Taliban parade in Kandahar as it showcases military hardware seized during takeover

The Taliban has been showcasing military hardware it captured in its takeover of Afghanistan, during a parade in the southern province of Kandahar.

Footage showed fighters sitting on top of pickup trucks, flying the group’s flag and driving a convoy of armoured vehicles through the streets.

Celebrations have erupted across Afghanistan after the US troops and its NATO allies withdrew from the country.

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Taliban supporters also paraded coffins draped with American and NATO flags in the Kandahar city of Khost on Tuesday.

The mock funeral included the carrying of coffins covered in French and British flags along the street through a large crowd.

It follows the final US troops leaving on flights from Kabul airport before Tuesday’s deadline which President Joe Biden set after the Taliban took power in mid-August.

Other recent developments in the country include:

• The Taliban has been focussing on keeping banks, hospitals and government machinery running following the US withdrawal.

• Thousands of people are flocking to the landlock nation’s borders after the airlift ended.

• Pictures showed long queues of people in Kabul outside banks as they tried to withdraw savings.

• Witnesses reported Taliban violence with one saying she saw fighters beating women with sticks outside a Kabul bank.

• Pakistan’s foreign minister has said he expects the country to have a new “consensus government” within days.

• The Taliban reported it has surrounded the only remaining province resisting its rule in Panjshir and called on the local militia and resistant fighters to negotiate a settlement.

• The UN has warned that food stocks in the country could run out this month.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticised the US, saying it achieved “zero” during its 20-year military presence in Afghanistan.

• The EU has said the collapse of Afghanistan’s government and the evacuation has highlighted the bloc’s need for its own rapid-reaction military force.

Since taking power, the Taliban has yet to name a new government or reveal how it intends to govern.

They are currently focussing on keeping essential services like banks, hospitals and government machinery running.

But the foreign minister of neighbouring Pakistan, which has close ties to the Taliban, said he expected Afghanistan to have a new “consensus government” within days.

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Taliban leaders have meanwhile called on Afghans to return home, promising to protect human rights in an apparent bid to present a more moderate stance than their first government in the 1990s, which enforced radical Islamic law.

But reports of violence from the Taliban continue with one woman saying she saw their fighters beating women with sticks outside a bank in the Afghan capital on Tuesday.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen something like that and it really frightened me,” the 22-year-old said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

It came as long queues formed at banks in Kabul on Wednesday as people tried to withdraw savings.

More than 123,000 people were evacuated from Kabul in the US-led airlift but tens of thousands of Afghans at risk are still in the country.

With Kabul’s airport now inoperable, private efforts to help people leave the country have shifted focus to seeking safe passages across the landlock nation’s borders with Iran, Pakistan and central Asian states.

At Torkham, a border crossing with Pakistan just east of the Khyber Pass, a Pakistani official said: “A large number of people are waiting on the Afghanistan side for the opening of the gate.”

Thousands also gathered at the Islam Qala post on the border with Iran, witnesses said.

The Taliban also said on Wednesday that it had surrounded the only remaining province resisting its rule.

Several thousand members of local militias and remnants of army units have been holding up in the mountainous Panjshir under the leadership of Ahmad Massoud.

The Taliban have called on these resistance fighters to negotiate a settlement.

Elsewhere on Wednesday, Ramiz Alakbarov, the local UN humanitarian coordinator, warned that food stocks in Afghanistan could run out this month, threatening to add a hunger crisis to the challenges facing the new rulers.

About one third of the country’s population of 38 million is facing “emergency” or “crisis” levels of food insecurity, he said.

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Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticised the United States’ involvement in Afghanistan, claiming its 20-year military presence in the country has achieved “zero”.

Senior EU officials have also said that the collapse of Afghanistan’s government, the Taliban’s takeover of the country and the rush to evacuate European citizens and Afghan employees have highlighted the bloc’s need for its own rapid-reaction military force.