Taliban fighters beat female protesters and open fire to disperse them as the Islamists ban rallies

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Taliban fighters have beaten female protesters and opened fire to disperse demonstrators in Kabul hours after the Islamists banned rallies.

The militants announced a moratorium on demonstrations ‘for the time being’ last night after the group was humiliated by viral images of women standing up to them. 

Footage posted online purported to show Taliban fighters beating female protesters in the streets – with one militant seen striking a woman with a crutch, hitting her on the arm before chasing her away. 

Video also shows armed Islamists brandishing guns chasing women away from a busy road. It comes amid reports women defied the Taliban ban on protests today, gathering outside the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul until the militants opened fire to disperse the crowd. 

Footage showed Taliban in military fatigues preventing demonstrators from gathering and shouting at them to disperse. Gunshots and screams are then heard in the shaky footage, which MailOnline was unable to independently verify, before it hastily ends. 

Protest organisers had called off demonstrations after the ban was announced on Wednesday night amid a noticeably stronger armed Taliban presence – including special forces in military fatigues – on the streets of Kabul. 

The Islamists have taken a harsh stance to demonstrators – locking a crowd women in a basement to prevent them joining protests and whipping those who made to the rallies this week. 

Footage also showed the militants threatening demonstrators with weapons and firing warning shots into the air to forcibly disperse crowds. While harrowing images also emerged of journalists with angry welts and bruises after they were detained by Taliban fighters.

The protests are proving an early test for the Taliban who have seen a show of resistance since taking power on August 15 that was unthinkable under the extremist group’s last regime in the 1990s.  

Announcing the protest ban last night, Taliban officials said demonstrations would be banned ‘for the time being’ and warned violators ‘will face severe legal action’.

Earlier this week armed fighters dispersed hundreds of protesters in cities across Afghanistan, including the capital Kabul, Faizabad in the northeast and in Herat in the west, where two people were shot dead. 

Reports also emerged this week of brave women protesting for their rights and protesting the lack of female representation in the all-male government formed on Tuesday, many coming face-to-face with Taliban militants. 

There was a noticeably stronger Taliban presence on the streets of Kabul on Thursday morning as armed fighters – including special forces in military fatigues – stood guard on street corners and manned checkpoints, according to AFP journalists.

An organiser of a protest outside the Pakistan embassy – where gunmen sprayed shots into the air on Tuesday to disperse a rally – told AFP on Thursday it had been cancelled because of the overnight ban. 

At the site of another planned protest in the city, there were no signs of a demonstration. 

Taliban fighters were seen rolling into the western Afghan city of Herat in tanks. A propaganda video posted online by the group showed armed men in military clothing arriving in the city centre in 4x4s and tanks flying the white Taliban flag. 

It comes after a Taliban interim government, drawn exclusively from loyalist ranks, was announced this week with established hardliners in all key posts and no women – despite previous promises of an inclusive administration for all Afghans. 

Protests in recent days have targeted the cabinet. In Kabul yesterday a group of women bearing signs reading: ‘A Cabinet without women is a failure,’ held another protest in the Pul-e Surkh area of the city.  

‘The Cabinet was announced and there were no women in the Cabinet. And some journalists who came to cover the protest were all arrested and taken to the police station,’ said a woman in a video shared on social media.  

It comes a day after Taliban fighters left two journalists with ugly welts and bruises after detaining them while they were covering protests. 

The pair were picked up at a demonstration yesterday and taken to a police station in the capital, where they say they were punched and beaten with batons, electrical cables and whips after being accused of organising the protest.

‘One of the Taliban put his foot on my head, crushed my face against the concrete. They kicked me in the head… I thought they were going to kill me,’ photographer Nematullah Naqdi told AFP. 

Naqdi and his colleague Taqi Daryabi, a reporter, who both work for Etilaat Roz (Information Daily) had been assigned to cover a small protest in front of a police station in Kabul by women demanding the right to work and education.

Naqdi said he was accosted by a Taliban fighter as soon as he started taking pictures.

‘They told me ‘You cannot film’,’ he said. ‘They arrested all those who were filming and took their phones.’

Naqdi said the Taliban tried to grab his camera, but he managed to hand it to someone in the crowd. Three Taliban fighters caught him, however, and took him to the police station where the beatings started.

Taliban officials have not responded to repeated requests for comment. 

‘The Taliban started insulting me, kicking me,’ said Naqdi, adding that he was accused of being the organiser of the rally. He asked why he was being beaten, only to be told: ‘You are lucky you weren’t beheaded’.

Naqdi was eventually taken to a crowded cell where he found his colleague, Daryabi, who had also been arrested and beaten.

‘We were in so much pain that we couldn’t move,’ Daryabi said.

A few hours later the pair were released without explanation – sent on their way with a string of insults. ‘They see us as enemies,’ Taqi said.

The Taliban have claimed they will uphold press freedoms – in line with unspecified Islamic principles – although journalists are increasingly being harassed covering protests across the country.

In recent days, dozens of journalists have reported being beaten, detained or prevented from covering the protests, a show of resistance unthinkable under the Taliban’s last regime in the 1990s.

Most are Afghan journalists, whom the Taliban harass more than the foreign media. 

