India has already evacuated 200 people, including the Indian envoy and other staffers of its embassy in Kabul

Evacuee children wait for the next flight after being manifested at Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan. AP/PTI

New Delhi, August 21

Around 80 Indian nationals were evacuated on Saturday from Kabul by a transport military aircraft of the Indian Air Force amid a deteriorating security scenario in the Afghan capital, people familiar with the development said.

The aircraft landed at Dushanbe in Tajikistan after evacuating the Indians, they said, adding the flight is expected to arrive at the Hindon airbase near Delhi in the evening.

India has already evacuated 200 people, including the Indian envoy and other staffers of its embassy in Kabul, in two C-17 heavy-lift transport aircraft of the IAF after the Taliban seized control of Kabul on Sunday.

The first evacuation flight brought back over 40 Indians on Monday.

The second C-17 aircraft evacuated around 150 people including Indian diplomats, officials, security personnel and some stranded Indians on Tuesday.

The Taliban swept across Afghanistan this month, seizing control of almost all key towns and cities, including Kabul, in the backdrop of the withdrawal of the US forces.

The mission to evacuate close to 200 Indians was accomplished with support from the US.

Following the evacuation, the MEA said the focus now would be to ensure the safe return of all Indian nationals from the Afghan capital.

The MEA said the immediate priority for the government is to obtain accurate information about all Indian nationals currently staying in Afghanistan.

It also requested the Indians as well as their employers to urgently share the relevant details with the special Afghanistan cell.

As per a rough estimate, the number of Indians stranded in Afghanistan could be around 400 and India has been looking at ways to evacuate them, including by coordinating with the US and other friendly countries. PTI

There were Indians, Europeans and Africans besides people from Afghanistan in the plane who were leaving the strife-torn picturesque country

Taliban fighters patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan. — PTI

Kolkata, August 21

When the New Delhi-bound Kam Airlines flight finally took off from Kabul airport hours before the Taliban entered the city on August 15, Subrata, an Indian working in a senior position of an International NGO (INGO) posted in Afghanistan, sent up a silent prayer of thanks.

Subrata had been able to board the flight after travelling two hours in his car to travel the 12 km distance between his lodging and the Hamid Karzai International Airport, as the road was clogged with vehicles even early in the morning.

To top it all, his flight was stopped from taking off for over an hour almost at the edge of the runway, as US Air Force planes were landing to evacuate nationals of that country, sparking fears of imminent Taliban entry into the city.

Hours earlier, Subrata, who prefers to go by his first name, spent a tense and sleepless night planning his disguise to make it to the airport without any trouble.

“I contemplated travelling to the airport dressed as an Afghan sporting the customary long beard and turban, or a deaf and mute person. I was afraid that I might be held by the Taliban in the check posts they might have put up on the road,” he told PTI over the phone from Delhi.

Subrata even tried out his disguises before discarding each of them and deciding to travel in his normal clothes.

There were Indians, Europeans and Africans besides people from Afghanistan in the plane who were leaving the strife-torn picturesque country.

Afghan stewards of the plane, however, were sceptical about their return.

“I heard a steward whispering in Pashto: God knows how and when we will return to Kabul’,” said Subrata.

On the night before he took the flight, Subrata realised that guns alone cannot ensure security and information is the strongest defence.

“I had no information that night whether the Taliban had already entered the city. Nobody goes out in the night for fear of being attacked and killed. And there were looters.

“I left my lodging at dawn to travel the 12 km distance to the airport and reached it at around 6.15 am. The flight was scheduled to depart at 10.45 am,” Subrata, who had been posted in Afghanistan since 2015, said.

He had advanced his flight ticket to Delhi, where his family stays, after the security officer of his organisation told him that the Taliban were expected to enter Kabul soon and he should “just leave”.

Subrata had been hesitating as he, like many of his counterparts in other INGOs, was sure that Kabul will not fall before Muharram on August 20.

It turned out later that his was the second last commercial flight to leave Afghanistan for India.

“The situation in Kabul had become tense since August 13 as the Taliban had captured Herat, Kandahar, Kunduz and other provinces one by one by then. I think even the Taliban themselves did not expect that these provinces would fall so fast,” said Subrata, who has been posted in that country since 2015.

