Two people have been killed and several others injured during a protest in Jalalabad after residents came out to the streets against the Taliban decision to replace Afghanistan’s national flag with their banner.
The insurgents had raised their own flag — a white banner with Islamic inscriptions — in the territories they seized.
According to Al Jazeera, hundreds of people hit the streets in protest against the move to replace the national flag in the city. The protesting crowd had removed the Taliban flag and waved the Afghanistan flag, in Jalalabad city. A video that has gone viral showed the protesters waving the flag on the road.
Taliban fighters fired at the protesters, leading to the death of two people.
The Taliban had, on Tuesday, promised to respect women's rights, forgive those who fought them and ensure Afghanistan does not become a haven for terrorists. However, many in the country remain skeptical of their offer for peace, as evinced by the desperate effort to get out of the country. Many are hiding inside their homes, fearful after prisons and armories were emptied during the insurgents' blitz across the country.
On Wednesday, groups of fighters carrying guns patrolled a well-to-do neighborhood of the capital, Kabul, that is home to many embassies as well as mansions of the Afghan elite.
Meanwhile, 17 people were, reportedly, injured in a stampede at the gate of Kabul airport. Hundreds of Afghans rushed to the tarmac of Kabul's international airport in a desperate attempt to flee the country in the wake of the Taliban takeover.
—With agency inputs
