Top Taliban leader in Kabul, governance plan to be finalised
New Delhi/Kabul: Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the second-in-command in the Taliban, arrived in Kabul on Saturday for talks with leaders regarding setting up the new government.
It is a week the insurgent group took over Kabul emerging as the triumphant ruler of the country, though they are yet to be recognised by the world.
Mullah Baradar will delegate responsibilities to commanders and will meet former government leaders, local militia commanders, policymakers, religious scholars etc., Reuters reported.
According to media reports, the financial crisis will be a huge challenge for the Taliban rule and it has been decided that separate teams will be set up to deal with internal security and financial crisis.
Experts from the former government will be brought in for crisis management, a Taliban official told Reuters.
Meanwhile, India has been allowed to operate two flights per day from Kabul to evacuate its nationals stranded in Afghanistan, government sources told ANI.
The permission has been granted by the American and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces which have been controlling operations of the Hamid Karzai International Airport after the Afghan capital fell to the Taliban on August 15.
Two Indian aircraft would be permitted to operate from the Kabul airport which is under the control of American security forces, government sources told ANI.
A group of Indian nationals is learnt to have been stopped and taken to an unknown location near the Kabul airport on Saturday for questioning and verification of travel documents, triggering some confusion and concerns in India.
These Indians were learnt to have been released subsequently.
People tracking the developments in Kabul said there were no specific reports of any harm to Indians in Kabul so far.
The Indians were among 150 people who were heading towards the Kabul airport when they were stopped by Taliban fighters, according to Afghan media reports.
Kabul Now news portal initially reported that the group was "abducted" by the Taliban fighters but it later updated the report saying all the people were released and on their way back to the Kabul airport.
The people cited above said the Indians were taken away for questioning and it is not unusual under the current circumstances.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the UK's diplomatic efforts to find a solution in Afghanistan remain ongoing, which leaves open the prospect of working with the Taliban "if necessary".
Speaking to the media after an emergency Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (COBRA) meeting to discuss the crisis in the region on Friday, Johnson said "formidable" challenges remain around the evacuation of British nationals and supporters from Kabul airport but the situation was getting "slightly better".
President Joe Biden, on the other hand, has said the mass evacuation from Kabul, one of the largest and most difficult airlifts in history, is not without risk of loss of lives, but vowed to bring all Americans and partners home from Afghanistan, as his administration grappled with the fallout from the chaotic exit.
Biden's remarks on Friday came as the US rushed to airlift as many people as possible out of the Afghan capital ahead of a self-imposed deadline to depart from Afghanistan by August 31.
In a speech delivered from the White House, President Joe Biden said that the United States has evacuated more than 18,000 people since July and approximately 13,000 since the airlifts began on Saturday.
With agency inputs
