Two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans at Kabul’s airport, transforming a scene of desperation into one of horror for those fleeing the Taliban takeover.
At least 85 people were killed and dozens of others were wounded in the blasts on Thursday.
Among the dead were 72 civilians and 13 United States (US) service members.
One of the bombers struck Afghans standing knee-deep in a wastewater canal, throwing bodies into the fetid water.
The second blast was at or near Baron Hotel, where many people, including Afghans, Britons, and Americans, were told to gather in recent days before heading to the airport for evacuation.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL /ISIS) group, has claimed responsibility for the attack, the group’s Amaq News Agency said on its Telegram channel.
US President Joe Biden vowed to retaliate against Thursday’s attack in Kabul, saying that he will hunt down those responsible and make them pay.
Biden confirmed in a speech from the White House that the bombings were carried out by the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, ISKP (ISIS-K), ISIL’s affiliate in Afghanistan.
“To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive; we will not forget,” Biden said.
“We will hunt you down and make you pay. I will defend our interests in our people with every measure at my command.”
President Biden mourned the U.S. service members and Afghans killed in the attacks at the Kabul airport on Thursday and addressed those responsible: “We will hunt you down and make you pay.” https://t.co/YXINpuW0qbpic.twitter.com/B8b7vvRhi3
Biden added that the US will continue the evacuations of American citizens and US allies despite the attack. “We will not be deterred by terrorists; we will not let them stop our mission. We will continue the evacuations,” he said.
Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, penned down a heartfelt piece reminding the world of her dreadful experience nine years ago, when she was shot by the Taliban for raising her voice for girl’s education.
“In October 2012, a member of the Pakistani Taliban boarded my school bus and shot one bullet into my left temple. The bullet grazed my left eye, skull, and brain – lacerating my facial nerve, shattering my eardrum and breaking my jaw,” wrote Malala.
“The emergency surgeons in Peshawar, Pakistan removed my left temporal skull bone to create space for my brain to swell in response to the injury. Their quick action saved my life.”
Malala at the hospital post her surgery in 2012
“Days later I still couldn’t speak, but I started to write things in a notebook and show them to everyone who came to my room. I had questions: What happened to me? Where is my father? Who is going to pay for this treatment? We don’t have money.”
Remembering her experience nine years ago, Malala wrote, “I tried to stay calm. I told myself, When they discharge me, I will find a job, earn some money, buy a phone, call my family, and work until I pay all the bills I owe to the hospital.”
“I touched my abdomen; it felt hard and stiff. I asked the nurse if there was a problem with my stomach. She informed me that when the Pakistani surgeons removed part of my skull bone, they relocated it in my stomach and that, one day, I would have another surgery to put it back in my head.”
“But the UK doctors eventually decided to fit a titanium plate where my skull bone had been, reducing the risk of infection, in a procedure called a cranioplasty. They took the piece of my skull out of my stomach. Today it sits on my bookshelf,” wrote Malala.
Malala’s skull bone, residing on her bookshelf
“A few months after the nerve surgery and with regular facial massage, my symmetry and movement had improved a little. If I smiled with my lips closed, I could almost see my old face. I covered my mouth with my hands when I laughed – so people wouldn’t see that one side didn’t work as well as the other. I avoided staring in the mirror or watching myself on video. In my own mind, I thought I looked fine. I accepted the reality and was happy with myself,” says Malala.
“On August 9 in Boston, I woke up at 5:00am to go to the hospital for my latest surgery and saw the news that the Taliban had taken Kunduz, the first major city to fall in Afghanistan. Over the next few days, with ice packs and a bandage wrapped around my head, I watched as province after province fell to men with guns, loaded with bullets like the one that shot me,” wrote the activist.
Malala after her recent surgery in Boston
“As soon as I could sit up again, I was making phone calls, writing letters to heads of state around the world, and speaking with women’s rights activists still in Afghanistan. In the last two weeks, we’ve been able to help several of them and their families get to a safe place. But I know we can’t save everyone,” writes Malala.
“Nine years later, I am still recovering from just one bullet. The people of Afghanistan have taken millions of bullets over the last four decades. My heart breaks for those whose names we will forget or never even know, whose cries for help will go unanswered,” wrote Malala Yousafzai.
United States (US) President Joe Biden sent off America’s top spy to meet the head of the Taliban on Monday, reported The Washington Post.
