Dozens of Afghan women marched a short distance through Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, on Tuesday before Taliban militants broke up the demonstration.
A group of about 30 women began marching from a mosque, chanting “justice” repeatedly. The procession went for several hundred yards before Taliban militants interfered, breaking up the demonstration, according to AFP. Since the Taliban, a U.S.-designated terror group, took over the country in August, all protests not sanctioned by the government have been quashed.
The women were demonstrating against a Taliban crackdown on ex-Afghan military members who aided the U.S. before its withdrawal in late August. After breaking up the protest, the militants then confronted a group of nearby reporters. The AFP reported:
The Taliban also tried to prevent journalists from covering the march, organised against the “mysterious murders of young people, particularly the country’s former soldiers”, according to social media invitations.
Taliban fighters briefly detained a group of reporters and confiscated equipment from some photographers, deleting images from their cameras before returning them.
Human rights organizations and the United Nations have reported credible claims against the Taliban of dozens of extrajudicial killings carried out by the terrorist organization. Even before the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan, reports claimed that Taliban militants had already begun cracking down on U.S. allies as well as American citizens left vulnerable by the U.S. military’s evacuation. As The Daily Wire reported:
Taliban militants are reportedly conducting door-to-door searches in Kabul looking for Afghan government officials, military members, and others who worked with the United States and other western countries.
Taliban militants are also seeking out journalists. While the terrorist group has promised safety and publicly called for a “peaceful” transfer of power, refugees who flocked to Kabul prior to its fall said that the Taliban has already begun forced marriages and executions in outlying cities and towns.
“Taliban started door to door search looking for govt officials, former police & security forces members & those who worked for foreign countries NGOs or infrastructures in Afghanistan. At least 3 journalists’ houses were searched in the last hour. Kabul is now becoming deadly,” one Kabul-based journalist tweeted on Monday. “This is a game-changer for us all. Many have started counting their final hours of life in Kabul. Nobody knows what happens next. Pray for us.”
The militants reportedly targeted Christians, forcing them to flee into the Afghan mountains for safety. Taliban militants searched and terrorized American citizens and Afghans seeking evacuation in the final days of the U.S. military’s presence in Afghanistan. As The Daily Wire reported:
The Taliban is screening paperwork at checkpoints outside the Kabul airport, NBC News reported Friday, searching for Americal allies and others who worked for the coalition, and the situation outside has deteriorated into a “disaster,” even as the United States persists in demanding that Americans find their own way to the airport for evacuation — and claims from the Pentagon that Americans are “not being impeded” on their way out of the country.
Video posted to social media shows the “disaster” outside Kabul airport — a crowd being tormented at a Taliban “checkpoint” with soldiers whipping and beating those in line to leave, including a woman clinging to a baby.