In less than eight weeks, the hardliners have swept through the country taking all the major cities including Mazar-i-Sharif, Logar province, Kandahar, Herat among others. The takeover of cities in the last 24 hours has been virtually unopposed. As Taliban fighters entered Mazar-i-Sharif on Saturday, government security forces escaped to neighbouring Uzbekistan.
Meanwhile, thousands of civilians have streamed into Kabul, fleeing from the Taliban controlled areas. Hundreds of people have been displaced and are now staying homeless in the capital. Overcrowded tents and open areas with a lack of food and other amenities has become a common sight in the city.
As Taliban tear through Afghanistan making seemingly inexorable advances, youngsters from the country residing in India are living with constant anxiety over the violence exploding back home.
Hundred of youngsters currently reside across India as students under India’s aid of human resource development and capacity building to Afghanistan. As part of this programme, India offers 1,000 educational scholarships to Afghan nationals each year with a 100 per cent utilisation in most years.
Farhad Haqyar, 25, has been here on a scholarship for the past two years now. He says he has renewed fears for his family in Kabul as Taliban inch closer to the Afghan capital. Hailing from a small province in Afghanistan, his family had shifted to Kabul a few years back for his father to easily work in the security wing of the Afghan government.
Karte Seh in west Kabul is home to the middle class, a dusty neighbourhood which has been mostly quiet since the mid-1990s when Mujahideen outfits, vying for control of the city, fought pitched battles in its lanes and streets.
But on Saturday, hours before the key northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif fell to the Taliban, Karte Seh was a beehive of activity, its peace shattered by Toyotas, some gleaming, most rickety, packing its roads. People came in droves, all headed to one building in the neighbourhood: Kabul’s main passport office.
People try to get into Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 16, 2021. (Reuters)
As thousands make frenzied attempts to fly out of Afghanistan, satellite images show people crowded on the tarmac of the Kabul airport.
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The Taliban has seized power in Afghanistan two weeks before the United States was set to complete its troop withdrawal, after a costly two-decade war. On Sunday, Kabul fell to the Taliban, completing their takeover of the country in a quick offensive that saw provinces and warlords give up without a fight. Here's a look at what exactly happened and what comes next.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on the Security Council on Monday to "use all tools at its disposal to suppress the global terrorist threat in Afghanistan" and guarantee that basic human rights will be respected. "We are receiving chilling reports of severe restrictions on human rights throughout the country. I am particularly concerned by accounts of mounting human rights violations against the women and girls of Afghanistan," he told the 15-member council. "We cannot and must not abandon the people of Afghanistan," he said. (Reuters)
As scenes emerge of civilians desperately trying to leave Afghanistan, many will likely seek refuge in neighbouring Tajikistan. Already, reports indicate that approximately 1,600 Afghan soldiers have fled to Tajikistan in the last week. On Monday morning, several media outlets stated that former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was amongst them. However, Tajikistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied that claim and later reports claimed he was in Uzbekistan. As the situation unfolds, Tajikistan will not only have to contend with an onslaught of refugees but also with security concerns ranging from the export of terrorism to the increase of cross-border drug smuggling. Read our explainer to know more.
The Pentagon has confirmed that US forces shot and killed two individuals it said were "armed" at the Kabul airport on Monday, adding that one American soldier was also injured. It also said that the US military is sending another battalion of about 1000 troops to help safeguard the airport.
In a series of tweets, Da Afghanistan Bank chief Ajmal Ahmady shares how the government in Afghanistan collapsed in a week.
"We assure all diplomats, embassies, consulates, and charitable workers, whether they are international or national that not only no problem will be created for them on the part of IEA but a secure environment will be provided to them, Inshallah," the Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen said in a tweet.
President Joe Biden will return to the White House today to address the nation on the US evacuation from Afghanistan. His address will come a day after the Taliban took control of the country.
The White House says Biden will travel back to Washington from the Camp David presidential retreat to speak at 3:45 Monday afternoon from the East Room. It will be his first public remark on the Afghanistan situation in nearly a week.
Thousands of Afghans rushed onto the tarmac of Kabul's international airport Monday, so desperate to escape the Taliban capture of their country that they held onto an American military jet as it took off and plunged to death in chaos that killed at least seven people, the Associated Press reported citing US officials.
A US defence official says the head of Central Command has met face-to-face with senior Taliban leaders to urge their fighters not to interfere with the US military's evacuation operations at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan.
