Afghanistan: Kabul airport, between stampedes and a tight control of the Taliban to get there

Maria Laura Avignolo

08/18/2021 8:52 AM

• Clarín.com

• World

Updated 08/18/2021 10:27 AM

At the Kabul airport,

a stampede

at the entrance gate left 17 people injured, according to a NATO security official.

The atmosphere around the terminal

is tense

, with Afghan women and children on the floor, waiting for the Taliban

to allow them access

to the airport.

The situation at the airport is not chaotic as it was on Tuesday and Monday.

They have managed to evacuate the runway and for the planes to take off because the Taliban installed a checkpoint in front of the terminal and controls access.

That presence terrifies Afghans

who want to leave because they believe that the Taliban will block their departure.

Afghans hoping to flee along with the Americans and British are kept out of the terminal by the Taliban, who let people pass by drops.

Others cannot get to the visa processing center because the Taliban blocks

their way in the city.

A group of people await evacuation at the Kabul airport.

Photo: AFP

Look also

Images showing the chaos and despair of thousands of people trying to flee Kabul, Afghanistan, after the Taliban take power

Britain and the US negotiate with the Taliban

British military personnel and the Americans have maintained a dialogue with the Taliban to achieve

an orderly evacuation

and that the chaos of Monday and Tuesday is not repeated in the terminal.

British Chief of Staff Sir Nick Carter admitted it.

"We are cooperating with the Taliban on the ground and it seems like a normal relationship, without complications," he said in London.

“They are keeping the streets of Kabul safe and calm.

They are helping us at the airport, ”said the British military man, when the crisis in Afghanistan, the disorderly withdrawal and the responsibility in rescuing

all the personnel

who helped the British during their stay in the country

are discussed in the House of Commons.

.

Sir Nick believes that the Islamist movement could

be "more moderate" 

than when he took power in 1990.

“The streets are in order.

There is no public disorder, we are not receiving

reports of beheadings

in the medieval way they did in the past ”he declared.

A change of mind in 24 hours.

British Vice Admiral Ben Key, who is in charge of evacuation efforts as chief of operations, said on Tuesday that British troops should abandon the rescue because the Taliban were now in charge of security.

A US Air Force plane prepares to depart with a group of people seeking to leave Afghanistan.

Photo: DPA

"At any time they can withdraw their consent for the British to remain and the British and the interpreters can be isolated in Afghanistan," he said.

He admitted that there was greater fluidity in the evacuation but there were

6,000 people

left

to be evacuated

.

The group in charge of visas works under enormous pressure from Afghans, who need to flee because they feel threatened.

But the presence of the Taliban at the airport

makes evacuation more difficult due

to the fear of Afghans who worked for Western forces of being detained or identified, with reprisals to the family that remains as a consequence.

Arrive to the airport

Women who worked for Afghan special forces and were trained by the British said they

were "stopped by the Taliban"

as they approached the airport for the visa processing center and

sent home.

There are at least 900 British servicemen, especially Paras and special forces, who are trying to help the people in Kabul.

Many are

in "safe houses",

controlled by the British special forces of the SAS, until they can be evacuated.

There are at least 3,000 British or dual British Afghan nationals waiting to be evacuated, more than 3,000 Afghans, including the interpreters and their family, who must leave and today it seems impossible, despite the parliamentary pressure that the Boris Johnson government is receiving in the Parlament.

Taliban with rocket launchers control the streets of Kabul.

Photo: AFP

At the moment

1000 people

can be evacuated

daily

.

But it depends on the speed of your data processing and whether or not they can reach the airport.

A difficult and dangerous road for Afghans.

British Labor Shadow Chancellor Lisa Nandy said "Britain is dealing with a very oppressive regime.

This message (of the dialogue with the Taliban) is very difficult to digest for the many Afghans, especially women and girls, who are not only suffering this moment but very, very terrified of the future, "he declared.

"I spoke with friends in Afghanistan last week telling me that the Taliban are

going door to door

, arresting people, threatening those who worked with the British forces and women who had high profile jobs," said the British chancellor in the shadows.

Statue destroyed in Jalalabad

In Jalalabad, the city in the east of the country and close to Pakistan, the militant group

blew up a statue

of a leader of the Shiite militia, casting doubt on their claims that they have become more moderate in the two decades since they were ousted from the can.

Photos on social media showed that insurgents had destroyed a statue of

Abdul Ali Mazari

, a militia leader who fought the group during Afghanistan's civil war in the 1990s, and was later assassinated by the group in 1996. .

Mazari was a defender of the Hazara minority, a predominantly Shiite group, which was persecuted under the Taliban rule.

The demolition of the statue produced incidents, which on Wednesday left at least one dead and several injured in Jalalabad.

Paris, correspondent

ap

Look also

Afghanistan: Kabul slowly but fearfully returns to "normal" life under the new Taliban regime

Story: the "crusade" of reaching the Kabul airport runway and getting on a plane to flee Afghanistan