This high-level diplomatic encounter comes prior to the deadline of August 31 set to airlift Americans and their allies out of Afghanistan.
Biden warned that the evacuation was going to be “hard and painful” and much could still go wrong. US troops might stay beyond an August 31 deadline to oversee the evacuation, he said.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns met Taliban Leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul on Monday as the Biden administration continues efforts to evacuate US citizens and other allies amid chaos at the airport in Kabul.
SCOOP: CIA Director Bill Burns held a secret meeting with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul on Monday, the highest-level face-to-face encounter between the Taliban and Biden administration since the militants seized the Afghan capital 1/ https://t.co/gwGXGpdLWS
“Biden’s spymaster is also his most seasoned diplomat. For Baradar, playing counterpart to a CIA director comes with a tinge of irony 11 years after the spy agency arrested him in a joint CIA-Pakistani operation that put him in prison for eight years,” writes journalist John Hudson.
It’s quite the tete-a-tete. Biden’s spymaster is also his most seasoned diplomat. For Baradar, playing counterpart to a CIA director comes with a tinge of irony 11 years after the spy agency arrested him in a joint CIA-Pakistani operation that put him in prison for 8 years 2/
However, the CIA declined to comment on the secret meeting.
The CIA declined to comment on the secret meeting (as it always does when asked about the director’s foreign travel) but the Burns-Baradar chat likely involved the looming deadline for the US to conclude its evacuation. Also a great chance for Burns to size up the Taliban chief
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid said on Monday that the Afghan Taliban had reassured the government that the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) would not be given permission to operate in Afghanistan against Pakistan.
While addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Rashid said that some of the TTP members such as Maulvi Faqir Mohammad had been released by the Taliban after their takeover of Kabul on August 15, further adding that the government was in complete contact with the Taliban on the matter.
“The Afghan Taliban have reassured [us] that Afghanistan’s land will not be allowed to be used in any case by the TTP,” said Rashid.
He said Pakistan desired peace in Afghanistan since peace in one country was related to peace in the other.
Taliban claimed that hundreds of their fighters are heading to the Panjshir Valley, reported Al Jazeera. Panjshir Valley is known as the area of Ahmed Shah Massoud’s Northern Alliance and is one of the few parts of the country not yet controlled by the newly-emerged Taliban setup. However, there has been much resistance going on between the groups since the Taliban’s takeover.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Taliban leader Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani, said, “If we can defeat superpowers, surely we can provide safety to the Afghan people.” He is also a veteran of the Afghan-Soviet war.
However, Ahmad Massoud, son of the slain hero of the anti-Soviet resistance, Ahmad Shah Massoud, told Reuters by telephone: “We want to make the Taliban realise that the only way forward is through negotiation but his supporters are ready to fight if Taliban forces try to invade the valley.”
Earlier, Massoud was given four hours to give up Panjshir Valley, where Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh is in hiding, as per reports.
Unconfirmed reports say the Taliban have reached the valley.
“India should refrain from using the Afghan soil against Pakistan to take revenge for Kashmiris’ struggle in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” said former prime minister of Afghanistan and Hezb-e-Islami chief Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
Hekmatyar said an inclusive government comprising all the other political groups was the need of the hour. “Such a government could stop further bloodshed in Afghanistan and steer the war-ravaged country out of the present crisis.”
Hekmatyar also praised Prime Minister Imran Khan’s long-term stance on peace and a negotiated settlement of the Afghan issue. He said he hoped there would soon be a government in Kabul, which would be acceptable to the Afghan people and the international community.
“The Afghans have grown tired of the long conflict and fighting and now they want to bring peace and stability to their war-torn country and collectively work for its reconstruction and progress,” said Hekmatyar.
Hekmatyar further added, “Our enemy can cast a negative impact on the Afghan peace process but the United States (US) and other forces had no right to interfere in the Afghanistan issue. It is the sole prerogative of the Afghan people to decide about their future.”
However, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that Pakistan has no objection to India and Afghanistan developing cordial relations, further clarifying that Islamabad was not focusing on any one particular group in Afghanistan, reported Geo News.
Fatima Bhutto has expressed her wish for actor Angelina Jolie to talk about Kashmir and Palestine after she made an Instagram account to call attention to the plight of people in Afghanistan.
The Wanted star intends to raise awareness specifically for oppressed women and young girls following the Taliban’s rapid takeover of the country.
Taking to Twitter, Fatima said: “Judging by some leading feminists and actresses, Afghanistan was a paradise until last week.”