With the memory of Taliban torture during its rule two decades ago still fresh in their mind, the people of Afghanistan had been living in fear since the US peace deal with the group in Doha in February 2020.

The pact had drawn up plans for withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in exchange for security guarantees from the terrorist outfit.

Subrata said that many Afghan people – both men and women – had requested him to help them find refuge in Delhi.

“I did not want to return home before August 18 as I had reached Kabul only a week back and had a lot of work left. But the scenario was changing fast. I was told that banks had downed shutters saying they had no money left,” he said.

Rumours that fresh passports were not being issued anymore fanned the fear among the people manifold.

Subrata could not contact the Indian embassy and to add to his fears, he was told that there were blasts at Pul-e-charkhi jail in Kabul, which is the largest prison in Afghanistan, allegedly to liberate jailed members of the Taliban.

“I saw the narrow streets of Kabul chock-a-block with cars of internally displaced people who had come with their families to the city from neighbouring areas thinking it would not fall. The parks were occupied by these hapless people who had nowhere else to go,” he said.

They had been coming for the past one month but the situation had turned chaotic on August 14 as the roads were completely blocked, he said.

Subrata also recounted his conversation with a kiosk owner at the airport from whom he used to buy biscuits and cakes during his frequent travels.

“The man looked very sad. He told me: ‘Please remember that Afghanistan is a beautiful country but has no luck as far as lasting peace is concerned’,” Subrata said.

There was an air of desperation, a feeling of helplessness, arising out of the fear of an uncertain future.

“People are tired of the constant insecurity and want to leave the country. Their agony is increased manifold by the frequent attacks of armed looters who find them easy prey and do not hesitate to kill if faced with resistance,” he said.

The losses due to the unprecedented drought and the havoc wreaked by COVID-19 appear to have taken a back seat in the mind of the people of Afghanistan, Subrata said.

Most of them wish to relocate to either the US or India as they perceive these countries as peaceful and stable, he said.

Asked whether he would like to return to Afghanistan, Subrata said he would, as there is a lot of work left to be done.

“The INGOs are into the development work in the country in a big way. They are building roads, bridges, hospitals which the government cannot,” he said. — PTI 

Those felicitated include Rupinder Pal Singh, Gurjant Singh, Monika Malik, Sharmila Devi, Reena Khokhar, Shivendra Singh and Gurminder Singh; two hockey coaches given a cash award of Rs 2.5 lakh each

Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya and Punjab sports minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi present during the felicitation ceremony of hockey players in Chandigarh on Saturday. Tribune photo: Nitin Mittal

Chandigarh, August 21

Hockey Chandigarh and Tynor on Saturday felicitated the hockey players who participated in the recent Tokyo Olympics at a function here by giving five players a cash award of Rs 5 lakh each.

Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya was the chief guest and Punjab Sports Minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi was the guest of honour.

Those felicitated were Rupinder Pal Singh, Gurjant Singh, Monika Malik, Sharmila Devi, Reena Khokhar, Shivendra Singh and Gurminder Singh. Two hockey coaches were given a cash award of Rs 2.5 lakh each.

The Haryana Governor congratulated the hockey stars who after 41 years won a bronze medal and brought international acclaim to Indian hockey. He said he was happy to see that the hockey team had a lot of players from Haryana and Punjab.

Dattatreya said under the state sports policy, the Haryana government had awarded Rs 6 crore to Olympians for winning gold, Rs 4 crore for winning silver, and Rs 2.5 crore for bronze medal winners. The Haryana government had given Rs 23.25 crore as reward to outstanding players, adding that all states should prepare a sports policy to encourage players so that they can perform even better.

The Punjab Sports Minister said it was praiseworthy on the part of Hockey Chandigarh to felicitate the hockey stars. Lauding their performance at the Tokyo Olympics, he said it was indeed a proud moment for the state that the players had given an excellent performance.

Giving details about sprucing up facilities in Punjab, he said new facilities would be created in the state and the existing ones would be upgraded.

