The fall of the Panjshir province, which until the last moment remained the last place in Afghanistan not controlled by the Russian-banned Taliban, sparked a new wave of protests in Kabul. Responding to warlord Ahmad Massoud’s call for an uprising, people took to the streets demanding civil rights and slogans against Pakistan, the country considered the Taliban’s main external sponsor. The new Afghan authorities tried to disperse the actions, but decided to refrain from the most tough actions – otherwise they may not receive international assistance, which is now vital for the country.
Protests erupted again in Afghanistan on Tuesday night. The reason for them was the fall of the capital of the Panjshir province – Bazarak, where the National Resistance Front and the detachments of the field commander, ethnic Tajik, Ahmad Masud, tried to hold the defense the day before. He himself, apparently, retreated into the mountains, from where he called on Afghans for guerrilla war and civil uprisings – an audio recording of his voice was published on Facebook.
The news prompted many Afghans, hitherto secretly sympathetic to the militia, to take to the streets. On the evening of September 6, videos began to appear on social networks showing people chanting slogans against the Taliban and Pakistan, which is considered the movement’s main external ally, right in the courtyards of houses and from the windows of cars.
“After the call of the leader of the national resistance for a general uprising, a voice of freedom, justice and intransigence rose from every corner of the earth and the land of the free,” spokesman for the National Resistance Front Ali Maisam Nazari said on Facebook. “This is a new chapter in the history of the struggle of our people, and this time the army, professing ignorance and prejudice, will be defeated, so much so that it can never raise its head again. The front of national resistance agrees only to victory! “
Although Pakistan has always been considered an enemy by a significant proportion of Afghans, this hatred has grown even more acute in recent days.
First, at the invitation of the Taliban, Faiz Hamid, the head of Pakistani Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), visited Kabul. Secondly, representatives of the National Resistance Front, as well as many media outlets, confidently disseminated information that, together with the Taliban, Pakistani special forces stormed the Panjshir, and Pakistani planes and drones fired at the militia of Ahmad Masud from the air. There was no convincing evidence of this, except for the Pakistani passports posted on the social network, which many Taliban have. However, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of neighboring Iran, Said Khatibzadeh, promised to investigate the extent of “foreign involvement” in the conflict.
Anyway, on Tuesday morning, Afghans have already made their way to the Pakistani embassy in Kabul – judging by the video recordings, there were at least several hundred protesters. Then the procession moved to the presidential palace. Similar actions were held in other cities of the country – Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif. There people with placards also chanted: “Long live resistance, death to Pakistan!”
To disperse the protesters, the Taliban began to beat them with sticks and shoot into the air.
And some, judging by the video that I posted in Twitter former director of the Afghan National Security Agency, Rahmatullah Nabil, even tried to talk to the protesters. “Our children were killed, their houses were destroyed, but where were all of you? – The elderly Taliban addressed the audience (translated by “Sputnik Afghanistan”). – You have no evidence that Pakistan is running us, we do not need it. We will not give away a single strand of your hair to all of Pakistan. No one is our master. Panjshir is our land, we are liberated from foreign intervention. “
Afghan media actively covered the protests, for which some journalists were detained. True, their release was achieved rather quickly. “All 14 journalists, Afghan and foreign nationals, have been released thanks to the efforts of the Journalists and Media Investigation Committee and personally its chairman, Ahmadullah Wasik,” the Afghan Independent Journalists Association reported on Facebook. However, after that it became known about the detention of another journalist named Murtaz Samadi in Herat. “The Taliban arrested me. Do not be silent. Continue, ”he wrote in social networks, from which it can be concluded that his phone was not taken away from him. In the evening, the Taliban announced that they were forbidding journalists from covering the protests.
According to Andrei Kazantsev, professor at the Higher School of Economics and chief researcher at the Institute of International Studies at MGIMO, the Taliban’s relative leniency towards the protesters is explained by the desire to receive international assistance, without which a real famine can await Afghans in winter.
«The Taliban drew a conclusion from the international reaction to the shooting of the demonstration in defense of the national flag immediately after the capture of Kabul – then it greatly affected their image, the expert told Kommersant.
– Now it is vital for the Taliban to get help from the UN and Western countries, as well as recognition from at least a group of neighboring countries. And for this the Taliban will demonstrate softness in many issues. ” Andrei Kazantsev added: “According to last year’s data, international aid accounted for 43% of Afghanistan’s GDP. If the Taliban don’t get it now, the budget will go down by about the same 43%, which can cause, without exaggeration, the death of many people from hunger ”.
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