Taliban meet Afghan protesters with violence despite assurances

Afghan protesters defied the Taliban for a second day Thursday, waving their national flag in scattered demonstrations, while the fighters again responded violently as they faced down growing challenges to their rule.

A UN official warned of dire food shortages and experts said the country of 38 million people was in severe need of cash while noting that the Taliban are unlikely to enjoy the generous international aid given to the civilian government they dethroned.

In light of these challenges, the Taliban have moved quickly to suppress any dissent, despite their promises that they have become more moderate since they last imposed draconian rule on Afghanistan. Many fear they will succeed in erasing two decades of efforts to expand women's and human rights and remake the country.

On Thursday, a procession of cars and people near Kabul's airport carried long black, red and green banners in honour of the Afghan flag â€" a banner that is becoming a symbol of defiance since the militants have their own flag.

WATCH | Afghans carry colours of national flag through streets:

Afghans counter Taliban colours with giant national flags3 hours agoAfghan citizens ran through the streets of Kabul on Thursday to celebrate independence day with massive national flags after the Taliban had begun to replace some of them with their own black and white flag. (Rahmat Gul/AP Photo) 0:32

At another protest in Nangarhar province, video posted online showed one demonstrator with a gunshot wound bleeding, as onlookers tried to carry him away.

In Khost province, Taliban authorities instituted a 24-hour curfew Thursday after violently breaking up another protest, according to information obtained by journalists monitoring from abroad. The militants did not immediately acknowledge the demonstration or the curfew.

Protesters also took the streets in Kunar province, according to witnesses and social media videos that lined up with reporting by The Associated Press.

'Humanitarian crisis of incredible proportions'

The demonstrations â€" which come as Afghans mark the independence day holiday that commemorates the 1919 treaty that ended British rule â€" were a remarkable show of defiance after the insurgents violently dispersed a protest Wednesday.

At that rally, in the eastern city of Jalalabad, demonstrators lowered the Taliban's flag and replace it with Afghanistan's tricolour. At least one person was killed.

Afghans wave a banner in the colours of the national flag on their independence day in the capital, Kabul, on Thursday. (Rahmat Gul/The Associated Press)

Meanwhile, opposition figures gathering in the last area of the country not under Taliban rule talked of launching an armed resistance under the banner of the Northern Alliance, which allied with the U.S. during the 2001 invasion.

It was not clear how serious a threat they posed given that the militants overran nearly the entire country in a matter of days with little resistance from Afghan forces.

The Taliban so far have offered no specifics on how they will lead, other than to say they will be guided by Shariah, or Islamic, law. They are in talks with senior officials of previous Afghan governments, but they face an increasingly precarious situation.

"A humanitarian crisis of incredible proportions is unfolding before our eyes," warned Mary Ellen McGroarty, the head of the UN's World Food Program in Afghanistan. Beyond the difficulties of bringing food into a landlocked nation dependent on imports, she said that drought has seen over 40 per cent of the country's crop lost. Many who fled the Taliban advance now live in parks and open spaces in Kabul.

"This is really Afghanistan's hour of greatest need, and we urge the international community to stand by the Afghan people at this time," she said.

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Hafiz Ahmad, a shopkeeper in Kabul, said some food has flowed into the capital, but prices have gone up. He hesitated to pass those costs onto his customers but said he had to.

"It is better to have it," he said. "If there were nothing, then that would be even worse."

Evacuation flights continue

Two of Afghanistan's key border crossings with Pakistan, Torkham near Jalalabad and Chaman near Spin Boldak, are now open for trade. Hundreds of trucks have passed through, Pakistani Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has said. However, traders still fear insecurity on the roads and confusion over customs duties that could push them to price their goods higher.

Amid that uncertainty and concerns that the Taliban will reimpose their brutal rule, which included largely confining women to their homes and holding public executions, many Afghans are trying to flee the country.

At Kabul's international airport, military evacuation flights continued, according to flight-tracking data. However, access to the airport remained difficult. On Thursday, Taliban militants fired into the air to try to control the crowds gathered at the airport's blast walls. Men, women and children fled. Fighter jets later roared overhead, but no airstrike accompanied their pass.

Overnight, President Joe Biden said that he was committed to keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan until every American is evacuated, even if that means maintaining a military presence there beyond his Aug. 31 deadline for withdrawal.

Evacuees from Afghanistan disembark a British Royal Air Force plane that landed at Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Thursday. (Rula Rouhana/Reuters)

Indirectly acknowledging the resistance they face, the Taliban on Thursday asked preachers to urge congregants to remain in the country and counter "negative propaganda" against them.

The Taliban have also urged people to return to work, but most government officials remain in hiding or are themselves attempting to flee. Questions remain over Afghanistan's $9 billion US in foreign reserves, the vast majority now apparently frozen in the U.S. The International Monetary Fund, meanwhile, said the militants for now would not be allowed to access loans or other resources.

Limits to threat of sanctions

The head of the country's Central Bank warned that the supply of physical U.S. dollars is "close to zero," which will batter the currency, the afghani, and raise the prices of much-needed food.

"The afghani has been defended by literally planeloads of U.S. dollars landing in Kabul on a very regular basis, sometimes weekly," said Graeme Smith, a consultant researcher with the Overseas Development Institute. "If the Taliban don't get cash infusions soon to defend the afghani, I think there's a real risk of a currency devaluation that makes it hard to buy bread on the streets of Kabul for ordinary people."

Taliban fighters display their flag as they patrol in Kabul on Thursday. The Taliban so far have offered no specifics on how they will lead, other than to say they will be guided by Shariah, or Islamic, law. (Rahmat Gul/The Associated Press)

Still, Smith, who has written a book on Afghanistan, said the Taliban likely won't ask for the same billions in international aid sought by the country's fallen civilian government â€" large portions of which were funnelled off by corruption.

"You're much more likely to see the Taliban positioning themselves as sort of gatekeepers to the international community as opposed to coming begging for billions of dollars," he said.

That could limit the power of the international community's threat of sanctions.

There has been no armed opposition to the Taliban. But videos from the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, a stronghold of the Northern Alliance militias, appear to show potential opposition figures gathering there. That area is in the only province that has not fallen to the Taliban.

Those figures include members of the deposed government â€" Vice-President Amrullah Saleh, who asserted on Twitter that he is the country's rightful president, and Defence Minister Gen. Bismillah Mohammadi â€" as well as Ahmad Massoud, the son of the slain Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud.

In an opinion piece published by The Washington Post, Massoud asked for weapons and aid to fight the Taliban.

"I write from the Panjshir Valley today, ready to follow in my father's footsteps, with mujahideen fighters who are prepared to once again take on the Taliban," he wrote.

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