The official said that in the meeting on Sunday in Doha, Qatar, General Frank McKenzie won Taliban agreement to establish a "deconfliction mechanism" - an arrangement by which evacuation operations at the airport can continue without interference by the new rulers of the country.
According to AP, the official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive talks not yet announced publicly.
In its first reaction to the unfolding developments in Afghanistan, India on Monday said it is constantly monitoring the situation and will take all steps to ensure the safety and security of Indian nationals as well as its interests in that country.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said India is also in touch with representatives of the Afghan Sikh and Hindu communities in Afghanistan and will facilitate the repatriation of those who wish to leave that country. Read the full report here.
MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi today said that the situation in Kabul has "deteriorated significantly" in the last few days. "We've been issuing periodic advisories for the safety and security of Indian nationals, including calling for their immediate return to India," he said during a media briefing. "We are in touch with representatives of Afghan Sikh, Hindu communities...will facilitate those who want to leave Afghanistan" he added.
The UK Parliament, currently on its summer recess, has been recalled for a day on Wednesday to debate the British government's response to the crisis in Afghanistan after the Taliban overthrew the Western-backed government and seized control of Kabul.
According to PTI, the Speaker of the House of Commons granted a request from the government to recall the House of Commons at 9.30 am on Wednesday, August 18, in relation to the situation in Afghanistan. Prime Minister Boris Johnson convened another emergency Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (COBRA) meeting on Monday to take stock of the crisis in the region.
Sadaf Habeeb, a 22-year-old from Kabul, was outside the Embassy of Afghanistan in Delhi today, hoping for some clarity on the possibility of help for her family members back home, and for someone to allay the uncertainty she has been feeling over her status in India now that the Taliban has established control over her country.
Officials at the embassy were non-committal and seemed unsure of what was coming next themselves, said Sadaf, who made the visit with her mother. She is frightened, she said, for her grandparents, uncles and friends who are in Kabul. “Having fled with my parents from Taliban attacks five years ago, we know what they can do,” Sadaf said. Read our full report here.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday seemed to endorse the Taliban taking over Kabul by saying that Afghanistan has broken the “shackles of slavery” in the neighbouring war-torn country. Khan said becoming a mental slave was worse than being an actual slave, adding that subjugated minds can never make big decisions. Read the full report here.
The United States has temporarily halted all evacuation flights from Kabul to clear people who had converged on the airfield, a US defense official told Reuters today. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, did not say how long the pause would last.
An Afghan military plane has crashed in Uzbekistan, news agency AFP is reporting. More details are awaited.
In the capital, a tense calm set in, with most people hiding in their homes as the Taliban deployed fighters at major intersections.
According to the Associated Press, there were scattered reports of looting and armed men knocking on doors and gates, and there was less traffic than usual on eerily quiet streets of Kabul. Fighters were seen searching vehicles at one of the city's main squares.
Many fear chaos, after the Taliban freed thousands of prisoners and the police simply melted away, or a return to the kind of brutal rule the Taliban imposed when it was last in power.
Russia's embassy in Kabul said on Monday that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had fled the country with four cars and a helicopter full of cash and had to leave some money behind as it would not all fit in, the RIA news agency reported. Ghani, whose current whereabouts are unknown, said he left Afghanistan on Sunday as the Taliban entered Kabul virtually unopposed.
“Four cars were full of money, they tried to stuff another part of the money into a helicopter, but not all of it fit. And some of the money was left lying on the tarmac.” Nikita Ishchenko, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Kabul, was quoted as saying by RIA.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called for national reconciliation in neighbouring Afghanistan on Monday. The official IRNA news agency quoted Raisi as saying Iran will support efforts to restore stability in Afghanistan as a first priority. He called Iran "a brother and neighbouring nation" to Afghanistan. According to AP, He also described the rapid pullout by America as a "military failure" that should "turn into an opportunity for restoring life, security and stable peace".
As the Taliban took control of Kabul, including its airport, the air space of Afghanistan has been declared uncontrolled with aircraft transiting over the country being asked to reroute. On account of this, Air India, which was expected to operate a scheduled flight from Delhi-Kabul at 12.30 pm, is unlikely to do so.
“Airspace over Afghanistan is declared closed, so no aircraft can operate there. Our scheduled flight to Kabul also cannot go,” an Air India source told The Indian Express. More details here.
With the Taliban taking over Afghanistan, shocking visuals from the country are pouring in showing panic-stricken people desperate to flee the country.