Judging by some leading feminsts and actresses, Afghanistan was a paradise until last week. pic.twitter.com/lZg5OpyIrZ
The Hollywood star’s debut Instagram post included an image of a hand-written letter she said was sent from a teenage girl in Afghanistan, who expressed fear about attending school under the Taliban regime.
“Right now, the people of Afghanistan are losing their ability to communicate on social media and to express themselves freely,” Jolie wrote in the caption of the post. “So I’ve come on Instagram to share their stories and the voices of those across the globe who are fighting for their basic human rights.”
The flags of the Afghan Taliban was found hoisted on the rooftop of a Jamia Hafsa madrassah located in the heart of the capital, Dawn News has reported. I
Islamabad officials while speaking to Dawn News said “four to five white flags of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan were found hoisted on the rooftop of Jamia Hafsa in G-7/3.”
“The flags were spotted after Zuhr prayers and shortly the capital administration and police were informed about it,” they said.
Deputy Commissioner Islamabad in a tweet said that the administration have removed the flags.
India’s government said on Tuesday that it would prioritize taking in Hindus and Sikhs from Afghanistan — a move that drew comparisons to a controversial 2019 citizenship law, enacted under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that differentiates against Muslims, reported New York Times.
The country’s home ministry said it would introduce “emergency visas” to allow Afghans to stay in India for six months.
MHA reviews visa provisions in view of the current situation in Afghanistan. A new category of electronic visa called “e-Emergency X-Misc Visa” introduced to fast-track visa applications for entry into India.@HMOIndia@PIB_India@DDNewslive@airnewsalerts
— Spokesperson, Ministry of Home Affairs (@PIBHomeAffairs) August 17, 2021
However, it did not say whether Muslims, who make up the majority of those seeking to leave Afghanistan as the Taliban take over, would also be considered.
“We are in constant touch with the Sikh and Hindu community leaders in Kabul,” S. Jaishankar, India’s external affairs minister, said on Twitter. “Their welfare will get our priority attention.”
We are in constant touch with the Sikh and Hindu community leaders in Kabul. Their welfare will get our priority attention. @capt_amarinder@HardeepSPuri
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (Modi Ka Parivar) (@DrSJaishankar) August 16, 2021
For its part, Pakistan’s leadership has stopped short of hailing the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.
“When you adopt someone’s culture, you believe it to be superior and you end up becoming a slave to it,” Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday in a veiled reference to the United States and Western culture. “In Afghanistan, they have broken the shackles of slavery,” Mr. Khan said at an appearance in Islamabad, “but the slavery of the mind does not break away.”
The Taliban, on Wednesday, executed Haji Mullah Achakzai, the police chief of the Badghis province near Herat, Afghanistan.
In a video that surfaced on Twitter on Thursday, Achakzai can be seen blindfolded, kneeling down on his knees as he was surrounded by Taliban individuals who shot him several times, reported Newsweek.
The group shared the video through a Taliban-related network, Afghan security advisor Nasser Waziri, who personally knew Achakzai, told Newsweek.
“He was surrounded by the Taliban and had no choice but to surrender last night,” Waziri said. “The Taliban targeted Achakzai because he was a high-ranking intelligence official.”
Waziri said that when the Taliban were able to hack into the Afghan intelligence database to track down government officials, they accessed information, photographs, biometrics, and national identification documents. As of Monday, they started “door-to-door investigations.”
A door-to-door investigation is how the Taliban spots targeted individuals through families, according to Waziri. They threaten and abuse those individuals’ families to reveal their whereabouts.
One of Waziri’s friends, a district governor who hasn’t been identified for security reasons, has been hiding in Kabul as the Taliban recently visited some of his family members in Nurstin, an Afghan province.
“They [the Taliban] took the family out of their house and hit them so that they could give information on which city he can be,” Waziri said.
Earlier this week, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had assured peace and stability in the region.
The Taliban would not seek retribution against former soldiers and members of the western-backed government, said Mujahid, insisting that “everyone is forgiven”.
“Nobody is going to harm you, nobody is going to knock on your doors,” said Mujahid. He said that the Taliban “do not wish to see any kind of chaos” in Kabul.
“Our plan was to stop at the gates of Kabul after capturing all other provinces,” the spokesman claimed, adding that a “smooth transition” of power was what the group had sought to avoid “trouble, harm, and damages”.
