TALIBAN fighters have reportedly opened fire on a protest and rounded up female marchers as the terror group continues a brutal crackdown on its enemies.
Pictures and videos show the chaos on the streets of Kabul as heavily armed extremists fired assault rifles and rolled up in pick up trucks mounted with machine guns to break up the march.
Protesters – many of them women – were reportedly chanting for “freedom” as hundreds of people flooded the streets waving placards and the former flag of Afghanistan.
Taliban forces continue to face opposition as they surged back to the power – even as the group claimed to have crushed the final pocket of resistance in the Panjshir Valley.
Chaos erupted as the protesters chanted slogans such as “Long live the resistance” and also took aim at neighbouring Pakistan, who some Afghans have accused of aiding the Taliban.
Gunmen however then opened fire to scatter the crowd as footage showed scores of people scurrying to escape the hail of bullets.
Videos show a group of Taliban fighters blasting their assault rifles into the air, while others show militants in stolen police pick up trucks.
The vehicles move in with sirens blazing as they attempt to disperse the vocal crowd – and another angle shows a stampede of people fleeing from the scene.
Clips also show Taliban fighters armed with canes striking women who were taking part in a protest near a university – which came just one day after the institutions reopened with segregated classes.
And other footage showed a group of women in an underground car park, with Aamaj News Agency reporting they had been rounded up like cattle to stop them rejoining the march.
Cameramen and journalists who were covering the march have also been reported to have been detained by the Taliban and taken to an “unknown location”.
Other reports state the Taliban fighters also appeared to be taking pictures of female activists – sparking fears they may be compiling dossiers of people they consider troublemakers.
“The Islamic government is shooting at our poor people,” one panic-stricken woman on the street says over sounds of gunfire in an Iranian television news video clip posted on Twitter.
“These people (Taliban) are very unjust, and they are not human at all.”
It comes after yesterday resistance leader Ahmad Massoud – the son of a legendary freedom fighter known as the “Lion of Panjshir” – called for an uprising against the Taliban.
Massoud was working with former Afghan vice president Amrullah Saleh to lead the remnants of the organised resistance militia that included former soldiers, commandos and police.
However, cut off from supplies and with little support while vastly outnumber and outgunned by the US weapon-armed Taliban – the resistance were defeated as the Taliban raised their flag in Panjshir.
RUTHLESS REGIME
Taliban fighters also broke up a protest over the weekend using their guns and firing tear gas, with reports of them beating bloody some female marchers.
The scenes over the last few days cast doubt on the Taliban’s pledges that it has modernised and is ready to rule with a softer touch.
When the ruthless regime last controlled Afghanistan in the 90s, it ruled with an iron fist – crushing all dissent and imposing medieval rules on women.
It is has been claimed many of those who worked for the government are now in hiding or have attempted to flee Afghanistan – despite the Taliban’s insistence of an “amnesty”.
And as they surged back to power 20 years on after being ousted by the West in 2001, it is expected many of those in the militant group are seeking vengeance.
Afghans who aided Western forces – such as interpreters and security officials – are believed to be particularly and risk.
Women also fear for the future under the new rule after the brutal, oppressive and sexist laws enacted by the group in the 90s.
New rules have already been imposed meaning women in some circumstances have stay in “waiting rooms”
until men have left the building.
And they have also been advised they should wear an abaya robe and niqab covering most of the face.
And it has been reported the Taliban executed a pregnant female police officer in front of her kids because she took down one of their flags.
Source:- The Sun