At least five people were killed at Kabul airport as hundreds of people tried to forcibly enter planes leaving the Afghan capital. Here are some photos from outside the airport.
British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace today said that the government is planning to fly out 1,500 more people from Afghanistan over the next two days. The first flight carrying British nationals has landed in the UK, he said. According to AP, Wallace expressed hope that the government will be able to evacuate around 1,000 people a day, including Afghan nationals who have helped British citizens.
China on Monday expressed hope that the Taliban will stand by its commitment of establishing an "open and inclusive" Islamic government in Afghanistan and will ensure a peaceful transition of power without violence and terrorism.
Commenting for the first time on the sudden and rapid takeover of the Afghanistan government by the Taliban insurgents, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying in a media briefing in Beijing expressed hope that the Taliban will abide by its commitment to ensure a peaceful transition of power, taking full responsibility for the safety of Afghan citizens and foreign diplomatic missions.
According to PTI, the spokesperson also said that the Chinese Embassy in Kabul is up and running with its ambassador and some staff. However, most of the Chinese nationals have already been evacuated from Afghanistan, she said.
Russia does not view the Taliban in Afghanistan as a threat to Central Asia, President Vladimir Putin's special representative on Afghanistan was quoted as saying by TASS news agency on Monday.
No evacuation flights are leaving Kabul airport at the moment because desperate people trying t flee the country are blocking the tarmac, a spokesperson for the German foreign ministry said on Monday. "I understand there is no air traffic at the moment because a large number of desperate people are crowding the tarmac," the spokesperson was quoted as saying by Reuters.
“They are the enemy of women. What will happen to my sister? She is a teacher. If the Taliban come to know, they will do anything. They are going around asking for such women. If they come to know my father allowed one daughter to come to India and that another daughter is a teacher, they will not spare him,” wails 22-year-old Aziza Sawari.
The MBA student at the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) hails from Ghor province in Afghanistan, one of the worst affected areas in that country since the Taliban have taken over. Her parents, four brothers, and sister are still stuck there. Read the full report here.
A meeting of Pakistan's security committee chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan will be held today to discuss the evolving situation in neighbouring Afghanistan, a day after the Taliban seizing power in Kabul and President Ashraf Ghani fled the war-torn country.
As per PTI, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that Pakistan will present its stance on the current situation following consultations in the National Security Committee meeting.
An official of the Afghan embassy on Monday suggested that its Twitter handle was hacked after several tweets criticising embattled Afghan President Ashraf Ghani for fleeing the country were posted from it. According to PTI, tweets criticising Ghani were deleted later.
With Kabul falling into the hands of the Taliban, bilateral trade between Afghanistan and India will get impacted significantly in these uncertain times, according to exporters.
Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) Director General Ajay Sahai said domestic exporters should follow caution looking into the political development in Afghanistan, particularly with regard to payments, for which adequate credit insurance may be availed by them. "The trade will be impacted. It would reduce due to the growing uncertainty in Afghanistan," he said on Monday.
Biswajit Dhar, a professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University said India's aid to Afghanistan was creating a market for domestic products and due to the current situation, "all this will stop". (PTI)
Taliban fighters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, started collecting weapons from civilians on Monday because people no longer need them for personal protection, a Taliban official said.
'We understand people kept weapons for personal safety. They can now feel safe. We are not here to harm innocent civilians,' the official told Reuters. City resident Salad Moleskin, director of the MOBY group media company, said on Twitter that Taliban soldiers had come to his company compound to enquire about the weapons kept by his security team. (Reuters)
Sweden has completed the evacuation of all its Swedish embassy staff from Kabul and is now working on plans to get local employees and those who have supported its activities out of the country, Foreign Minister Ann Linde said on Monday.
"All deployed personnel were evacuated from Afghanistan last night by helicopter and plane to a U.S. military base in Doha," Linde told reporters at a news conference. (Reuters)
More details are awaited.
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Monday said the international community must remain engaged with Afghanistan, asserting that Islamabad will continue to play a facilitative role to bring political settlement in the war-torn neighbouring country, which has been taken over by the Taliban in a sudden and unprecedented collapse of the government.
"Pakistan is very clear on our position: we believe that a negotiated political settlement is the only way forward. We do not wish to see continued cycle of civil war & want the people of Afghanistan to thrive, not simply survive," Qureshi tweeted after a meeting in Islamabad with a political delegation of Afghanistan's leaders led by former vice president Muhammad Younas Qanooni.
