VIDEO: Afghan Taliban urge women to join government

Gulf Today Report

A Taliban official on Afghan state TV said militants 'don't want women to be victims;' urging them to be in government.

Calm returned to Kabul's international airport on Tuesday after a chaotic day saw hundreds of Afghans fleeing the Taliban rush the runway and hang off a US Air Force flight.

An Afghan woman wearing a traditional burqa walks on the side of a road on the outskirts of Kabul. File/Reuters

Enamullah Samangani, member of Islamic Emirate’s cultural commission, made the comments on Tuesday on Afghan state television, which the militants now control.

"The Islamic Emirate don't want women to be victims," he said, using the militants' term for Afghanistan.

He added: "The structure of government is not fully clear, but based on experience, there should be a fully Islamic leadership and all sides should join.”

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

Earlier, the crowds came on Monday while the Taliban enforced their rule over the capital of 5 million people after a lightning advance across the country that took just over a week to dethrone the country’s Western-backed government. There were no major reports of abuses or fighting, but many residents stayed home and remained fearful after the insurgents’ takeover saw prisons emptied and armories looted.

Extraordinary footage shows men running alongside the US Air Force’s Boeing C-17 as it is taxiing down the runway before take-off.

It has also been reported that at least two people, who were holding on to a plane, allegedly fell from the sky after the aircraft took off from Kabul airport.

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It is alleged that it the plane they fell from is the same USAF aircraft that is in the video.

A man pulls a girl to get inside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Monday. Reuters

In astonishing scenes at Kabul airport on Monday, scores of desperate Afghanis were seen scaling the air bridge of an aircraft from all sides in a last-ditch attempt to escape the Taliban.

Videos on social media showed chaotic scenes as thousands of people rushed to escape the country after the Taliban captured the capital, writes The Independent’s Shweta Sharma.