Now Kabul is the last major urban area under control of Afghan government while Taliban today announced they will not capture the capital city by force.
The Afghan government and Taliban are negotiating an interim set-up in Afghanistan after the Taliban entered Kabul and announced that they would not capture the capital by force.
The Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told media today that they (Taliban) will not take control of Kabul by force. He said the leaders of Taliban are holding dialogues with the representatives of Kabul government to decide the fate of the capital.
Meanwhile, Afghan Interior minister said the government was willing to establish an interim set-up in Afghanistan. In his video message, he said talks are going on in Kabul amongst the stakeholders to work out an acceptable mechanism of interim government in Afghanistan.
Interior Minister further stated that the Taliban have made an agreement with the present government not to attack Kabul. He said talks with Taliban are being held in the Presidential Palace in Kabul to handover government to an interim set-up in Afghanistan in a peaceful manner.
Earlier, the Taliban captured Jalalabad and entered Kabul on Saturday. The key eastern city, which is also the capital of Nangarhar province, fell early on Sunday morning. It’s fall followed the Taliban’s seizure of the major northern city of Jalalabad. The Taliban posted photos online on Sunday showing them in the governor’s office in Jalalabad.
“We woke up this morning to the Taliban white flags all over the city,” said resident Ahmad Wali, confirming the Taliban’s social media claim. “They entered without fighting.
Abrarullah Murad, a legislator from the province said that the armed group seized Jalalabad after elders negotiated the fall of the government there.
A western security official also confirmed the fall of the city, and said it put the Taliban in control of the roads connecting Afghanistan to Pakistan.
Panic in Kabul
The Taliban have swept through the country in recent weeks as United States-led forces withdrew. It’s campaign accelerated to lightning speed in the last week, capturing Kandahar and Herat, the country’s second and third largest cities, and shocking Western countries as the Afghan military’s defences appeared to collapse.
On Saturday, Taliban fighters entered Mazar-i-Sharif virtually unopposed as security forces escaped up the highway to neighbouring Uzbekistan, about 80 km (50 miles) to the north, provincial officials said. Unverified video on social media showed Afghan army vehicles and men in uniforms crowding the iron bridge between the Afghan town of Hairatan and Uzbekistan.
Two influential militia leaders supporting the government – Atta Mohammad Noor and Abdul Rashid Dostum – also fled. Noor said on social media that the Taliban had been handed control of Balkh province, where Mazar-i-Sharif is located, due to a “conspiracy”.
As Kabul looked increasingly isolated as a government stronghold, Afghans streamed into the city, fleeing the provinces and fearing a return to the Taliban’s oppressive rule.
