New Delhi:
The 102nd anniversary of the emancipation of Afghanistan from the British today marked the first popular uprising against the Taliban. The country’s red, green and black flags appeared in several cities, including Kabul, where, since Sunday, the signature image of people at the airport wanting to leave the country in panic.
The choice of the site was a message in itself. The flag was raised in Abdul Haq Square in Kabul, named after a Mujahideen commander. Abdul Haq was publicly executed by the Taliban days before the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. The square is the gateway to Kabul for traffic from the eastern provinces.
Videos of Abdul Haq Square flooding social media show two men climbing two flagpoles to unfurl the national flag. Downstairs, people waved and cheered with small, plastic replicas of the flag. Some even flow onto the road, where traffic moves hesitantly.
Afghans raising national flag in Abdul Haq Square in #Kabul, in spite of the Taliban
The militants have replaced the black, red and green national flags with their own white flags #Afghanistan
But Afghans Defy Threats, Possible Violence on Independence Day pic.twitter.com/xtFKL9ygxh
—Frud Bezhan (FrudBezhan) August 19, 2021
In the past two days, Afghan national flags have appeared in two eastern provinces of Nanganhar an Kunar. In both cases, they were followed by retaliation by the Taliban with guns.
Processions have been fired on in the eastern city of Jalalabad in Nanganhar, killing three people, Reuters news agency reported, citing eyewitnesses.
Today, the Taliban opened fire at an Independence Day demonstration in Asadabad, Konar province, which also killed several people.
