“Today is the day we won our freedom,” said Mullah Raz Muhammad Zarkawi, a Taliban fighter celebrating by handing out the militant group’s white flags along a main thoroughfare. “This is the result of 20 years of sacrifices.”
The 27-year-old fighter from Farah province had never been to Kabul before the group took the city just over two weeks ago.
“This will be a great capital city, and we will make it even better,” he said. “Kabul will soon be one of the most beautiful cities in the world.”
But the largely empty city streets suggest that for many Afghans, the departure of foreign forces marks the beginning of another period of uncertainty as they wait to see what kind of government, if any, will follow. Since the Taliban took Kabul earlier this month, its leaders have met with former Afghan officials, but the negotiations have not breached substantive issues or shown signs of progress.
“It’s a victory for the Taliban, but it’s a horrifying moment for the people of Kabul,” said a 23-year-old development worker who hasn’t left her home since the militants moved in.
The woman — who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals — said the group’s history of using force to maintain order leaves her unconvinced that any agreement with former Afghan officials could make her feel safe in Afghanistan.
“Personally, I don’t believe I can ever trust them,” she said. “All I see is a dark future for us.”
Taliban leaders and many of their fighters have been eager to dispel fears the group will isolate Afghanistan and impose the kind of harsh restrictions it ruled with in the 1990s. But the Taliban has yet to make any formal commitments or release details about what kind of government — beyond one based on Islamic law — it wants to form.
Hours after the last U.S. evacuation plane took off from the Kabul airport, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid spoke from the tarmac, encouraging foreign investment and insisting the group wants good relations with all countries.
“I invite you all to come and invest in Afghanistan,” he said. “Your investments will be in good hands. The country will be stable and safe.”
Mujahid also appealed to Afghans to return to work. The Taliban long considered employees of the Afghan government and many international organizations as legitimate military targets, but now the group is offering amnesty to those who want to stay in the country.
“We need all the economic experts and professionals to step forward, come together and lay down a road map for the future,” Mujahid said. Most government workers have not yet returned to their offices, and many international organizations have shut down operations in Afghanistan.
With the absence of a political agreement following the Taliban’s military takeover of the country, the international community has not recognized the group as Afghanistan’s legitimate leaders. Important assets have been frozen and aid money has been cut, moves that have nearly ground the country’s economy to a halt.
“Of course people are nervous and worried about the future. There is no government, that’s why it’s an unclear future,” Mohammad Yusuf Saha, a spokesman for former Afghan president Hamid Karzai, who along with former national reconciliation leader Abdullah Abdullah is meeting with Taliban leaders to reach a power-sharing deal.
But Saha and Faraidon Khwazon, an Abdullah spokesman, said there has not been a high-level meeting with the Taliban in days and an agreement is not imminent.
The Taliban’s top leadership has instead been in Kandahar holding high-level meetings within the movement chaired by the group’s shadowy supreme commander, Hibatullah Akhundzada, discussing “political, security and social issues,” according to a statement released Tuesday.
The statement did not give further details, but the timing suggests the meetings were aimed at reaching an agreement on what kind of governing structure the group wants. The Taliban is a diverse movement and one way it has managed to remain unified is by undergoing long consultations before making decisions.
Regardless of a political agreement, Ahmed Ahmadi, a 46-year-old Taliban fighter, said he believes Kabul will be a more stable city now that the United States has withdrawn.
“The withdrawal and evacuation, all it did was create crowds and violence,” he said, referring to the thousands of people who gathered at the airport and embassies in recent weeks desperate to flee.
When he heard the evacuation and withdrawal was complete, he said, “My brothers and I were so happy we couldn’t control ourselves from firing into the air.” Overnight Monday and into Tuesday morning, Kabul’s sky filled with tracer fire, and the city shook with celebratory gunfire.
“It was our holiday,” he said.
For the aid worker, the sound of the gunfire Monday night filled her with anxiety, preventing her and her family from sleeping.
“Sometimes I just sit and wish it was all a nightmare.”
Ezzatullah Mehrdad in Doha, Qatar, contributed to this report.
"day" - Google News
September 01, 2021 at 05:35AM
https://ift.tt/2WGPa9j
In Kabul, celebration and dread the day after U.S. troops withdraw - The Washington Post
"day" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3f7h3fo
https://ift.tt/2VYSiKW
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "In Kabul, celebration and dread the day after U.S. troops withdraw - The Washington Post"
Post a Comment