Sunday 12th September 2021
Service at the request of the Taliban
Afghan police back at the airport
At Kabul Airport, the next small step towards an orderly operation is taking place. The police have resumed their duties there after being asked to do so by the Taliban. Other airlines are already planning to fly to the airport again.
The Afghan police have resumed work at Kabul airport. Border police officers are at several checkpoints at the main airport building, as an AFP reporter reported. “You have been sharing security work with the Taliban (since Saturday),” said an employee of a private security company.
“I returned to work yesterday, more than two weeks after being sent home,” an Afghan border police officer told AFP. “I received a call from a senior Taliban commander asking me to come back,” said another. He was happy to be back on duty.
When the radical Islamic Taliban came to power in Kabul in mid-August, most state security forces had left their posts for fear of retaliation. The Islamists later announced a general amnesty for all employees of the previous government, including the army, police and other security services.
According to their own statements, they want to integrate the previous Afghan security forces, against whom they had only recently fought, into their ranks. So far, however, it is still unclear how the Taliban intend to maintain a security apparatus of around 600,000 men financially and logistically.
The capital’s airport was badly damaged in the course of the chaotic evacuation campaigns by western states from Afghanistan. With technical support from Qatar, the Taliban had recently tried to resume operations.
Qatar Airways has flown more people out of Kabul on charter flights in the past few days. An Afghan airline resumed domestic flights last week. Pakistan International Airlines plans to resume flights between Islamabad and Kabul on Monday.
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