Karan Gilhotra, president, Hockey Chandigarh, said, “It was always the endeavour of Hockey Chandigarh to encourage the players and will continue to promote the sport in a big way. It was indeed a moment of pride for the country to see our players excelling at the Olympics.”

He heads the Karan Gilhotra Foundation which is actively engaged in the service of the sports community.

P.J. Singh, Senior Vice-President, Hockey Chandigarh and Chief Managing Director, Tynor, assured support to the hockey players. IANS

On June 30, 2020, he led an Army team that neautralised 2 ultras

Major Ankesh Jarial with President Ram Nath Kovind after receiving the Sena Medal at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Our Correspondent

Una, August 21

Major Ankesh Jarial, a resident of Amb in Una district, was awarded the Sena Medal for Gallantry at a function organised at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi on the occasion of Independence Day. Major Ankesh is at present serving in Rashtriya Rifles and posted in South Kashmir.

According to his citation, on the night of June 30, 2020, on the basis of inputs from local sources regarding the presence of militants at a location in Anantnag district, Major Ankesh led a team of soldiers and cordoned off the terrorists, who were planning an attack.

The terrorists began firing indiscriminately. The Army team retaliated and neutralised the two terrorists.

Major Ankesh’s mother Kiran Lata said that she was proud that her son had led his team and fought the terrorists bravely for the nation. She added that during a telephonic conversation Major Ankesh told her that he had dedicated the medal to his late father BN Jarial.

In a rare rebuke to Pakistan, China has asked it to take adequate measures to upgrade security mechanisms and protect nationals following a suicide blast targeting a convoy of Chinese engineers working on the Gwadar port project in the troubled Baluchistan province late on Friday night. – File photo

New Delhi, August 21

In a rare rebuke to Pakistan, China has asked it to take adequate measures to upgrade security mechanisms and protect nationals following a suicide blast targeting a convoy of Chinese engineers working on the Gwadar port project in the troubled Baluchistan province late on Friday night.

China urged Pakistan’s “relevant departments at all levels” to investigate the matter and severely punish the perpetrator. The Chinese Embassy statement also asked Pakistan officials to take practical and effective measures “to accelerate, to implement, (and) strengthen whole-process security measures and upgrade security cooperation mechanisms to ensure that similar incidents do not happen”.

Chinese and Pakistani media outlets have reported the death of two children and injuries to one Chinese worker. The Pakistan Interior Ministry said the suicide bomber targeted a convoy of three vehicles carrying Chinese nationals and a police contingent. The investigating team is also due to identify the nature of the blast.

This was a much stronger reaction than the previous one by Beijing to an attack on a bus last month in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that killed nine Chinese engineers working on a dam project which, like Gwadar, is part of the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. — TNS

The group was detained by Taliban; Indians were taken for verification; Afghan Sikh, Hindus turned back

Photo for representation only. AP/PTI file

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 21

The Government is likely to send an aircraft to evacuate Indians from Kabul after they were released from Taliban custody and have been asked to wait near the airport.   

Earlier in the morning, the Taliban released over 200 people, many of them Indian nationals and some of them Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, it had taken into custody as they were approaching the Kabul airport for flights out of Afghanistan.

While the Indian nationals were taken to the local police station for verification of their documents, the Afghan Hindus and Sikhs were turned back. Some of the Afghan Hindus and Sikhs are locals while those from outside are huddled at Gurdwara Karta-e-Parwan.

The story was broken by Al-Itteha that said Taliban affiliates, most likely fighters of the Haqqani network, had taken more than 150 people, most of them Indian nationals, from near Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

These people included a number of Afghan citizens and Afghan Sikhs, but most of them were ordinary Indian citizens.

Quoting a person who was travelling with his wife, the group had left for the airport in eight buses at 1 am but could not enter the airport. As they were waiting outside, several unarmed Taliban members came to their side and, after beating several of them, took them all to Tarkhil, Kabul.

The person and his wife threw themselves out of the vehicle and went back to the city.

Taliban spokesman Ahmadullah Waseq denied the allegations of abduction in an interview with the daily Al-Information. He said members of the group were present around Hamid Karzai International Airport and would not allow people to enter the airport.

