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, 43.
1/The collapse of the Government in Afghanistan this past week was so swift and complete - it was disorienting and difficult to comprehend.
This is how the events seemed to proceed from my perspective as Central Bank Governor.
— Ajmal Ahmady (@aahmady)
He was appointed acting governor of Afghanistan’s central bank just over a year ago, having previously worked at the US Treasury, the World Bank and in private equity, according to a short biography posted on a government website.
“Seems difficult to believe, but there remains a suspicion as to why (Afghan National Security Forces) left posts so quickly,” Ahmady said, referring to claims by some pro-government militia leaders of that the army’s capitulation in northern Afghanistan was the result of a conspiracy.
“There is something left unexplained.”
As the Taliban advanced, Ahmady said Afghanistan’s currency markets were in a panic, especially after the central bank on Friday was told it would not receive any more dollars, driving the price of Afghanistan’s currency, the Afghani, sharply lower.
“I held meetings on Saturday to reassure banks and money exchangers to calm them down. I can’t believe that was one day before Kabul fell,” Ahmady said. He said the currency dropped as far as 100 to the dollar, a fall of about 23 percent, before stabilizing at 86.
Ahmady said he boarded a military aircraft amid chaos on the tarmac after a commercial flight he booked was swamped with passengers. It was unclear which military plane he boarded and he did not mention his destination.
“There was a rush. Some shots were fired. Somehow, my close colleagues pushed me on board,” he said. Ghani’s lack of planning and failure to recognize the shortcomings of his advisers were the government’s undoing, Ahmady said.
“Once president’s departure was announced, I knew within minutes chaos would follow. I cannot forgive him for creating that without a transition plan.
“He himself had great ideas but poor execution. If I contributed to that, I take my share of the blame.”
