On Wednesday, at least one person was killed and several injured as the Taliban violently dispersed protesters who raised the Afghan national flag and lowered the Taliban’s own flag.

The Taliban’s co-founder returned to Afghanistan on Tuesday.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar’s arrival from Qatar came as a top spokesman declared a general amnesty and insisted the group would not seek revenge.

In their first news conference on Tuesday since seizing power, the Taliban said the war in Afghanistan was over and that all their opponents would be pardoned.

Afghan VP Amrullah Saleh said on Twitter on Tuesday that he is in Afghanistan and is the “legitimate caretaker president.”

The White House says that the U.S. military has evacuated more than 3,200 people from Afghanistan so far, including 1,100 on Tuesday alone.

The U.S. military said that it was stepping up its evacuation from Afghanistan, that the Taliban were not interrupting operations at the Kabul airport, and that they were confident that the removal of thousands of U.S. citizens and Afghans would continue over the coming days.

Biden has given the U.S. military a deadline of AUG 31.

However, German and French governments said that Taliban checkpoints around Kabul airport are blocking Afghans from accessing the terminal, making it difficult for the West to evacuate local staff who worked for the Western forces.

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with British PM Boris Johnson on Tuesday about Afghanistan, and they agreed to hold a virtual G7 leaders’ meeting next week to discuss a common strategy and approach.

Thursday marks 102 years since Afghanistan gained independence from the British.

 

Aljazeera/Agencies.