"The international community must remain engaged with Afghanistan," Qureshi asserted, underlining that it is important that "we closely coordinate our next steps" for the benefit of Afghanistan and the region. (PTI)
Two helicopters have been roped in to clear runways of the Kabul international airport, as per a video shared by journalist Ahmer Khan on Twitter. Thousands of Afghans desperate to flee the country after it fell into Taliban's hands have been crowding airport runways and attempting to climb into parked airplanes. Earlier videos showed hundreds running behind moving aircrafts.
Pakistan's state-run airline says it has halted all flights to Afghanistan's capital of Kabul because of the "uncertain security situation" there. Spokesman Abdullah Hafeez said on Monday that Pakistan International Airlines decided to protect passengers, the crew and the planes after consulting the Afghan civil aviation authorities.
He spoke as embassies scrambled to evacuate personnel and Afghan employees through the airport. (AP)
There was gunfire at the airport and a dire warning from the State Department to shelter in place as the United States began the frantic evacuations of Americans and Afghan allies from the Afghan capital, Kabul, after it fell to the Taliban in one harrowing weekend.
In the end, even the evacuation of what one Defense Department official estimated could be 20,000 Americans and an untold number of Afghans somehow managed to reflect the story of the entire 20-year war: a disconnect between American diplomats and the reality on the ground. (Read more)
Air India cancelled its Delhi-Kabul-Delhi flight that was scheduled to operate on Monday to avoid Afghanistan airspace after it was declared "uncontrolled" by authorities at the Kabul airport, senior officials said. It was the only commercial flight scheduled to operate between India and Afghanistan on Monday, and Air India is the only carrier that has been operating flights between the two countries.
Moreover, the carrier on Monday diverted its two flights coming to Delhi from the US toward Sharjah in the UAE for the same reason, they said. The airline's San Francisco-Delhi flight as well as Chicago-Delhi flight were diverted towards Sharjah on Monday.
Both the flights will land in Sharjah for refuelling purposes, the officials said. The flights will then leave for Delhi again while avoiding the Afghan airspace. (PTI)
German airline Lufthansa is rerouting flights to avoid Afghan airspace until further notice, a spokesperson said on Monday, after insurgents took control of the presidential palace in Kabul. As a result, the flight time to India and other destinations will be extended by up to one hour, the spokesperson added.
"All Lufthansa Group Airlines are suspending overflights of Afghanistan until further notice," the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. (Reuters)
Italy has evacuated 70 embassy staff and Afghan employees from the capital city of Kabul. The plane was scheduled to arrive in Rome on Monday.
Video taken at Kabul's international airport and released by the Italian Defence Ministry shows people walking up a mobile staircase to board the plane in darkness. The evacuation is part of Italy's Operation Aquila Omnia (Eagle Ready for Anything) to quickly evacuate Italian diplomatic staff, citizens and Afghan employees and family members.
Italy had one of the largest contingents in Afghanistan before the pullout. (AP)
The UAE, Russia and Spain are the latest countries who are in the process of evacuating their staff from Afghanistan. Meanwhile, European Union said it is working with member states to find rapid solutions to relocate local Afghan staff and families to a safe location, said an EU spokesperson.
Russia will evacuate some of its Afghanistan embassy's roughly 100 staff, Zamir Kabulov, President Vladimir Putin's special representative on Afghanistan, told the Ekho Moskvy radio station on Monday. The official also said that Russia's ambassador in Afghanistan would meet with a Taliban representative on Tuesday and discuss security for its diplomatic mission there, the Interfax news agency reported.
All Spain's staff in Kabul, Afghanistan, either Spanish or Afghan, are currently in the airport ahead of their evacuation to Spain, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said on Monday. 'We have transported all the embassy staff as well as protection crews to the airport,' Grande-Marlaska said in an interview with Cadena SER radio station. Spain has sent military aircraft to evacuate them as soon as possible, together with other citizens who assisted the Spanish army, the government aid agency and other institutions, he added. (Reuters)
At least five people were killed in Kabul airport as hundreds of people tried to forcibly enter planes leaving the Afghan capital, witnesses told Reuters.
