Alarm over anti-Taliban protests in Afghanistan

KABUL/ISLAMABAD: Resistance gradually building up to seizure of power by the Taliban in Afghanistan may be symbolic, but is enough to cause alarm for the new rulers and in some ways, their external supporters and mentors in Pakistan.

Symbols matter when it comes to expression of public sentiment and the Afghan flag became the rallying point. Within four days of the Taliban taking control of Kabul, many Afghans observed their traditional New Year on the day of Nowroz by flying their colourful national flag, removing the Taliban flag that is white with Quranic inscriptions.

While these protests in the cities found their way into the media, those in the countryside have gone unrecorded, which is a further cause for the new rulers who moved from the rural areas to the cities for political and military power in the recent weeks.

People took to the streets in Asadabad, Jalalabad as well as Kabul, with several deaths reported from Asadabad as the Taliban apparently fired into a crowd. Moreover, Amnesty International reminded that the Taliban had "massacred" members of the Hazara community in Ghazni in July.

"Thousands continued to defy warnings and beatings to seek evacuation via the capital's airport, a small and scattered opposition emerged in the form of protests and a potential armed rebellion, and the country's dire economic situation prompted warnings of a humanitarian crisis," NBC said in its report on August 19, 2021.

A report by Yuliya Talmazan and Mushtaq Yusufzai said: "When people heard about this incident, they staged a demonstration against the Taliban and warned them not to play with Afghanistan's national symbols. Three people were killed and three others injured in the altercation."

Striking images have shown a bloodied woman and child, apparently beaten by Taliban fighters outside the Kabul airport despite the group's earlier assurances of "safe passage." (IANS)

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