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Residents of the Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul went out to the streets, demonstrating against the Pakistan’s support to the Taliban, its involvement in Afghanistan’s national affairs. The protests were held in support of resistance forces that have lost control over the Panjshir region.
On September 7th, the protests involved hundreds of Kabul residents, most of them are women.
About 70 people reportedly gathered in front of the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul, ” waving placards and shouting anti-Pakistani slogans.” According to the footage from the spot, the crowd managed to break through the armed cordon and enter the embassy’s territory.
In order to disperse the crowd, the Taliban fired shots in the air.
No casualties have been reported so far.
Hundreds of Afghans marched down the central streets of Kabul, shouting slogans not only against Pakistan but also against the Taliban’s rule in general.
Anger mounting on the streets of Kabul, people chanting “freedom” and “death to Pakistan”. The demonstrators, many of them women, are in the centre of the Afghan capital #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/Jg5RDzFsiA
— Yalda Hakim (@BBCYaldaHakim) September 7, 2021
During the protests, Taliban security forces were seen following the crowd, without interfering. No clashes were reported.
chanting slogans “death to the Taliban, death to ISI…” as they marching in the center of Kabul city.
I can see some Taliban fighters at the corners accompanying protesters, but can’t dare to stop them shouting slogans against Taliban and Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/EI5aH1rG41
— 🍺 ❤ (@goLoko77) September 7, 2021
However, it should not be expected that Afghanistan has turned into “a model democratic state” that welcomes the opposition protests and freedom of speech.
Some journalists were prevented from filming the protest. TOLOnews claimed that their cameraman Wahid Ahmadi was detained for three hours.
د طلوع نیوز تصویر اخیستونکی وحید احمدي، د طالب ځواکونو له خوا، له کابو درې ساعته بند وروسته ازاد کړل شو.
طالبانو د هغه د تصویر اخیستو کمره سره له تصویرونو بېرته ښاغلي احمدي ته سپارلې ده. #طلوع‌نیوز pic.twitter.com/2TvQ8GwFNd
— TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) September 7, 2021
In its turn, Kabul News agency claimed that its journalists were wounded when they were filming the protests.
While covering today’s anti-#Pakistan‘s demonstration in #Kabul, Kabul News TV’s cameraman Najim Sultani has been injured and the reporter Emran Fazili has been beaten, Taliban took their instruments either https://t.co/woQt8dFUTj
— KABUL NEWS (@kabulnewstv) September 7, 2021
Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and former chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah were reportedly prohibited to meet the crowd of protesters.
Demonstration in the capital is not the first one in a series of smaller protests in other provincial capitals all around the country. Demonstrations in support of the resistance also took place late on September 6 in the central province of Daikundi, as well as in the cities of Ghazni in eastern Afghanistan, Herat in the north-west of the country and Mazar-I-Sharif, located in the north.
According to unconfirmed reports, a number of women were detained in Daikundi.
طالبان یک تعداد زنانی را که در مقابل دروازه ارگ دست به تظاهرات زده بودند را در تهکویی عزیزی بانک قید کرده اند
طالیان نمیخواهند که این زنان بیرون شوند تا دست به تظاهرات نزنند… pic.twitter.com/sRlXtZ45EW
— Nilofar Ayoubi (@NilofarAyoubi) September 7, 2021
Afghanistan’s citizens demonstrated following the the call of the leader of the Panjshir resistance, Ahmad Massoud jr., according to the representative of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, Ali Nazari.
People also expressed their discontent with the recent visit of the head of the interdepartmental intelligence of Pakistan, Faiz Hamid, who has come to Afghanistan at the invitation of the Taliban. Following his visit, Pakistan was accused of supporting the Taliban fighters in fighting in Panjshir.
The Taliban is currently not quelling the protests in Afghanistan, as they are aiming to prove their “new more democratic” position in politics.
However, there is almost no chance that the protests would somehow involve the situation in the country, as the Taliban has proclaimed the readiness to unveil the new government. If social discontent continues, there is a risk that the Taliban will change its tactics and will respond in a more severe manner. For example, such measures like restrictions of social media work in the country could be expected in the near feature, taking into account that they are playing the crucial role in protests organization. A lot of women were seen keeping tables with slogans in English, so that they could be easily read by foreigners, and filming videos for publication in Istagram and other networks.
There is almost no chance that the protests could somehow help resistance forces in Panjshir, as the main (if not the only) infrastructure facilities in the region that include the airfield, governor’s office and the tomb of Ahmad Shah Masoud, were captured by the Taliban.
It seems that the Afghan women fighting for “freedom” and “democracy” are today the main resistance force against the Taliban.
If you do not apply for a permit to demonstrate, police uses much more violance against protesters here in Germany than the Taliban in Kabul. And if you apply to make an anti government anti Corona demonstration here in Germany, they will just deny the permit and then brutally hunt down protesters, who dare to protest anyway.
I wish we could demonstrate like this in Germany. Time will come that people here need to flee to Afghanistan and apply for Asylum from the Taliban…
World has become more and more crazy by the day…
Oh boy, Aunt Flo’s in town early this month.
Paki dog trolls seem to be out in force as usual, as i have said before a good Taliban is a dead Taliban, preferably one that is rutting in hell
Fill out an application and include a detailed resume. Yelling into a media that requires the signs to include an English translation are not the way to impress a new Government.
Did the old Government allow protests of any kind, no.
Zionism and Globalism use these groups to destabilize certain Islamic nations with their sophism, dubious, false euphemism and demagogue in order to gain an opportunistic advantage, as they act in a sociopathic way, I hope the Taliban government will crush these liberal/progressive movements like Russia, Belarus, Iran and China did. the 🇺🇲🇮🇱 are cancer and the tormentor of society that must be fought daily.