Several people have been killed in the eastern Afghanistan city of Asadabad where Taliban fighters have fired on people waving the national flag at an Independence Day rally, a witness says.
Key points:
- It is unclear if gunfire or a stampede caused the deaths
- The flag protests are the first sign of popular opposition to the Taliban since their return
- Afghanistan celebrates 100 years of independence from British control on August 19
The incident at the capital of Kunar province on Thursday came a day after three people were killed in a similar demonstration.
It was unclear if the casualties in Asadabad resulted from the firing or from the stampede that it triggered, witness Mohammed Salim said.
“Hundreds of people came out on the streets,” Mr Salim said.
“At first I was scared and didn’t want to go, but when I saw one of my neighbours joined in I took out the flag I have at home.
A Taliban spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
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The protests by people waving the Afghan flag, or tearing down white Taliban flags, are the first signs of popular opposition to the Taliban since their stunning advance across the country and capture of the capital, Kabul, on Sunday.
There were also protests, but no reports of serious violence, in the eastern city of Jalalabad and a district of Paktia province, media reported.
Afghanistan celebrates its 1919 independence from British control on August 19.
On Wednesday, Taliban fighters opened fire on protesters waving the black, red and green national flag at Jalalabad, killing three, witnesses and media reported.
Media reported similar scenes in Asadabad and another eastern city, Khost, on Wednesday, with protesters in some places tearing down the white Islamic banner of the Taliban.
First vice-president Amrullah Saleh, who is trying to rally opposition to the Taliban, expressed support for the protests.
“Salute those who carry the national flag and thus stand for dignity of the nation,” he wrote on Twitter.
Mr Saleh said on Tuesday he was in Afghanistan and the “legitimate caretaker president” in the wake of president Ashraf Ghani fleeing as the Taliban took Kabul.
Have the Taliban really changed?
The crackdown on protests will raise new doubts about Taliban assurances they have evolved since their 1996-2001 rule when they severely restricted women, staged public executions and blew up ancient Buddhist statues.
They now say they want peace, will not take revenge against old enemies and will respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law.
While Kabul has been generally calm since Taliban forces entered on Sunday, the airport has been in chaos as people have rushed in to find a way out of the country.
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Twelve people have been killed in and around the airport since then, a NATO and a Taliban official said.
The deaths were caused either by gunshots or by stampedes, the Taliban official said.
He urged people who did not have the legal right to travel to go home.
“We don’t want to hurt anyone at the airport,” said the Taliban official, who declined to be identified.
Under a pact negotiated last year by former US president Donald Trump’s administration, Washington agreed to withdraw its forces in exchange for a Taliban guarantee they would not let Afghanistan be used to launch terrorist attacks.
US President Joe Biden said US forces would remain until the evacuation of Americans was finished, even if that meant staying past an August 31 deadline for withdrawal.
Reuters/ABC