Dozens protested in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province, against the Taliban while carrying Afghan flags. Pajhwok news agency reported that the Taliban killed three protesters and injured six others while attempting to disperse the demonstrations by opening fire. The Taliban violently broke up the protest in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday. This crackdown comes during a meeting between Taliban leaders and Afghan officials from the ousted government.
Dozens gathered in Jalalabad to raise the national flag a day before Afghanistan's Independence Day. They lowered the Taliban flag—which is a white banner with Islamic inscriptions—raised in the areas they seized. Taliban militants fired shots into the air and attacked protesters with batons to disperse them. Babrak Amirzai, a reporter for a local news agency, stated that he and a cameraman from another agency were assaulted by the Taliban while attempting to cover the unrest.
Meanwhile, video footage from the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, a stronghold of the Northern Alliance militias that allied with the United States against the Taliban in 2001, showed a gathering of opposition figures there. Panjshir is the only province that has not yet fallen to the Taliban.
Among these figures are members of the ousted government—including Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who confirmed on Twitter that he is the legitimate president of the country, and Defense Minister General Bismillah Mohammadi—as well as Ahmad Massoud, the son of the slain Northern Alliance leader, Ahmad Shah Massoud.
On another note, sources told TOLOnews that the Afghan embassy in Tajikistan has requested Interpol to arrest former President Ashraf Ghani, his chief of staff, and the national security advisor on charges of embezzling public funds.
