Destruction in Afghanistan: Taliban captures Kandahar, reaches very close to Kabul

After Ghazni, Herat and Lashkargah, the Taliban have captured Afghanistan’s strategic city and provincial capital Kandahar as well as Firoz Koh, the capital of Ghor province. Kandahar province is considered the birth place of Taliban. Now the Taliban has taken control of about two-thirds of the territory, including the entire southern part of Afghanistan. Now he is just 90 km away from Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Although there is no direct threat to Kabul at the moment, the latest forecast from US military intelligence is that at this pace the Taliban will take control of the capital in the next 30 days.

Taliban fighters advanced past the Great Mosque in the historic city and captured government buildings. Witnesses said there was intermittent firing from a government building, while the rest of the area saw peace due to Taliban occupation. The US is sending 3,000 troops to evacuate personnel from the US embassy in Kabul in view of the deteriorating security situation. At the same time, Britain will also deploy about 600 soldiers there for some time to help its citizens get out of the country. Canada is also preparing to deploy special forces to Afghanistan to evacuate its staff before closing the Canadian embassy in Kabul. On the other hand, in the occupied areas, the Taliban have started forcing local women to marry fighters.

Kandahar is the birthplace of Taliban, India’s hijacked plane landed here
Kandahar is the same place where the Taliban was first captured in the 1990s and the terrorists declared the country an Islamic country by overthrowing the Najibullah government sitting in Kabul. Kandahar is the second largest city of the decade and due to the birth of the Taliban movement, it is also called the capital of terrorists. In 1999, Indian Airlines plane IC-814 was hijacked and brought here. Mullah Mohammad Omar, the founder of the Taliban, was born in Kandahar. After this, in 2001, the US military had killed the Taliban from this city with a population of six lakhs. About 26 thousand soldiers of US and NATO armies were stationed at the airport here, but now these soldiers have evacuated the entire area.

Ghazni also captured
An Afghan parliamentarian and two Afghan officials have confirmed that Taliban militants have captured the provincial capital of Ghazni. A fierce fighting was going on here for the last several hours. Fighting continues on the outskirts of the capital, but the Taliban have raised their flag in the capital. On the other hand, the Taliban have also captured the police headquarters by attacking with a car bomb in Lashkargah, the capital of Helmand province. Helmand MP Naseema Niazi said some police officers had surrendered to the Taliban after taking over the headquarters building. On the other hand, he has freed more than 1,000 prisoners from six Afghan cities occupied by the Taliban. Most of them were sentenced for drug trafficking, kidnapping and armed robbery, said Safiullah Jalalzai, director of prison administration.

Many Taliban terrorists were among the freed prisoners.
There were also many Taliban terrorists in the six cities in which the Taliban have freed convicts of drug trafficking, armed robbery and kidnapping. 180 Taliban terrorists were among the 630 prisoners released in Kunduz. Of these, 15 were sentenced to death by the Afghan government. Of the 350 prisoners released from the city of Zaranj in Nimroj province, 40 were Taliban terrorists. However, the Afghan government has said that after capturing the terrorists, all the prisoners released from the prison will be caught again.

no casualties reported
After capturing the police headquarters of Lashkargah, the capital of Helmand province, Afghan forces here surrendered to the Taliban and others moved to the governor’s office located nearby. It is still controlled by government forces. MP Nasima Niazi said that it is not yet known how many people have been injured in this attack. They fear many casualties in this attack.

Imran’s pain: America’s choice is India
Pak PM Imran Khan expressed his pain while talking to foreign journalists at his home. Taking a dig at the US, he said, Washington sees Pakistan as being used in the 20-year war in Afghanistan and prefers India when it comes to strategic partnership. He said, America considers Pakistan beneficial only to clean up the mess spread in Afghanistan. “I think the Americans have decided that their strategic partner is now India and that is why they are treating Pakistan differently,” Khan said.

Taliban will not compromise under Ghani’s presidency
Amidst the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, Pakistan PM Imran Khan has said that the terrorist group will not talk to the Afghan government as long as Ashraf Ghani is the country’s President. Keeping his mind, he said that in the current situation, political settlement is looking difficult. He said, I tried to persuade the Taliban but they said that we cannot talk without Ghani.

Ghani appoints new Chief of Army Staff
President Ashraf Ghani has appointed Haibatullah Alizai as the new Chief of Army Staff to curb the Taliban’s fast-moving moves in Afghanistan. Ghani has replaced Wali Mohammad Ahmedzai. The Afghanistan Times reported that Alizai had previously served as the commander of the Afghan National Army commandos.

Afghan leadership should decide whether it has the will to fight: White House
Washington. With the Taliban taking over much of Afghanistan, the White House said it was up to the Afghan leadership to decide whether they had the political will to retaliate. “The US has trained Afghanistan’s national military for two decades and they have the capability and weapons to retaliate against the Taliban,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. The US is closely monitoring the deteriorating security situation in the war-torn country, he said. They said, We will continue to conduct air strikes with Afghan forces.

Nearly 400,000 people displaced this year: UN
Nearly four lakh people have been displaced since the beginning of this year amid deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, especially in May. This information has been given by the spokesman of United Nations Chief Antonio Guterres. Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said some 390,000 people have been displaced by conflict in the country since the beginning of this year, the number of which has risen sharply in May. Between July 1 and August 5, 2021, the humanitarian community verified that 5,800 internally displaced people arrived in Kabul, pleading for protection from conflict and other threats.