Taliban uses gunfire and batons to control crowd at Kabul airport

On Sunday (August 22), the Taliban open fired in the air and made use of batons to control people lining up in queues outside the Kabul airport. Seven people were crushed at the gates of the airport according to witnesses present at the airport. 

According to witnesses, there was no major injury recorded as the gunmen beat back the crowds and long lines of people were being formed. Footage put out by Sky News showed soldiers standing on a wall on Saturday (August 21) attempting to pull the injured out from the crush and spraying people with a hose to prevent them from getting dehydrated.

A NATO official said that at least twenty people have died in the past seven days in and around the airport. Some were shot and others died in stampedes, witnesses have said.
"Conditions on the ground remain extremely challenging but we are doing everything we can to manage the situation as safely and securely as possible," the ministry said in a statement. Panicked Afghans have tried to get on flights abroad, fearing reprisals and a return to a harsh version of Islamic law the Sunni Muslim group exercised when it was in power two decades ago.

The United States and other foreign countries including Britain have brought in several thousand troops to manage the evacuations of foreign citizens and vulnerable Afghans, but have stayed away from the outside areas of the airport. "Our forces are maintaining strict distance from the outer areas of the Kabul airport to prevent any clashes with the Taliban," the NATO official said.

A Taliban official said on Sunday that they are trying to seek complete clarity on foreign forces' exit plan and managing chaos outside the Kabul airport is a complex task.

Taliban leaders are trying to hammer out a new government and the Taliban's co-founder, Mullah Baradar, has arrived in the Afghan capital for talks with other leaders. Taliban commanders are set to meet former governors and bureaucrats in more than 20 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces over the next few days to ensure their safety and seek cooperation, the Taliban official said on Sunday.

When in power from 1996 to 2001, also guided by Islamic law, the Taliban stopped women from working or going out without wearing an all-enveloping burqa and stopped girls from going to school.