Taliban announces ‘amnesty,’ says “Women should be in government according to Shariah law”

Trying to calm nerves across a nervous capital city that saw chaos at its airport as people tried to flee their rule the day before, the Taliban announced an amnesty across Afghanistan on Tuesday and urged women to join its government.

Member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, Enamullah Samangani, represent the first comments on governance from a federal level across the country after their blitz across the country.

After the insurgents’ takeover prisons were emptied and armories looted, many residents have stayed home and remain fearful, although there were no major reports of abuses or fighting in Kabul.

The older generations remember their ultraconservative Islamic views, which included stonings, amputations and public executions during their rule before the US-led invasion that followed the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Samangani said that the Islamic Emirate doesn’t want women to be victims, using the militants’ term for Afghanistan. They should be in government structure according to Shariah law, he said.

The structure of government is not fully clear, he said, adding, but based on experience, there should be a fully Islamic leadership and all sides should join.

Meanwhile NATO’s senior civilian representative to Afghanistan, Stefano Pontecorvo on Tuesday posted video online showing the runway empty with American troops on the tarmac. What appeared to be a military cargo plane could be seen in the distance from behind a chain-link fence in the footage.

The runway “is open, he wrote on Twitter. I see airplanes landing and taking off.

Meanwhile no other immediate flights were seen in Afghan airspace, which is taken over by the US Military as commercial flights have been halted in the country.

The International Committee of the Red Cross in Afghanistan said thousands had been wounded in the fighting. Afghan security forces and politicians handed over their provinces and bases without even giving a fight, believing that the two-decade Western experiment to remake Afghanistan would not survive the Taliban. The last US troops had planned to withdraw at the end of August.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “The world is following events in Afghanistan with a heavy heart and deep disquiet about what lies ahead.”

Acknowledged the gut-wrenching images unfolding in Kabul, the US President Joe Biden said that he stands squarely behind his decision to withdraw their troops. He faced a choice between honouring a formerly negotiated withdrawal agreement or sending back thousands more forces to begin a third decade of war.

There are continuous talks between the Taliban and several Afghan government officials, including former President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, who once headed the country’s negotiating council. Earlier, President Ashraf Ghani left the country amid the Taliban advancement and his whereabouts still remain unknown.

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