Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of the capital Kabul chanting anti-Pakistan slogans and calling for "freedom", a day after resistance leader Ahmad Massoud called for an "uprising" against the Taliban rule, Aljazeera reported Tuesday.
The demonstrations - which ranged in size from several hundred to a few dozen - began on Tuesday morning and continued into the afternoon before they were dispersed by the Taliban fighters firing into the air, protesters told Al Jazeera.
Journalists also said that they were prohibited from filming, with TOLO News, a private broadcaster based in Kabul, saying at least one of their cameramen was detained for filming the protests.
A source in the traffic police from the previous administration speaking to Al Jazeera from near the entrance to the Presidential Palace, said they saw the Taliban destroy several cameras and arrest journalists as they followed protesters towards the palace.
The protests came after the Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid warned against any challenge to their rule after capturing the Panjshir Valley, completing their control in all the 34 provinces of the country.
"No one is allowed to create chaos in any corner of the country," Mujahid said at a news conference in Kabul on Monday.
Demos outside Pakistan Embassy
The demonstrators had gathered outside the Pakistan Embassy to accuse Islamabad of aiding the Taliban's assault on northern Panjshir province, the Associated Press reported.
The Taliban said Monday they seized the province, the last not in their control, after their blitz through Afghanistan last month.
Afghanistan's
previous government routinely accused Pakistan of aiding the Taliban, a charge
Islamabad has denied. Former vice-president Amrullah Saleh, one of the leaders
of the anti-Taliban forces, has long been an outspoken critic of neighboring
Pakistan, the AP said.
Dozens of women were among the protesters
Tuesday. Some of them carried signs bemoaning the killing of their sons by
Taliban fighters they say were aided by Pakistan. One sign read: "I am a mother
when you kill my son you kill a part of me."
On Saturday, Taliban special-forces troops in camouflage fired their weapons into the air to end a protest march in the capital by Afghan women demanding equal rights from the new rulers.
The Taliban again moved quickly and harshly to end Tuesday's protest when it arrived near the presidential palace. They fired their weapons into the air and arrested several journalists covering the demonstration. In one case, Taliban waving Kalashnikov rifles took a microphone from a journalist and began beating him with it, breaking the microphone. The journalist was later handcuffed and detained for several hours, according to AP.
Protests quelled forcefully
An anti-Pakistan demonstration in Afghanistan's capital was forcefully quelled by the Taliban on Tuesday, Anadolu News Agency reported.
Gunshots echoed in Kabul's Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood as the Taliban resorted to heavy aerial firing to disperse over 100 men and women chanting slogans against Pakistan, which they accused of aiding the Taliban in their push to capture the last holdout province of Panjshir.
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