One witness said he had seen the bodies of five people being taken to a vehicle. Another witness said it was not clear whether the victims were killed by gunshots or in a stampede. U.S. troops, who are in charge of the airport, earlier fired in the air to scatter the crowd, a U.S. official said. Officials were not immediately available to comment on the deaths. (Reuters)
Anurag Kashyap has shared an open letter by Afghan filmmaker Sahraa Karimi on his social media handles. Karimi, the first female chairperson of the Afghan Film Organisation, had appealed to the world community to highlight the oppression faced by her nation, as Taliban entered the outlying districts of Kabul on Sunday.
Kashyap shared Karimi’s post on his social media accounts with the caption, “Pls share it far and wide…” Sahraa Karimi has been actively reporting and sharing photos and videos from Afghanistan, including shots of Taliban insurgents walking into Kabul. (Read more)
Here are some key facts about the Taliban’s history and ideology.
The Taliban, which means “students” in the Pashto language, emerged in 1994 around the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. It was one of the factions fighting a civil war for control of the country following the withdrawal of the Soviet Union and subsequent collapse of the government.
Following the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the United States byal Qaeda, US-backed forces in the north swept into Kabul in November under the cover of heavy US airstrikes. The Taliban melted away into remote areas, where it began a 20-year-long insurgency against the Afghan government and its Western allies. (Read more)
The Taliban are in control of Afghanistan and British and NATO forces will not be returning to fight the insurgents, Britain's defence minister said on Monday.
"I acknowledge that the Taliban are in control of the country," Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told Sky News. "I mean, you don't have to be a political scientist to spot that's where we're at."
Asked if Britain and NATO would return to Afghanistan, Wallace said: "That's not on the cards... we're going to go back."
Wallace said the military side of Kabul airport was secure and that Britain was doing everything it could to evacuate British citizens and Afghans with links to Britain. "Our target is ... about 1200 to 1500 exit a day in the capacity of our aeroplanes, and we'll keep that flow," he said. Britain has relocated its embassy to Kabul airport from the city. (Reuters)
Commercial flights from Kabul have been cancelled after chaotic scenes at the airport with thousands looking for a way out after the Taliban re-take power in Afghanistan.
This includes the Air India flight which was scheduled to depart from Delhi to Kabul.
'Please do not rush to the airport,' Kabul airport authority says in message to reporters. (AFP)
With the Taliban taking over Afghanistan, the Congress on Monday asked the Modi government to wake up from its slumber and protect Indians in the strife-torn country.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the situation in Afghanistan is extremely alarming and India's strategic interests are at stake, but the government has not put in place any plan to evacuate its citizens there which is a gross abdication of duty.
Modi government's refusal to set in motion a well thought out plan to evacuate our citizens is a gross abdication of its duty and is totally unacceptable, he said in a statement.
Read full statement below:
Situation in Afghanistan is extremely alarming. India’s strategic interests are at stake. Safety and security of our embassy & its personnel as also that of Indian Citizens is at stake.Congress Party stands solidly behind protecting India’s interests and expects a mature political and diplomatic response from our Govt over the complete collapse of Govt in Afghanistan and Taliban takeover.
Despite this, the stunning silence of Narendra Modi Govt is deeply disturbing and highly intriguing, which is beyond any reasonable understanding.Modi govt's refusal to set in motion a well thought out plan to evacuate our citizens is a gross abdication of its duty and is totally unacceptable.
Taliban and Haqqani Network connections with Pakistan’s ISI and JeM, LeT, JuD are well known. There is an urgent need to revisit our geo-political interests in this background and its impact on J&K. Sadly, Modi Govt is oblivious of the same.Prime Minister and External Affairs Minister need to come out and clearly spell out our policy for safe return of our citizens, embassy personnel as also our future relationship.Unexplained silence at this extremely critical juncture gives rise to a reasonable apprehension that Modi government is hiding something from the country.
We are still in the dark over Modi govt's role in Doha talks. Need of the hour is that Modi govt wakes up from its slumber and protects Indian citizens in Afghanistan and tells the country how it will tackle the dangerous situation in the immediate neighbourhood.
Rarely in modern presidential history have words come back to bite an American commander in chief as swiftly as these from US President Joe Biden a little more than five weeks ago: “There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States in Afghanistan.”
Then, digging the hole deeper, he added, “The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”
On Sunday, the scramble to evacuate US civilians and embassy employees from Kabul — the very image that Biden and his aides agreed they had to avoid during recent meetings in the Oval Office — unfolded live on television, not from the US Embassy roof but from the landing pad next to the building. And now that the Afghan government has collapsed with astonishing speed, the Taliban seem certain to be back in full control of the country when the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks is commemorated less than a month from today — exactly as they were 20 summers ago. (Read more)
Taliban officials said on Monday they had received no reports of any clashes from across the country a day after the militants seized the capital, Kabul, and the U.S.-backed government collapsed.
