The Latest: Taliban block hundreds from leaving Afghanistan
MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan — An Afghan employee of an American organization in Afghanistan says the Taliban are blocking her and hundreds of other people from boarding charter evacuation flights out of Afghanistan.
The woman spoke to The Associated Press anonymously Tuesday, saying she feared for her safety if she is singled out by the Taliban.
The U.S. organization, Ascend, has worked for years with Afghan women and girls. The woman is among several hundred people, reportedly including American citizens and green card holders, who say they have been waiting in large residence halls and hotels for more than a week for permission to board waiting charter flights out of the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
“We think we are in some kind of jail,” the woman told the AP.
She says the American citizens she has met in the group are vulnerable people in their 70s, parents of Afghan Americans in the United States.
Taliban officials say they will let people who have the proper passports and other documentation leave. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday denied claims from Republican lawmakers that the situation in Mazar-e-Sharif amounted to a hostage-taking, after the U.S. government pulled its last troops and diplomats from the country last week.
The Afghan woman who talked to AP says her group has proper passports and visas, but the Taliban are blocking them from entering the airport. She says she went fleeing to the women’s side of her hotel last week when word spread that the Taliban were searching the would-be evacuees, and had taken some away.
“I am scared if they split us up and not let us leave,” she said. “If we can’t get out of here, something wrong will happen. And I am afraid of that.”
— By Ellen Knickmeyer in Oklahoma City
HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban have fired gunshots to disperse a rally on Tuesday in Kabul and arrested several Afghan journalists who were covering the demonstration, witnesses and Afghan media outlets said.
The protest began outside the Pakistan Embassy in the Afghan capital to denounce what the demonstrators allege as Pakistan’s interference in Afghanistan, especially Islamabad’s alleged support for the latest Taliban offensive that routed anti-Taliban fighters in Panjshir province.
Posts on social media demanded the release of the arrested reporters.
An Afghan journalist who was among those detained and who was later freed told The Associated Press he was punished by the Taliban. “They made me rub my nose on the ground and apologize for covering the protest,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fears for his safety. “Journalism in Afghanistan is getting harder,” he added.
Afghanistan’s TOLOnews TV channel said its cameraman Wahid Ahmadi was among those arrested.
Since taking control of Afghanistan last month, there have been reports of Taliban beating and threatening journalists. In one known case, the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle said Taliban fighters going door to door in a hunt for one of its journalists shot and killed a member of his family and seriously injured another.
— By Tameem Akhgar in Istanbul