New Delhi: The Army, Navy and Air Force chiefs will be visiting the National Defence Academy (NDA) this week to review the training and administrative arrangements for the intake of women cadets, work on which was already initiated early this year.

Sources in the defence and security establishment said that the visit by Army chief General M.M. Naravane, Navy chief Admiral Karambir Singh and Air Force chief R.K.S Bhadauria on 20 August had already been scheduled at the beginning of the month, before the Supreme Court passed an interim order allowing women to sit for the academy’s entrance exam.

They added that the visit of the three chiefs has no relation to the court’s order that was passed Wednesday.

“The visit was scheduled earlier this month to review the training and administrative arrangements for women cadets. Additional infrastructure to provide for women cadets has been approved earlier and should come up in a time-bound manner. Gender equality has been an issue, which has been actively debated and found positive response in the Services,” a source told ThePrint.

The discussion on the induction of women into the armed services through the NDA had been ongoing and was finding support amongst the leadership, the source added.

ThePrint reported in June that the NDA is being expanded and its annual intake of military cadets will be progressively increased by around 400 to cater to the shortfall of officers in the armed forces.

The increase in seats is also to cater to the bigger demand for training of foreign cadets and ground duty cadets of the Indian Air Force (IAF).

A project for enhancement of NDA infrastructure was also rolled out this year keeping in mind a possible intake of women cadets in the institution.

Also read: Sainik schools will admit girls too, must ensure equal representation for women: Modi on I-Day

Women have long been part of armed forces

The induction of women into the armed services via the NDA will not be the first such instance.

Sources said the Armed Forces had inducted women as officers in the medical services a very long time ago

The Armed Forces Medical College in Pune has been training men and women medical officers for years. Military Nursing Officers have been in service since well before Independence and continue to serve the Defence Services, the source quoted above said.

Women were also inducted in the lower ranks in the Corps of Military Police recently.

“Permanent Commission to Short Service Commission women officers had been considered earlier in JAG and Education Branches and recently they have been given similar benefits in some other branches. Women officers have also been inducted for training into Army Aviation recently”, the source said.

As of February this year, there were 9,118 women officers serving in the three Services.

Women officers have been inducted into the Army since 1993. In the beginning, they were brought in for five years of service under the ‘Special Entry Scheme’. This was later converted into the Short Service Commission (SSC).

In 2008, a permanent commission was extended to women in streams of Judge Advocate General (JAG) and Army Education Corps.

In 2019, the Narendra Modi government granted permanent commission to women in all ten branches that allowed women officers through the Short Service Commission.

These were Signals, Engineers, Army Aviation, Army Air Defence, Electronics and Mechanical Engineers, Army Service Corps, Army Ordnance Corps and Intelligence.

However, the rule was applicable for the current serving SSC officers and future ones and was not retrospective.

Following an order of the Supreme Court, a total of 147 additional women SSC officers of the Army were granted permanent commission. But combat roles for women in the Army are yet to be opened up due to a wide range of reasons.

(Edited by Manasa Mohan)

Tweaking of system needed to facilitate co-ed training

Photo for representational purpose only. File photo

IN a heartening reaffirmation of the hard-fought gender equality that is being increasingly felt in the defence forces, the portals of the academies for pre-commissioned training are set to open for women. It is another matter though that, as in every other small or big step taken towards parity and overcoming the misogynistic mindset despite proving themselves as worthy defence and combat officers in the past nearly three decades, this battle too has been won through the court. Defending yet again women’s equal right to recruitment in the army, the Supreme Court, in its interim order on Wednesday, cleared one of the last hurdles that still smacks of discrimination. It allowed women candidates to take the NDA and Naval Academy exams scheduled for September 5 this year, subject to the final decision.

Excluding women from taking the test is a grave violation of the broad intent of last year’s orders of the SC that allowed permanent commission to women officers. To prevent the irreparable damage that this miss would have caused to women’s rights, the SC direction to the UPSC to issue a corrigendum is timely. The new rule must be widely publicised so that all eligible and aspiring women candidates could compete for recruitment as cadet officers.

