Tag: Afghanistan

Shops, schools and markets have been shut. Some heart-breaking scenes unfolded in Kabul as the Taliban overran the Afghan capital leading to widespread chaos across the city. The Taliban forces have also taken control of the presidential palace after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country on Sunday night. Nation witnessed the desperation of Afghans at Kabul airport when several people clung to the side of moving limitary planes and at least two persons apparently fell to their deaths from the undercarriage soon after flight took off. The insurgents are now in control of all the districts of Kabul while a night curfew has been imposed in Kabul reportedly to prevent further violence. A Taliban spokesperson has said the war in Afghanistan is over, and a new power structure will soon be clear.

A new category of electronic visa called 'e-Emergency X-Misc Visa' introduced to fast-track visa applications for entry into India.

Tirumurti, who convened the meeting at the request of Norway and Estonia who have responsibility for Afghanistan matters, hinted at the difficulties he faced in getting an agreement on the statement.

These horrifying visuals show the desperate attempts of people to flee Kabul after the city was taken over by Taliban over the weekend.

As the situation deteriorates in Afghanistan, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on the Taliban and all other parties to exercise utmost restraint.

There was chaos and confusion at the Kabul airport as thousands of Afghans crowded the tarmac trying to catch a flight out of Afghanistan.

Afghan protesters were strongly critical of the intrusive and devious role of Pakistan in Afghanistan

The Taliban have 80,000 troops in comparison with a nominal 300,699 serving the Afghan government, yet the whole country has been effectively overrun in a matter of weeks as military commanders surrendered without a fight

Ashraf Ghani along with National Security Adviser Hamdullah Muhib and head of the administrative office of President Fazel Mahmood Fazli left Afghanistan for Tajikistan

No one's life, property and dignity will be harmed and the lives of the citizens of Kabul will not be at risk," the Taliban said.

Jalalabad's collapse came after the fall of Asadabad city, capital of Kunar province, and Sharan, the capital of Paktika province, on Saturday.

The Canadian government said that it is expanding its partnership with the Manmeet Singh Bhullar Foundation in Alberta to resettle hundreds of persecuted Afghan Sikhs and Hindus in Canada.

The seizure of Herat marks the biggest prize yet for the Taliban, which has taken 11 of Afghanistan's 34 provincial capitals as part of a week-long blitz. The capture of Ghazni, meanwhile, cuts off a crucial highway linking the Afghan capital with the country's southern provinces, which similarly find themselves under assault as part of an insurgent push some 20 years after U.S. and NATO troops invaded and ousted the Taliban government.

Warnings about the potential terror threat to Britain and other states were echoed by Tory MP Tobias Ellwood, chair of the Commons defence committee, who used a column in the Mail on Sunday to condemn what he described as a "shabby withdrawal" that was "abandoning the country to the very insurgency that drew us there in the first place".

The Defence Ministry said that Afghan forces operations to suppress the Taliban are underway and that the situation in the country's provincial capitals will soon return to normal.