KABUL — A Taliban official on Tuesday announced a general “amnesty” for all in Afghanistan and urged women to join the government following the movement’s lightning takeover of the country.

Enamullah Samangani made the comments on Afghan state television, which the militants appeared to now control, referring to Afghanistan as the Islamic Emirate — their name for the country.

“The Islamic Emirate don’t want women to be victims,” Samangani, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, said. He also declared an “amnesty” for all in Afghanistan, although he did not provide any details as to what that would entail.

The statements will be greeted with skepticism by many Afghans, who have come to expect that the militants will bar women from public activities and have already cracked down brutally in some communities and cities they have conquered.

A female news anchor talks to a member of the Taliban on Afghan news channel Tolo News.Tolo News

Another possible indication of the Taliban’s intentions and sensitives about their public image came when a spokesman for the group was interviewed by female reporter on Afghanistan’s largest private broadcaster, TOLO TV — something that wouldn’t have been possible during the previous Taliban regime.

After conquering much of the country, the militants were clearly intent on taking control of the the capital and checkpoints dotted Kabul’s streets. Some markets, shops and offices also opened and there were no reports of violence or fighting in the city of some 5 million people.

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Al Jazeera journalist Charlotte Bellis said she returned to her hotel Monday evening to find that the Taliban had taken over security and were standing outside the building with assault rifles.

“They had parked their U.S.-made Humvees outside. Said good evening. They looked startled… Welcome to the new Kabul,” she tweeted.

The developments followed chaos in the country’s capital after the swift departure of President Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban takeover of Kabul over the weekend.

Taliban fighters take control of Afghan presidential palace after the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country in Kabul.Zabi Karimi / AP

Panicked Afghans mobbed the airport in an attempt to get flights out of the country as the United States and other governments rushed to evacuate their citizens.

While calm did return to Kabul’s international airport on Tuesday, Monday saw hundreds of Afghans rush the runway and hang off a U.S. Air Force flight as it took off, with several plunging to their deaths in the chaos that killed at least seven people.

Meanwhile, Afghan women have been raising concerns about their future under a Taliban government, which had previously stripped them of almost all their rights.

On Tuesday, a small group of women took to the streets for a peaceful gathering in Kabul. Wearing hijabs, they held up signs that demanded work, education and political participation for women.

When the group ruled Afghanistan between 1996 to 2001, they enacted laws that made women and girls almost invisible in public life. They could not appear on television and were not heard on the radio, their rights all but eliminated in most areas of life, including attending school.

“We hope that the Taliban will focus on improving the security situation in Afghanistan and that there will be a change from the Taliban who did not allow girls to go to school in the past,” Kabul resident Aminura told the Associated Press.

U.S.-led forces had overturned the Taliban at the end of 2001 after they refused to hand over Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, the architect behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Aug. 16, 202103:22

A resolute U.S. President Joe Biden stated in an address on Monday that he stood “squarely behind” his decision to withdraw American forces and acknowledged the “gut-wrenching” images unfolding in Kabul. Biden said he had faced a choice between honoring a previously negotiated withdrawal agreement or sending thousands of more troops back to begin a third decade of war.

“After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces,” Biden said in a televised address from the White House.

The Associated Press, Gabe Joselow and Richard Engel contributed.

Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com

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