The SC directive should goad the policymakers to take heed and shed their resistance to gender equality. As the SC noted, it is indeed regretful that the Army has been more reluctant than the Air Force and the Navy to fully accommodate women officers in its ranks. It is prone to dithering till ordered to act by the courts. The forces would do well to accept that women officers are very much here to stay and soar to heights and that gender neutrality is non-negotiable. It is time for the forces to adapt themselves towards a compatible co-educational ethos and infrastructure for women in all their institutes of training, and tweak the system, keeping in mind the technical intricacies peculiar to their work culture.

In the time it took to jump out of IAF’s C-119 and park the jeep in Dhaka Cantt, the CO of 2 Para & his men had passed into legion, their exploits forever in texts studied by professional soldiers

Sujan Dutta

Fabric is synonymous with the name of Tangail. The warp and weft of the Tangail saree is known in every Bengali home and the wider world of women who drape the garment. Whether it is cotton or silk or a mix of the two, the Tangail saree, known for its plain body and rich border, handloomed by generations of weavers is now generic.

Fabric covered the skies over Tangail, the town the saree is named after, 90-odd kilometres north-west of Dhaka in the early evening of December 11, 1971. Ripstop nylon billowed like domes of military green as Indian soldiers of the 2 Para battalion group made what remains the only airborne operation of its kind led by a commander who was the first out of an Indian Air Force cargo plane with his jeep.

In three days, Lt Colonel Kulwant Singh Pannu, later Major General, would also walk into the Dacca International Hotel, take a wash, and then the “flamboyant Commanding Officer of 2 Para spoke to reporters”, according to military historian Arjun Subramaniam, who has seen the unit’s archives. The hotel was designated a safe zone by the United Nations and the Red Cross.

Two days later, Pannu would also bound off the jeep after parking in the grounds of the headquarters of Pakistan’s eastern command, brush past a stern sentry with his adjutant Capt Nirbhay Sharma and the Bangladesh Mukti Bahini leading light Kader ‘Tiger’ Siddiqui and hand over to AAK Niazi a message from General Nagra: “Abdullah,” it said, “it’s game over, surrender.”

(Major General GC Nagra headed the 101 Communications Zone and knew Niazi).

In the time that it took to jump out of the Indian Air Force C-119 ‘Packet’ and park the jeep in Dhaka Cantonment, Lt Col Pannu and his men had passed into legion, their exploits forever in texts studied by professional soldiers.

“I was returning to Tangail from one of our headquarters at Mohanandapur village when the Indian Army paratroopers started landing near Poongli,” wrote Anwarul Ham, a former ambassador and then second-in-command of the Mukti Bahini in Tangail.https://2c68aeb3d7cef6cbae293b8cb57bd180.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

“It was quite a sight. I was 1.5 miles away and I ran to greet them. I introduced myself to Lt Col Pannu. He made two requests: to disperse the crowd of villagers (who were gawking) and to arrange for local volunteers to help carry the load and push the artillery guns and jeeps to the road.”

Three of the four guns had fallen into ponds. One landed on the roof of a village house. The battalion group that had landed comprised elements of a field battery and medics. The drop was spread over a wide area, by one estimate over 20 km.

It was tasked to secure the Poongli bridge and the adjacent ferry on the Louhajang river that branched from the wide Jamuna. Securing the bridge would cut off battalions of Pakistan’s 93 Brigade that were falling back to Tangail and Dhaka from Mymensingh and Jamalpur. The operation was deep behind enemy lines, the battalion group having flown from Kalaikunda and Dum Dum in West Bengal. They had linked up with 1 Maratha Light Infantry, who were already in the thick of operations battling their way through East Pakistan from Tura in Meghalaya.

To fulfil his brief, Pannu had to rally round his men and equipment, moving in a wide arc as night fell. Having rounded up a bulk of his men, he prepared to take the bridge. Four artillery guns could be made operational for the charge. Most of the Pakistanis fled but that same night there were three counter-attacks on Poongli bridge.

