Taliban announce ‘general amnesty’ for Afghan government officials

KABUL: The Taliban announced Tuesday an “amnesty” across Afghanistan and urged women to join its government, trying to calm nerves across a nervous capital city that only the day before saw chaos at its airport as people tried to flee their rule.

The comments by Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, represent the first comments on governance from a federal level across the country after their blitz across the country.

While there were no major reports of abuses or fighting in Kabul, many residents have stayed home and remain fearful after the insurgents’ takeover saw prisons emptied and armories looted.

“The Islamic Emirate doesn’t want women to be victims” Samangani said, using the militants’ term for Afghanistan. “They should be in government structure according to Shariah law.”

He added: “The structure of government is not fully clear, but based on experience, there should be a fully Islamic leadership and all sides should join.”

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

The head of Afghanistan’s central bank however has fled Kabul, but not after blaming President Ashraf Ghani and his inexperienced advisers for the country’s swift and chaotic fall to the Taliban.

In a Twitter thread on Monday detailing how he worked at the bank until militants were at the gates of the city, Acting Governor Ajmal Ahmady also said that US dollar supplies were dwindling and described escaping the capital on a military flight.

“On Sunday I began work. Reports throughout morning were increasingly worrisome. I left the bank and left deputies in charge. Felt terrible about leaving staff,” he said.

“It did not have to end this way. I am disgusted by the lack of any planning by Afghan leadership. Saw at airport them leave without informing others.”

Ghani fled Afghanistan on Sunday as Taliban militants entered Kabul virtually unopposed.

Their arrival, barely a week after they captured faraway provincial capital Zaranj, was disorienting, said Ahmady.