Thousands of people are trying to leave the country since the Taliban took over Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the Taliban have banned Afghan citizens from leaving the country. Now only foreigners are allowed at Kabul airport. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has said that Afghan citizens are no longer allowed to enter the airport to prevent crowd gathering at Kabul airport and for security reasons. At the same time, Abdul Qayyum Zakir, who was imprisoned in America for five years, has been appointed as the acting Defense Minister of Afghanistan.
The Taliban warned on Tuesday that the US airlifting operations from Afghanistan should end by August 31. With this, the atmosphere of panic already created for the evacuation may worsen as new reports of persecution have fueled thousands of people wanting to leave the country.
A Taliban spokesman said his group would not accept an extension to the deadline and that Afghans would not be allowed to fly out after that. Life is returning to normal in the country but the problem of chaos at the airport remains. Many Afghans are desperate to flee after the Taliban took over the country. After the stipulated time, the Taliban will take over the security of the airport. However, he said that it is not yet clear when commercial flights will resume from Kabul. Meanwhile, the White House said on Tuesday morning that 21,600 people have come out of Afghanistan during the last 24 hours.
The Taliban have made various efforts to improve their image. Taliban spokesman Mujahid said, “All schools, colleges, universities and madrassas are functioning throughout Afghanistan. The issue of stopping women from going to institutions is temporary, it will be resolved. It is at present to their advantage to prevent any kind of abuse. They should stay at home now. They are not being laid off and their salaries are paid at home.
Meanwhile, a virtual meeting of seven of the world’s top countries – Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US – is being held to discuss the Afghanistan crisis. Of these, Germany and Canada are directly against the Taliban regime. On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a big statement about the Taliban, saying that the people of the Taliban are terrorists and the world should move to ban the organization.