A delegation of prominent Afghan leaders and officials has warned that a Taliban government will not survive for long if it repeats past mistakes.
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The delegation, headed by Afghan parliament speaker, Mir Rehman Rehmani, spoke to reporters in Islamabad Thursday following a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and other government and military officials this week. The Afghans arrived in the Pakistani capital on Monday, one day after the Taliban swept into Kabul and took over Afghanistan.
Former Afghan Vice President Mohammad Younis Qanooni said the future government in Afghanistan should be inclusive, with the participation of all ethnic groups.
"We oppose a rule by one party or group," he said.
Khalid Noor, a prominent politician, said the Taliban cannot rule by force in Afghanistan. He says they have taken power by force, but warned their rule would be short-lived if they did not respect the rights of the people.
The Taliban, meanwhile, called on Afghanistan's imams to urge unity when they hold their first Friday prayers since the Islamist group seized control of the country, as protests against the takeover spread to more cities on Thursday, including the capital, Kabul.
Several people were killed when Taliban members fired on a crowd in the eastern city of Asadabad, a witness said.
A crowd of men and women in Kabul waved black, red, and green national flags to mark the country's independence from British control on Aug. 19, 1919.
"Our flag, our identity," they shouted.
At some protests elsewhere, media reported people tearing down the Taliban's white flag.
A Taliban spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
Some demonstrations were small but combined with the desperate scramble of thousands of people seeking to flee the country they underline the challenge the Taliban face in governing.
Kabul has been largely calm, but 12 people have been killed in and around the airport, North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Taliban officials said.
The US military said over 5,200 American troops were guarding Kabul's airport, where multiple gates to the facility are now open, while US fighter jets were flying over the city to ensure security for the evacuation operation for diplomats and civilians including some Afghan citizens.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said 6,000 "fully processed" people were currently at the Kabul airport and would soon be boarding planes. White House officials told a congressional briefing that the United States already had evacuated 6,741 people, including 1,792 American citizens and legal permanent residents, a source told Reuters.
The Taliban swiftly conquered Afghanistan as US and other foreign troops withdrew, surprising even their own leaders and leaving power vacuums in many places.
The Taliban urged unity ahead of Friday prayers, calling on imams to persuade people not to leave Afghanistan.
When in power from 1996-2001, they severely restricted women's rights, staged public executions, and blew up ancient Buddhist statues. They were ousted in a 2001 US-led invasion.
A report by a Norwegian intelligence group said the Taliban had begun rounding up Afghans on a blacklist.
A US lawmaker said the Taliban were using files from Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, to identify Afghans who worked for the United States.
"They are methodically ramping up efforts to round those folks up," said Representative Jason Crow, who has been leading efforts in the US Congress to accelerate the evacuation of American-affiliated Afghans. "I've had people send me pictures of Taliban outside their apartment complexes, searching for them."
Crow voiced concern that the US government may end the evacuation operation on Aug. 31, leaving more than 100,000 at-risk Afghans and family members in danger of Taliban reprisals.
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn said they had moved to secure the accounts of Afghan citizens to protect them from being targeted amid the Taliban's takeover.
It was unclear if the Asadabad casualties resulted from Taliban firing or from a stampede.
"Hundreds of people came out on the streets," witness Mohammed Salim said. "At first I was scared and didn't want to go, but when I saw one of my neighbors 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 flared in the city of Jalalabad and in Paktia province.
Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who said on Tuesday he was the "legitimate caretaker president" after President Ashraf Ghani fled, wrote on Twitter: "Salute those who carry the national flag and thus stand for the dignity of the nation."
Ahmad Massoud, son of guerrilla leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was killed by suspected al-Qaida terrorists in 2001, wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece that he is "ready to follow in my father's footsteps, with mujahedeen fighters who are prepared to once again take on the Taliban."
Limited leverage
US President Joe Biden said the Taliban must decide if they want international recognition.
"Do they want to be recognized by the international community as being a legitimate government? I'm not sure they do," Biden said in a TV interview.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in an interview with NBC News that the United States is "laser-focused" on "the potential for a terrorist attack" by a group like Islamic State amid the evacuation.
"We will get any American who wants to get to the airport and who we get in contact with who says: 'I want to get out and get on a plane,' we will make that happen," Sullivan said.
About two dozen US diplomats in Afghanistan sent an internal cable last month warning Secretary of State Antony Blinken of the potential fall of Kabul to the Taliban as US troops withdrew from the country, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven, an inter-governmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, called for a united international response to prevent the crisis from worsening, in comments echoed by countries including Russia. China said the world should support, not pressure, Afghanistan.
Under a pact negotiated by former President Donald Trump's administration, the United States agreed to withdraw its forces in exchange for a Taliban guarantee not to attack departing foreign forces or allow Afghanistan to be used as a launchpad for terrorist attacks.
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