Afghan crisis: Scores dead after Taliban firing, stampede at I-Day rally

In Asadabad, capital of the eastern province of Kunar, several people were killed during a rally, but it was not clear if casualties resulted from Taliban firing or from a stampede that it triggered

Flag-waving protesters took to the streets of more Afghan cities on Thursday as popular opposition to the Taliban spread, and a witness said several people were killed when the militants fired on a crowd in Asadabad in the east.
 
“Our flag, our identity,” a crowd of men and women waving black, red and green national flags shouted in the capital Kabul, a video clip posted on social media showed, on the day Afgha­nistan celebrates independence from British control in 1919. A witness reported gunshots fired near the rally, but they appeared to be armed Taliban shooting in the air. One woman walked wearing an Afghan flag around her shoulders, and those marching chanted "God is greatest". At some protests elsewhere, media have reported people tearing down the white flag of the Taliban. A Taliban spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

 
Some of the demonstrations are small, but combined with the ongoing scramble by thousands of people to get to Kabul airport and flee the country, they underline the challenge the Taliban face to govern the country.
 

Since seizing Kabul on Sunday, the Taliban have presented a more moderate face to the world, saying they want peace, will not take revenge against old enemies and will respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law.
 
In Asadabad, capital of the eastern province of Kunar, several people were killed during a rally, but it was not clear if the casualties resulted from Taliban firing or from a stampede that it triggered, witness Mohammed Salim said.

 
“Hundreds of people came out on the streets,” Salim said. "At first I was scared and didn't want to go but when I saw one of my neighbours joined in, I took out the flag I have at home. “Several people were killed and injured in the stampede and firing by the Taliban.” Protests also flared up in the city of Jalalabad and a district of Paktia province, both also in the east.
 
Meanwhile, according to news agency ANI, the leader of the Taliban Hibatullah Akhundzada, has ordered the release of political detainees from all prisons in Afghan­istan, a spokesman for the outfit said on Thursday. 

 
“The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Emirate... Hibatullah Akhundzada ordered the release of political prisoners from all jails. The provincial governors will unconditionally release all political prisoners of low and high ranks from the country's prisons and will hand them over to their families tomorrow,” Sputnik reported quoting Qari Yousuf Ahmadi.