Abdul Ghani Baradar, considered the Taliban’s top political leader, has reportedly arrived in the capital Kabul on Saturday as the Islamist group eyes the formation of the new government.
Baradar, who served as a negotiator for peace talks in Doha, Qatar, and is the likely next leader of Afghanistan, is in the capital to meet “jihadi leaders and politicians for an inclusive government set-up,” a senior Taliban official told Agence France-Presse. The Associated Press, Reuters and BBC confirmed the Kabul arrival of Baradar, who has been in the country since Tuesday after the Taliban swept to power.
Baradar, who cofounded the Taliban in 1994 and was arrested in Pakistan in 2010 in a joint operation with the United States, is meeting with former government leaders, local militia commanders, policymakers and religious scholars in the country, a Taliban official told Reuters. The Taliban’s “legal, religious and foreign policy experts” are planning to unveil a new model for governing the country within the next few weeks, an official also told the outlet, insisting it would “protect everyone’s rights” even if not a democracy by the Western definition.
A Taliban commander declared this week that the group would govern by sharia law. The group enforced a harsh interpretation of Islamic religious law when it last controlled the country from 1996 to 2001, and there have been multiple recent reports of militants seeking out Afghans who may have worked with foreign forces, beating Afghans trying to reach Kabul airport and barring women from entering their workplaces or schools.
Meanwhile, former Afghan president Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, a senior official in the toppled government, met the acting Taliban governor of Kabul on Saturday. Abdullah said in a tweet that the priority was “protecting the life, property & dignity of the citizens of the capital.” Karzai and Abdullah have also met other senior Taliban leaders in recent days, in what Karzai’s spokesman has previously described as a step towards negotiations with Baradar.
Here’s what to know
President Biden vowed Friday to get all Americans out of Afghanistan, even while insisting he “cannot promise what the final outcome will be” of the “dangerous” mission. Biden said the United States had evacuated about 13,000 people from Afghanistan since last Saturday.
The United States has started using additional bases for Afghanistan evacuations, after an air base in Qatar reached capacity, temporarily halting evacuation flights.
At Kabul airport, chaotic and violent scenes continue to unfold as thousands attempt to evacuate the country despite Taliban fighters blocking their path. Read a Post reporter’s account of the treacherous escape.
The Pentagon is not ruling out more U.S. rescue operations, after 169 Americans were evacuated by Army helicopter from a hotel near Kabul airport Thursday in an expansion of the military’s operation.
As journalists evacuate, they face a new question: How to cover Afghanistan now?
By Paul Farhi and Jennifer Hassan7:51 a.m.
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This image provided by CNN shows the network’s Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward, right, reporting this week in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Brent Swails/CNN via AP)
This image provided by CNN shows the network’s Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward, right, reporting this week in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Brent Swails/CNN via AP)
CNN reporter Clarissa Ward headed out of Afghanistan for Doha on Friday, after days of reporting on the front lines of the country’s violent conflict. On Saturday, she took to Twitter to confirm she had landed safely along with almost 300 Afghan evacuees.
“Huge thanks to all of you for your support and concern, to the US Air Force for flying us out and to Qatar for welcoming us,” she tweeted. “We are the lucky ones.”
On our flight and getting ready for takeoff pic.twitter.com/bGaYREsbxT
— Clarissa Ward (@clarissaward) August 20, 2021
Ward, along with other journalists reporting from the country, have been widely hailed for their bravery in telling the stories of local Afghans attempting to flee Taliban rule. Their reporting has captured the palpable sense of the danger and uncertainty engulfing Afghanistan in the aftermath of the Taliban’s rapid takeover.
The question is now how to cover the country. American news organizations have hastened to pull their correspondents and Afghan employees and family members out of Kabul over the past few days — an exodus bound to create a news vacuum, with few outsiders able to bear witness to conditions inside the country. On Tuesday, a group of Washington Post employees, including Afghan journalists and their families, also safely departed the Afghan capital.
At the same time, there’s little expectation that the Taliban will permit anything like independent reporting from inside what the group now calls the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The Taliban suppressed journalists in the pockets of the country it previously controlled, just as it cracked down on other basic rights.
“I didn’t want to leave Afghanistan. I felt ashamed that I was abandoning such an important job,” The Post’s Susannah George wrote as she recalled her escape.