Afghanistan crisis live updates: All commercial flights suspended at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul
All commercial flights have been suspended at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, read a statement by the airport authority, reports IANS. The situation at the airport was chaotic when more than 2,000 people tried to board the flights in total desperation to leave the country.
While responding to the media queries about the Afghanistan crisis, the Union minister of state for external affairs Meenakshi Lekhi said that India wish for global peace. Lekhi said, “India wish for global peace and want every country should peacefully move ahead. That is our wish.”
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has compared the Taliban control of Kabul with breaking the ‘shackles of slavery’. He was speaking at an event about English as a medium of education.
He said, “You take over the other culture and become psychologically subservient. When that happens, please remember, it is worse than actual slavery. It is harder to throw off the chains of cultural enslavement. What is happening in Afghanistan now, they have broken the shackles of slavery”.
On the other hand, the Russian embassy in Kabul said that the Afghan president Ashraf Ghani fled the country with vehicles full of cash. There was so much that he had to leave money behind as it wouldn’t fit in his plane.
After the take over of Kabul, China on Monday said that it is willing to develop ‘friendly relations’ with Afghanistan’s new incoming Taliban regime, said reports. Whereas Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is planning to deploy soldiers to Afghanistan to help with the evacuation of German nationals and Afghans in danger from the Taliban, according to international media reports, quoting parliamentary sources.
At least five people have been killed in Kabul International Airport as hundreds of people tried to forcibly enter planes leaving Kabul, news agency Reuters reported on Monday, quoting witnesses.
Fearing a return of the brutal Taliban rule of the past, thousands of Afghan nationals, including men, have been trying to flee the war-ravaged country after the fall of Kabul and other provincial capitals of Afghanistan. Those who have lived in areas controlled by the Islamic militants in recent years are watching with growing fear as the insurgents have overrun most of the country while international forces withdraw.
Government offices, shops and schools are still shuttered in areas recently captured by the Taliban, with many residents either lying low or fleeing to the capital, Kabul. Meanwhile, New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern implored Taliban leaders to uphold human rights in Afghanistan by allowing women to continue in work and education and to let foreigners and Afghans who want to leave the country go.
The Taliban fighters on Sunday made further advances in Afghanistan and took control of the presidential palace in Kabul. The insurgents entered the capital city amid President Ashraf Ghani fleeing to Tajikistan in order to avoid bloodshed.
The United Nations Secretary-General has said that he is ‘deeply concerned’ about the current situation and has urged the Taliban to exercise utmost restraint. Antonio Guterres stated that the UN remains determined to contribute to a peaceful settlement and promote the human rights of all Afghans.
