KABUL — A Taliban official on Tuesday announced a general “amnesty” for all in Afghanistan and urged women to join the government following the movement’s lightning takeover of the country.
Enamullah Samangani made the comments on Afghan state television, which the militants appeared to now control, referring to Afghanistan as the Islamic Emirate — their name for the country.
“The Islamic Emirate don’t want women to be victims,” Samangani, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, said. He also declared an “amnesty” for all in Afghanistan, although he did not provide any details as to what that would entail.
The statements will be greeted with skepticism by many Afghans, who have come to expect that the militants will bar women from public activities and have already cracked down brutally in some communities and cities they have conquered.
Another possible indication of the Taliban’s intentions and sensitives about their public image came when a spokesman for the group was interviewed by female reporter on Afghanistan’s largest private broadcaster, TOLO TV — something that wouldn’t have been possible during the previous Taliban regime.
After conquering much of the country, the militants were clearly intent on taking control of the capital and checkpoints dotted Kabul’s streets. Some markets, shops and offices also opened and there were no reports of violence or fighting in the city of some 5 million people. The Taliban had ordered its fighters against entering houses without permission in Kabul to protect “life, property and honor.”
In the city of Herat, some 400 miles west of Kabul, a resident told NBC News the number of people going to the mosque had jumped since the Taliban’s arrival on Friday.
“There are more people in the mosque than in the streets these days,” he said on condition of anonymity because he was afraid of retribution from the Taliban. “People are afraid.”
The Taliban had also announced that girls would have to wear hijabs to attend school, he added.
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Al Jazeera journalist Charlotte Bellis said she returned to her hotel Monday evening to find that the Taliban had taken over security and were standing outside the building with assault rifles.
“They had parked their U.S.-made Humvees outside. Said good evening. They looked startled… Welcome to the new Kabul,” she tweeted.
The developments followed chaos in the country’s capital after the swift departure of President Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban takeover of Kabul over the weekend.
Panicked Afghans mobbed the airport in an attempt to get flights out of the country as the United States and other governments rushed to evacuate their citizens.
While calm did return to Kabul’s international airport on Tuesday, Monday saw hundreds of Afghans rush the runway and hang off a U.S. Air Force flight as it took off, with several plunging to their deaths in the chaos that killed at least seven people.
The Pentagon on Tuesday said American commanders at the Kabul airport were in contact with the Taliban on the outside. “There is communication between them and us,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters.
Meanwhile, Afghan women have been raising concerns about their future under a Taliban government, which had previously stripped them of almost all their rights.
On Tuesday, a small group of women took to the streets for a peaceful gathering in Kabul. Wearing hijabs, they held up signs that demanded work, education and political participation for women.
When the group ruled Afghanistan between 1996 to 2001, they enacted laws that made women and girls almost invisible in public life. They could not appear on television and were not heard on the radio, their rights all but eliminated in most areas of life, including attending school.
“We hope that the Taliban will focus on improving the security situation in Afghanistan and that there will be a change from the Taliban who did not allow girls to go to school in the past,” Kabul resident Aminura told the Associated Press.
U.S.-led forces had overturned the Taliban at the end of 2001 after they refused to hand over Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, the architect behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Despite bipartisan criticism of the U.S. withdrawal at home, a resolute U.S. President Joe Biden stated in an address on Monday that he stood “squarely behind” his decision to withdraw American forces and acknowledged the “gut-wrenching” images unfolding in Kabul. Biden said he had faced a choice between honoring a previously negotiated withdrawal agreement or sending thousands of more troops back to begin a third decade of war.
“After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces,” Biden said in a televised address from the White House.
Gabe Joselow reported from Kabul. Zeerak Khurram from Hong Kong.
The Associated Press, Richard Engel, Saphora Smith and Teaganne Finn contributed.