stint in power, with a government that represents the country’s complex ethnic makeup — though women are unlikely to be included.
Women’s freedoms in Afghanistan were sharply curtailed under the Taliban’s 1996-2001 rule.
This time, women will be allowed to attend university as long as classes are segregated by sex or at least divided by a curtain, the Taliban’s education authority said in a lengthy document issued on Sunday. The Taliban are also grappling with looming financial and humanitarian crises.