Taliban fighters enjoy amusement park rides after capturing Kabul

Mangalore Today News Network / News18

Kabul, Aug 17, 2021: Taliban members were seen on amusement park rides on Monday, a day after they captured Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul. Reuters journalist Hamid Shalizi, who is based in Kabul, shared the videos on Twitter. The Taliban fighters, some of them with weapons in hand, could be seen enjoying a ride on the electric bumper cars in the videos. In another video, Taliban fighters can be seen riding small merry-go-round horses.

 

Recently, social media has been flooded with scenes from Afghanistan as the Taliban capture power. One video doing the rounds on the internet shows a few Talibani insurgents moving around the streets with a reporter’s microphone and asking people to share how happy they are under the ‘Talibani rule’. And what’s more appalling is that one of the companions of the said ‘reporters’ seems to be carrying a gun in his hand, although he keeps it lowered. The video was originally shared on Twitter by an account called @Zabehulah_M33, and it claims to be the Official twitter account of the spokesman of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Zabihullah Mujahid.

 

#Kabul amusement park #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/ELK0GjrwAm

— Hamid Shalizi (@HamidShalizi) August 16, 2021

Videos are also being shared widely on social media showing members of the Taliban inside the ornate house of General Abdul Rashid Dostum, a US-allied warlord. The men, some of whom are armed, can be seen sitting on the opulent furniture and taking out a gold drinking set from inside a shelf. According to a report by Al Arabiya, the Taliban entered the northern city of Mazar-i-sharif, where General Dostum’s house is located, almost unopposed as security forces fled towards Uzbekistan. One video shows the Taliban members huddled in groups inside General Dostum’s house, eating and drinking.

 

Another one #Kabul pic.twitter.com/dLTRP2KZOX

— Hamid Shalizi (@HamidShalizi) August 16, 2021

Currently, panic prevails around Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International airport after firing took place, sources told News18, adding that the Taliban militants are opening fire at people for “normal traffic violations”. President Joe Biden, meanwhile, defended the US pullout from Afghanistan today, saying he stood by the policy and that it was time to leave after 20 years of conflict. The US leader acknowledged that the Afghan government collapsed more quickly than he expected — and suggested that they had lacked the will to stand up to the Taliban.