Zaki Daryabi, chief of the Etilaat Roz newspaper, said the Taliban’s words rang hollow.

‘This official speech is totally different from the reality that can be observed on the ground.’ 

There were other superficial signs of the Taliban tightening their grip.

Images on social media showed the country’s main airport – previously dubbed Hamid Karzai International, after the first post-Taliban president – had been renamed Kabul International.

A public holiday scheduled for Thursday honouring Ahmad Shah Massoud, the famed anti-Taliban resistance fighter assassinated 20 years ago by an Al-Qaeda suicide squad, was also cancelled.

Meanwhile a senior Taliban official said yesterday that women would not be allowed to play cricket – a popular sport in Afghanistan – or possible any other sport because it was ‘not necessary’ and their bodies might be exposed. 

On Thursday Cricket Australia said it would cancel a historic maiden Test match against Afghanistan unless the Taliban backtracks on the ban on women playing sport. 

Taliban leaders have vowed to respect people’s rights, including those of women, in accordance with Islamic sharia law, but those who have won greater freedoms over the past two decades are worried about losing them. 

Furious protesters took to the streets of the capital on Tuesday after the leader of the anti-Taliban resistance called for a ‘national uprising’ against the militant group a day earlier.

Pictures showed female demonstrators arguing with Taliban fighters as one woman stared down an M-16 rifle pointed at her face. 

Footage taken on a mobile phone shows a woman in an underground car park, panning around to reveal a crowd of women and some children gathered in the same space. The video is hastily cut short after a man’s voice is heard shouting. 

Miraqa Popal, the head of news at Afghanistan’s Tolo News outlet, shared the clip on Twitter, writing that some eyewitnesses said the women were held in Kabul’s Azizi Bank ‘to prevent them from joining protesters’.  

It comes as 200 people were flown out of Kabul, the first flight carrying foreigners out of the Afghan capital since the US-led evacuation ended on August 30.

The flight, to Doha, comes two days after the Islamists announced an interim government made up of mainly ethnic Pashtun men including wanted terror suspects and Islamist hardliners – dashing international hopes for a more moderate administration.  

An Afghan-American dual citizen, waiting to board the flight with his family, said the US State Department had called him in the morning and told him to go to the airport.

‘We got in contact with the State Department, they gave me a call this morning and said to go to the airport,’ the father, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

In the days that followed the Taliban’s blitz, the airport had become a tragic symbol of desperation among Afghans terrified of the militants’ return to power – with thousands of people crowding around its gates daily, and some even clinging to jets as they took off.

More than 100 people were killed, including 13 US troops, in a suicide attack on August 26 near the airport that was claimed by the Islamic State group’s local chapter.

Footage broadcast by Al Jazeera TV on Thursday showed families including women, children and elderly people waiting with suitcases at the airport for their turn to leave.

It was not immediately clear whether any countries other than Qatar had played a role in organising the airlift.

Qatar has acted as the central intermediary between the Taliban and the international community in recent years, and numerous countries, including the United States, have relocated their embassies from Kabul to Doha in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover.

‘We are very appreciative of the Qataris,’ one man told the channel, giving his nationality as Canadian. 

The Taliban’s announcement of a new government on Tuesday was widely seen as a signal they were not looking to broaden their base and present a more tolerant face to the world, as they had suggested they would do before their military takeover.

Foreign countries greeted the interim government with caution and dismay on Wednesday. In Kabul, dozens of women took to the streets in protest.

Many critics called on the leadership to respect basic human rights and revive the economy, which faces collapse amid steep inflation, food shortages and the prospect of foreign aid being slashed as countries seek to isolate the Taliban.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said no one in the Biden administration ‘would suggest that the Taliban are respected and valued members of the global community.’

The European Union voiced its disapproval at the appointments, but said it was ready to continue humanitarian assistance. Longer-term aid would depend on the Taliban upholding basic freedoms. 

The new acting Cabinet includes former detainees of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, while the interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is wanted by the United States on terrorism charges and carries a reward of $10 million.

His uncle, with a bounty of $5 million, is the minister for refugees and repatriation. 

But even as the Taliban consolidate power, they face a monumental task in ruling Afghanistan, which is wracked with economic woes and security challenges – including from the Islamic State group’s local chapter.  

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said any international legitimacy for the Taliban government would have to be ‘earned’, after leading a 20-nation virtual meeting on the Afghan crisis.

In Germany, Blinken said the ministerial talks were the ‘starting point for international coordination’ on dealing with the Taliban. Among the countries in the virtual meeting were European allies and historic Taliban backer Pakistan.

‘The Taliban seek international legitimacy. Any legitimacy – any support – will have to be earned,’ Blinken told reporters.

The European Union said the ‘caretaker’ government failed to honour previous vows of inclusion. China meanwhile said it welcomed the end of ‘three weeks of anarchy’, adding it ‘attaches great importance’ to the announcement of an interim government.

Qatar, the central intermediary between the Taliban and the international community in recent years, said the Taliban had demonstrated ‘pragmatism’ of late.

Former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country as the Taliban entered Kabul, apologised Wednesday to the Afghan people for how his rule ended.