Taliban refuses to honour women’s rights

New Delhi, Aug 18: While on one hand the Taliban which took over Kabul spoke of a change in approach on the other hand reports are emerging about the Taliban beating up women apart from roaming the streets looking for former government workers.

The New York Post said that in one such incident Taliban fighters in Takhar province shot a woman for not wearing a burqa. The incident was reported on the same day when the Taliban said that they would honour women's rights.

Advertisements on the streets with women in western clothes were covered in white paint, while men in jeans and T-shirts rushed to change into traditional tunics.

These reports come in the wake of the Taliban promising not to seek revenge against their opponents in Afghanistan. The announcement came a day after its co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar retiring to Afghanistan. The Taliban has also told the government staff to return to work.

However tens of thousands of people have tried to flee the country in a bid to escape the hardline Islamic rule that they are expecting under the Taliban. The Taliban has however said that the new regime would be different from the earlier one.

New Delhi on the other hand continues to keep a close watch on the developments. For India the immediate concern following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban was to bring back its diplomatic officials along with scores of other Indians who were stranded.

The operation to bring back those stranded from Afghanistan was monitored by External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval. The first C17 had 40 Indians, while the second one comprised 100 which included Rudrendra Tandon, the Indian envoy to Afghanistan.

Sources tell OneIndia that there were several checkpoints that had to be manouvered. While most of them were being manned by the Taliban, there were some which had rogue elements. The problem was with these rogue elements who could have been detrimental to the operation to get the Indians out, the source cited above also said.

India also coordinated with several countries to ensure that this operation was a success. The other issues was that the Kabul Airport had no space and hence the C17 had to be parked for a while at Tajikistan. As the operations began the C17 was flown from the airbase at Ayni from time to time. The C17 had to be diverted due to the turmoil on the ground at the Kabul airport. There were numerous countries which were trying to evacuate their citizens as a result of which the Kabul Airport had become extremely busy.

While the first C17 returned to India on Monday morning with around 40 Indians, the second returned on Tuesday with 140 Indians. The Indian Armed Forces are well acquainted with the Ayni airbase in Tajikistan and this paid off in ensuring that the mission went ahead without any glitches, the source cited above also said.