“I came face to face with bone-chilling scenes of last night’s battle. Corpses of hundreds of enemy soldiers littered the road, bodies from one side of the bridge to another. We walked with care so as to not step on the dead,” wrote Dr Nuran Nabi, a lieutenant of Tiger Siddiqui’s force in Dhaka’s ‘The Daily Star,’ some 30 years after the event.

The 2 Para group, having linked up with 1 Maratha Light Infantry, then rolled cautiously towards Dhaka on the Mirzapur-Jaydebpur Road, reaching Milestone 26, its destination, by the evening of December 15. They were then tasked to turn west and reach Dhaka through the Mirpur bridge. The bridge was staunchly defended even though, by December 15, the war was collapsing for Pakistan.

“We lost three — killed in action. There were 41 enemy casualties but we were at the gates of Dhaka by midnight,” Nirbhay Sharma, who was adjutant to Pannu and who retired as a Lieutenant General (and then became Governor of Arunachal and Mizoram), has written and said in multiple interviews.

The next day, Pannu, Sharma and Tiger Siddiqui were to take the message to Niazi. Pannu, who had tied up with Tiger Siddiqui after the airdrop in Tangail, had taken him along on the battles through to Dhaka. He wanted him along not only for the camaraderie they had struck, but also because of the clear idea drilled into Indian officers that this was not a country they were to occupy but help the Mukti Bahini.

Such was fate, however, for the men who fought alongside that Tiger Siddiqui had to be arrested by the Indian Army in later weeks for having publicly bayoneted surrendered Razakars (Pakistan’s collaborators) personally in the cricket stadium, an incident that was filmed.

Before the entry to Dhaka cantonment, however, the Indian Army’s Eastern Command Chief of Staff, Lt Gen JFR Jacob, had proclaimed from Calcutta that Indian paratroopers had surrounded the East Pakistan capital. Even if it was an overstatement, it carried weight because by that time Lt General Sagat Singh’s forces from the east had crossed the Meghna river.

The 2 Paras led by Pannu were among the first to actually march into Dhaka and extract that famous confession from Niazi. Niazi could not meet Pannu’s gaze, wrote Nirbhay Sharma. He was unshaven — “Pindi mein baithe haramzadon ne marwadiya. The (expletive) people in Rawalpindi, Pakistan’s General Headquarters, have betrayed me with false promises of help.”

The remarkable thing about Pannu’s leadership was that the Indian Army had only one officer with personal experience of an airborne operation till then: Lt Gen Inder Singh Gill, who as a Lieutenant was a commando in Greece for the Allied Forces in 1942. He was Director of Military Operations at Army Headquarters in 1971.

Lt Col KS Pannu’s MVC citation reads:

“Lieutenant Colonel KS Pannu was commanding a battalion, which was airdropped near Tangail on December 11, 1971. The task involved cutting enemy routes of withdrawal and preventing his build-up at Tangail. This also involved the capture of an enemy position on a vital bridge at Poongli. The drop of the battalion was widely dispersed and Lieutenant Colonel Pannu had to move from one location to another under enemy fire to collect his platoons. It was entirely due to his cool courage, utter disregard for his personal safety and his timely and skilful direction that his battalion captured the enemy position at Poongli.

Under his able leadership, the battalion repulsed numerous counter-attacks, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy. Lieutenant Colonel Pannu displayed conspicuous gallantry, exemplary leadership, determination and devotion to duty in keeping with the best traditions of the Army.”

Thousands continue to flock to Kabul’s airport, braving checkpoints manned by Taliban fighters as they seek desperately to get on evacuation flights out

Taliban fighters patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan on August 19, 2021. — AP/PTI

Kabul, August 20

Taliban fighters tortured and killed members of an ethnic minority in Afghanistan after recently overrunning their village, Amnesty International said, fuelling fears that they will again impose a brutal rule, even as they urged imams to push a message of unity at the first gathering for Friday prayers since the capital was seized.

Terrified that the new de facto rulers would commit such abuses, thousands have raced to Kabul’s airport desperate to flee following the Taliban’s stunning blitz through the country. Others have taken to the streets to protest the takeover — acts of defiance that Taliban fighters have violently suppressed.

