After its conquest of Afghanistan, Taliban is seeking to create a moderate image on the world stage.

It struck a conciliatory tone in its first press conference. Addressing the conference, spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid reiterated that there will be no execution, nor will there be retribution against former soldiers and government officials and importantly, women will be allowed to work and study and will remain active in society within the framework of Islam. Taliban also said it will upheld Press freedom saying that media reporting will be useful to society and will be able to help correct the errors of leaders.

Trying to strike conciliatory note, it said journalists working for state or privately-owned media are not criminals and none of them will be prosecuted. Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council will hold a special session on Tuesday, August 24, to address the serious human rights concerns in Afghanistan.

The request for the session has been supported by 89 countries so far, including India.

On this, CNBC-TV18’s Parikshit Luthra spoke to Mariam Wardak, founder of Her Afghanistan and Social Rights Activist; Hamid Mir, senior Pakistani Journalist and Columnist at Washington Post; Fereshta Abbasi of Afghan Human Rights Lawyer, and Ram Kishan, Deputy Regional Director- Asia, Mercy Corps.

Wardak said, “Nothing can be taken by a through face value when it comes to the Taliban and the type of atrocities that they have committed. We have to be extremely cautious and observing and monitoring their actions. They have indirectly pretty much provided their operation framework in their conference yesterday. So, based on that we as within the world community need to keep a close eye on how they are operating. It is wonderful to see that after their press conference, we see protests because of the change of flag all over. The Taliban have no experience in running a proper government, yes, they were shadow government but when it comes to proper operations, it takes skills, it takes experience and it takes education.”

Mir said, “We must start from the Doha agreement and I think that agreement was signed last year and Taliban made a promise to the international community that they will try their level best to resolve this issue through a negotiated settlement. But you see they entered Kabul with the military might and I think that was the violation of the Doha agreement. Now they have made some excuses that Kabul was abandoned as Ashraf Ghani escaped, police left the check posts, so there was chaos and so that is why the entered the city. But I think that now this is a great challenge for them.”

Kishan said, “So Mercy Corps has been in Afghanistan since 1986 and we have worked over the last close to four decades in Afghanistan and all over the place. We have been in in eight provinces currently in Afghanistan. What we have seen over the last two months, to be more precise, is intensification of fight, which has led to people moving in from their villages, from their homes into district headquarters or provincial headquarters.”

“We have seen a large number of people move from north of Afghanistan to Kabul. This has actually added about 390,000 internally displaced people to the existing 3.5 million displaced Afghans in the country. This actually adds to the existing 18 million people who need humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan like Mercy Corps many other humanitarian organisations have been working, providing much-needed life-saving humanitarian support, including food, water and sanitation, shelter protection support. So what we have seen is a large influx of displaced population in Kabul in provincial headquarters.”

(Edited by : Bivekananda Biswas)

First Published:Aug 18, 2021 8:07 PM IST