Taliban marks Afghan independence as challenges to rule rise

The Taliban celebrated Afghanistan’s Independence Day on Thursday by declaring it had overwhelmed the United States, however challenges to their rule starting from operating the nation’s frozen authorities to probably going through armed opposition started to emerge.
From ATMs being out of money to worries about meals throughout this nation of 38 million folks reliant on imports, the Taliban face all of the challenges of the civilian authorities they dethroned with out the extent of worldwide assist it loved. Meanwhile, opposition figures fleeing to Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley now speak of launching an armed resistance below the banner of the Northern Alliance, which allied with the US in the course of the 2001 invasion.
The Taliban to date have supplied no plans for the federal government they plan to steer, apart from to say it will likely be guided by Shariah, or Islamic, regulation. But the strain continues to develop.

“A humanitarian crisis of incredible proportions is unfolding before our eyes,” warned Mary Ellen McGroarty, the pinnacle of the World Food Program in Afghanistan.
Thursday marked Afghanistan’s Independence Day, which commemorates the 1919 treaty that ended British rule within the central Asian nation.
“Fortunately, today we are celebrating the anniversary of independence from Britain,” the Taliban stated. “We at the same time as a result of our jihadi resistance forced another arrogant of power of the world, the United States, to fail and retreat from our holy territory of Afghanistan.”
Unacknowledged by the insurgents, nevertheless, was their violent suppression of a protest Wednesday within the japanese metropolis of Jalalabad, which noticed demonstrations decrease the Taliban’s flag and change it with Afghanistan’s tricolor. At least one individual was killed.
A person holds the flag of Afghanistan throughout a protest in Jalalabad on Wednesday, August 18, 2021. (AP Photo)
In Khost, Taliban authorities instituted a 24-hour curfew within the province after violently breaking apart an identical flag protest, in keeping with info obtained by journalists monitoring from overseas. The militants didn’t instantly acknowledge the incident, nor the provincial curfew.

While urging folks to return to work, most authorities officers stay hiding of their properties or making an attempt to flee the Taliban. Questions stay over Afghanistan’s $9 billion overseas reserves, the overwhelming majority now apparently frozen within the US. The nation’s Central Bank head warns the nation’s provide of bodily US {dollars} is “close to zero,” which can see inflation elevate the costs of wanted meals whereas depreciating its forex, the Afghani.
Meanwhile, a drought has seen over 40 per cent of the nation’s crop misplaced, McGroarty stated. Many fled the Taliban advance and now dwell in parks and open areas 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 stated.
Mahdi Ali, who owns a grocery retailer in western Kabul, stated that whereas some markets and shops had begun to open, challenges remained.
“Today I bought as much as I could from the local companies that bring groceries with cars,” he stated. Meanwhile, he noticed Taliban fighters seizing authorities vehicles and organising checkpoints to look autos. The militants additionally checked his retailer a number of instances.
Two of Afghanistan’s key border crossings with Pakistan, Torkham close to Jalalabad and Chaman close to Spin Boldak, are actually open for cross-border commerce. Hundreds of vehicles have handed by way of, Pakistan’s inside minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has stated. However, merchants nonetheless concern insecurity on the roads, confusion over customs duties and pressures to cost their items even larger given the financial situations.

There has been no armed opposition to the Taliban. But movies from the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, a stronghold of the Northern Alliance militias that allied with the US in the course of the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, seem to point out potential opposition figures gathering there. That space is in the one province that has not fallen to the Taliban.
Those figures embody members of the deposed authorities — Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who asserted on Twitter that he’s the nation’s rightful president, and Defense Minister General Bismillah Mohammadi — in addition to Ahmad Massoud, the son of the slain Northern Alliance chief Ahmad Shah Massoud.
In an opinion piece printed by The Washington Post, Massoud requested for weapons and assist to combat 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. “The Taliban is not a problem for the Afghan people alone. Under Taliban control, Afghanistan will without doubt become ground zero of radical Islamist terrorism; plots against democracies will be hatched here once again.”