The Taliban have sought to project moderation and have pledged to restore security and forgive those who fought them in the 20 years since a US-led invasion. Ahead of Friday prayers, leaders urged to imams to use sermons to appeal for unity, urge people not to flee the country, and to counter “negative propaganda” about them.

But many Afghans are skeptical, and the Amnesty report provided more evidence that undercut the Taliban’s claims they have changed.

The rights group said that its researchers spoke to eyewitnesses in Ghazni province who recounted how the Taliban killed nine Hazara men in the village of Mundarakht on July 4-6. It said six of the men were shot, and three were tortured to death.

The brutality of the killings was “a reminder of the Taliban’s past record, and a horrifying indicator of what Taliban rule may bring,” said Agnes Callamard, the head of Amnesty International.

The group warned that many more killings may gone unreported because the Taliban have cut cellphone services in many areas they’ve captured to prevent images from there from being published.

Separately, Reporters without Borders expressed alarm at the news that Taliban fighters killed the family member of an Afghan journalist working for German broadcaster Deutsche Welle on Wednesday.

“Sadly, this confirms our worst fears,” said Katja Gloger of the press freedom group’s German section. “The brutal action of the Taliban show that the lives of independent media workers in Afghanistan are in acute danger.”         Many Afghans fear a return to the Taliban’s harsh rule in the late 1990s, when the group largely confined women to their homes, banned television and music, chopped off the hands of suspected thieves and held public executions.

Thousands continue to flock to Kabul’s airport, braving checkpoints manned by Taliban fighters as they seek desperately to get on evacuation flights out.

Mohammad Naim, who has been among the crowd at the airport for four days trying to escape the country, said he had to put his children on the roof of a car on the first day to save them from being crushed by the mass of people. He saw other children killed after they were unable to get out of the way.

Naim, who said he had been an interpreter for US forces, said he had urged others not to the come to airport.

“It is a very, very crazy situation right now and I hope the situation gets better because I saw kids dying, it is very terrible,” he said.

The Pentagon said Thursday that about 2,000 people were brought out on American flights on each of the previous two days, and the State Department said 6,000 more were expected to leave that day. But thousands of Americans and their Afghan allies may be in need of escape.

Dozens of other flights have already brought hundreds more Western nationals and Afghan workers to Europe and elsewhere.

Chaos at the airport itself has sometimes hindered flights, but getting to the facility is the major challenge. Germany was sending two helicopters to Kabul to help bring small numbers of people from elsewhere in the city to the airport, officials said.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison noted that Australian citizens have not been able to be evacuated from outside Kabul, and even in the capital the situation is difficult.

“The situation in Kabul does remain chaotic,” he said.

In recent days, some Afghans have protested the Taliban in several cities — a remarkable show of defiance that fighters often met with violence. At least one person was killed Wednesday at a rally in the eastern city of Jalalabad, after demonstrators lowered the Taliban’s flag and replaced it with the Afghan tricolour. Another person was seriously wounded at a protest a day later in Nangarhar province.

The demonstrations have come to the capital as well. On Thursday, a procession of cars and people near Kabul’s airport carried long black, red and green banners in honor of the Afghan flag — a banner that is becoming a symbol of defiance.

Meanwhile, opposition figures gathering in the last area of the country not under Taliban rule talked of launching an armed resistance. It was not clear how serious a threat they posed given that Taliban fighters overran nearly the entire country in a matter of days with little resistance from Afghan forces.

In addition to concerns about Taliban abuses, officials have warned that Afghanistan’s already weakened economy could crumble further without the massive international aid that sustained the toppled Western-backed government. The UN says there are dire food shortages and experts said the country was severely in need of cash with much of the government’s funds abroad frozen.

After the Taliban overran Kabul the market used by many in the capital to exchange money was closed down.

Underscoring the difficulties the Taliban will face in returning the country to normal life, trader Aminullah Amin said Friday that it would stay closed for the time being. There was just too much uncertainty surrounding exchange rates, how the Taliban might regulate the market, and the possibility of looting.

“We have not decided to reopen the markets yet,” he said. — AP