Kabul: Afghanistan's capital Kabul and several other cities on Tuesday saw huge protests against the Taliban, whose militia resorted to indiscriminate firing to suppress the agitation against the takeover of the country by the Islamist outfit.
Thousands of people, comprising mostly women, took out protests on the streets of Kabul and other cities, chanting slogans against the Taliban and Pakistan.
Chants like “Freedom, Freedom” and “Death to Pakistan” rent the air as the protesters, holding placards with messages like ‘Long Live Afghanistan’, ‘Death to Pakistan’ and ‘Long Live Resistance’, marched on the streets.
The protests erupted a day after the leader of Resistance Forces Ahmad Massoud made an impassioned plea in an audio message to the people of Afghanistan to rise up against the "cruel and vicious" Taliban regime.
The Taliban militia, who are in control of power, resorted to indiscriminate firing to quell the protests. There were reports of some casualties but details were not known yet.
According to some local journalists, a number of media persons covering the protests were disallowed and detained by the Taliban militia.
Earlier, scores of Afghans gathered outside the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul to protest against Pakistan’s “state-backed terrorism in Afghanistan” and shouted “Death to Pakistan”.
Cries of "Allahu Akbar", "We want an independent government", "We don’t want a Pakistani puppet government", "Pakistan leave Afghanistan" – rent the air as protesters marched in Kabul, in Ghazni province and other places in Afghanistan.
The Taliban militants also locked up a group of women protesters in an underground car park to prevent them from joining the protest and also beat up many protestors.
The protests had begun on Monday night itself in Kabul and Mazar city, with hundreds of people coming on to the streets chanting anti-Pakistan slogans, and in favour of the Resistance forces in Panjshir.
On Monday, Ahmad Massoud released a video in which he appealed to Afghans in the country and abroad to “rise up against a crippling humiliation being brought on us today by foreigners” and said that the world is under the mistaken belief that the Taliban have reformed, but in reality they have “grown more vicious, more cruel, more fundamentalist and more discriminatory”.
In the message, after the Taliban declared victory in Panjshir province, Massoud also said that Sunday’s attack on the Resistance “revealed once again that foreign mercenaries supporting the Taliban have always existed. They did so in the past, and will continue in the future.”
In his appeal to fellow Afghans, he said “Wherever you are, whether inside the country or outside, we appeal to you to rise up in resistance for the dignity, integrity and freedom of our country. Whatever means at your disposal, rise up against a crippling humiliation being brought on us today by foreigners! We, the NRF will stand firmly with you.”
“Stand up and seize the moment and accept our call for resistance,” he appealed.
Resistance forces have maintained that the Taliban were being heavily supported by Pakistan’s spy agency Inter Services Intelligence with men and weaponry, and that the ISI chief was in Kabul to personally oversee the fighting in Panjshir, the holdout province in northeastern Afghanistan that the Taliban claimed to have taken over on Monday. (UNI)
