Kabul’s streets were deserted early on Monday, a day after Taliban insurgents took over the Afghanistan capital without a fight, but the airport was jammed with hundreds of civilians trying to flee.
Unverified pictures on social media showed hundreds of people scampering with their luggage toward the safety of the airport terminal with the sound of gunfire breaking out. But one of the haunting features of the capital after the Taliban takeover, was the deserted streets, government offices, and other places.
Streets, Govt Offices, Embassies Empty
Government offices were empty, residents said. The Wazir Akbar Khan embassy district was deserted with almost all diplomats and their families either flown out of the city or at the airport awaiting a flight. There were few guards left at the checkpoints in the usually heavily fortified area – some motorists were getting out of their cars to lift barriers at the checkpoints before driving through.
“It is strange to sit here and see empty streets, no more busy diplomatic convoys, big cars with guns mounted,” Gul Mohammed Hakim told Reuters, one the city’s ubiquitous naan (bread) makers who has a shop in the area. “I will be here baking bread, but will earn very small amounts of money. The security guards who were my friends, they are gone.”
He had no customers yet, said, and was still heating his tandoor (clay oven) in anticipation. “My first concern was to grow my beard and how to grow it fast,” Hakim added. “I also checked with my wife if there were enough burqas for her and the girls.”
On Sunday afternoon, when Taliban fighters entered Kabul, the streets were eerily deserted. The vast majority of people were cooped up in their homes. Police and security forces associated with the pro-Western government changed their uniforms for civilian clothes.
Others chose to wear white scarves, the Taliban’s official colour. In the morning, locals crowded banks to withdraw their savings, and rushed to the supermarkets in an attempt at stocking up on food.
Fearful Preparation of Taliban’s Siege
During the Taliban’s 1996-2001 rule, men were not permitted to trim their beards and women were required to wear the all-enveloping burqa cloak in public. In the city’s Chicken Street, the scores of shops for Afghan carpets, handicraft and jewellery, as well as small cafes, were closed.
Sherzad Karim Stanekzai, who owns a carpet and textiles store, told Reuters he decided to sleep inside his shuttered shop to protect his goods. “I am in a complete state of shock. The Taliban entering that scared me, but (President Ashraf) Ghani leaving all of us in this situation has been the worst,” he said.
“I lost three brothers in seven years in this war, now I have to protect my business.” He said had no idea where his next customers would come from. “I know there will no foreigners, no international people who will now come to Kabul,” he said.
The Irish Times reported that women were seen crying on the side of the road, desperate to get a ride home and barricade their homes. “People are afraid. They are fearful for their families, for their wives and their daughters especially,” a resident Sayed told IT over the phone.
“People were running. Everyone was trying to find a vehicle. There were no taxis. Before, a trip would cost $2. Now the prices have gone up five times,” he said.
Kabul’s Green Zone Silent
Kabul’s former diplomatic quarter fell silent on Monday as foreign missions were moved to the airport, leaving Taliban patrols in control of the fortified zone of concrete blast walls and checkpoints known as the Green Zone.
Taliban at Tolo News Compound
A couple of streets away from the now-deserted British embassy, a Taliban patrol went into the compound of Tolo News, Afghanistan’s largest private broadcaster which lost several journalists to Taliban attacks over the years.
“So far they are polite, enquiring about our weapons (of the security team),” Saad Mohseni, head of Moby Group, which owns the station, said on Twitter. “They have also agreed to keep the compound safe”.
Residents Shocked at Quick Takeover
Elsewhere in the city, there was a mood of shocked fear among many former government employees and civil rights activists, caught completely by surprise by the lightning seizure of the city and the flight of President Ashraf Ghani. “Nobody could believe it would go so quickly,” said one former government employee, now hiding in a friend’s home. “They took Kabul in five hours!”
“Everyone I know, all the civil society people, government ministers, deputy ministers just feel lost. They’re hiding or waiting,” he said. The victorious insurgents have promised not to carry out retribution against former government workers and a Taliban leader said his fighters had been “ordered to allow Afghans to resume daily activities and do nothing to scare civilians.”
“Normal life will continue in a much better way, that’s all I can say for now,” he told Reuters via Whatsapp.
With inputs from Reuters
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