Taliban stop all exports and imports between India and Afghanistan

Agencies | New Delhi/Kabul

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Since the Taliban's lightning seizure of Kabul, horrific visuals have emerged from the Afghan capital showing thousands of desperate Afghans rushing to the Kabul airport.

On Wednesday, dozens of people gathered in the eastern city of Jalalabad to raise the national flag a day before Afghanistan's Independence Day, which commemorates the end of British rule in 1919. They lowered the Taliban flag — a white banner with an Islamic inscription — that the militants have raised in the areas they captured. Video footage later showed the Taliban firing into the air and attacking people with batons to disperse the crowd.

At least three people were killed and another 12 wounded. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said it has accepted ousted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his family, who fled the country after the Taliban's takeover, for "humanitarian considerations".

On Wednesday, US troops guarding the evacuation effort at Kabul airport fired some shots overnight as crowd-control efforts, but there were no indications of casualties or injuries, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

Even NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg will convene a virtual meeting of all NATO Foreign Ministers on August 20 to discuss the ongoing situation in Afghanistan.