Taliban announce amnesty for govt officials as Kabul limps back to normalcy

KABUL (AFP): The Taliban announced a “general amnesty” for all government officials Tuesday, two days after the group captured Kabul and completed their hold over the country after a lightening offensive.

“A general amnesty has been declared for all… so you should start your routine life with full confidence,” said a statement from the Taliban.

As per news reports from journalists in Kabul, life is slowly starting to normal in Kabul. Shops have reopened and traffic is slowly starting to return to normal.

Taliban fighters are guarding the US consulate and other embassies in the Afghan capital. Foreign and local journalists in Kabul and other parts of the country are also reporting on the Afghan situation.

A CNN female reporter interviewed Taliban personnel in Kabul, wearing a hijab.

Reacting to the Kabul takeover by the Taliban, US President Joe Biden blamed Afghan leadership for Taliban takeover.

Biden broke days of silence Monday on the chaotic American pullout from Afghanistan, doubling down on his decision as he fired scorching criticism at the country’s former Western-backed leadership for failing to resist the Taliban.

“I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces,” he said in a televised address from the White House.

As images of chaos and desperation beamed in from Kabul, where American soldiers were trying to mount an evacuation from the airport while Taliban fighters flooded the city, Biden said: “The buck stops with me.”

Brushing off criticism that the evacuation is a debacle, he said the priority is to stop a war that had expanded far beyond its initially modest goals of punishing the Taliban for links to Al-Qaeda after 9/11.

“Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation-building,” he said, vowing that despite the departure of US troops anti-terrorism operations would continue.

Biden said “thousands” of US citizens and Afghans who had worked with American forces are to be evacuated over the coming days. He threatened a “devastating” military response if the Taliban launch attacks in the meantime.