"The situation is peaceful, as per our reports," one of the senior members of the Taliban said. They declined to be identified. (Reuters)
Saudi Arabia says it has evacuated all its diplomats from its embassy in the Afghan capital, and New Zealand's government is sending a plane to help its people leave the country.
Saudi Arabia said all staff were evacuated from the embassy in Kabul on Sunday due to the changing conditions on the ground, joining other countries that have also shuttered their embassies as the Taliban advance on the Afghan capital.
New Zealand's government says its sending a C-130 Hercules military transport plane to Afghanistan to help with the evacuation of 53 New Zealanders and dozens of Afghanis and their immediate families who helped New Zealand troops when they were stationed there. (AP)
The United States spent more than $8 billion over 15 years on efforts to deprive the Taliban of their profits from Afghanistan's opium and heroin trade, from poppy eradication to airstrikes and raids on suspected labs. That strategy failed.
As the United States wraps up its longest war, Afghanistan remains the world's biggest illicit opiate supplier and looks certain to remain so as the Taliban is on the brink of taking power in Kabul, said current and former U.S. and U.N. officials and experts.
The Taliban banned poppy growing in 2000 as they sought international legitimacy, but faced a popular backlash and later mostly changed their stance, according to experts. (Reuters)
After videos of Afghans mobbing the Kabul airport tarmac emerged on social media, the US troops fired shots in air at the airport.
US forces confirmed to Reuters that they were forced to fire in air to prevent Afghans running onto tarmac to board military flights.
This comes hours after it reported that the US military had secured the perimeter of the airport. A small group of diplomats are working from the Hamid Karzai International Airport after the embassies were evacuated on Sunday.
Just a week after the fall of Kunduz — the first in a series of cities that the Taliban seized with breathtaking speed — the insurgents are now in effective control of Afghanistan. And they now must function as administrators who can provide basic services to hundreds of thousands of people.
The experience of those in Kunduz offers a glimpse of how the Taliban may govern and what may be in store for the rest of the country. (Read more)
A group of Afghan nationals were seen raising slogans against US President Joe Biden outside the White House following the fall of Kabul to Taliban. A video showed the group chanting "Biden you are responsible."
Major airlines are rerouting flights to avoid Afghanistan airspace after insurgents took control of the presidential palace in Kabul.
United Airlines, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic said they were not using the country's airspace. A United spokeswoman said the change affects several of the airline's U.S.-to-India flights. Flight-tracking website FlightRadar24 showed few commercial flights over Afghanistan at 0300 GMT on Monday but many planes overflying neighbouring Pakistan and Iran.
Commercial flights set to land in Afghanistan have also been affected by the chaos on the ground. Emirates has suspended flights to Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, until further notice, the airline said on its website. (Reuters)
Hundreds of desperate Afghans have surged onto the tarmac of Kabul airport in an attempt to leave the country as the Taliban took control over Kabul on Sunday.
Videos from the airport showed chaotic scenes as all commercial flights were cancelled. As the US deployed helicopters to evacuate diplomats and staff from its embassy, thousands of civilians flocked to the airport. Many civilians had already fled to the capital from other cities and towns in order to escape the Taliban’s brutal military push through the country over the past week. (Read more)
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said on Sunday he had left the country to avoid bloodshed as the Taliban entered the capital Kabul.
In a post on his Facebook page, Ghani said he had faced a difficult decision, with the fate of millions of Kabul residents and the security of the city at stake after 20 years of war in which countless numbers had already been killed. "To avoid bloodshed, I thought it would be better to leave," he said in his first comments since quitting the presidential palace and flying out of the country.
The news channel Al Jazeera, citing a personal bodyguard of the president, said Ghani, his wife, his chief of staff and national security adviser had flown to Tashkent in neighbouring Uzbekistan. (Reuters)
Press Secretary to the Afghan Embassy in India said in a tweet that he has lost access to the official @AfghanistanInIN Twitter handle. Abdulhaq Azad said that he suspects the handle has been hacked.
Azad's statement comes after a tweet critical of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was shared from the handle.
"I have lost access to Twitter handle of @AfghanistanInIN, a friend sent screen shot of this tweet, (this tweet is hidden from me.) I have tried to log in but can’t access. Seems it is hacked," he wrote.