Amrullah Saleh, Afghanistan\u2019s former vice president, has described the capital Kabul and other cities across the country as \u201cgrieving\u201d on the fifth anniversary of the Taliban administration\u2019s return to power, saying the day is a sign of a \u201cnational loss\u201d for the people, not an occasion for celebration.<\/p>\n
He said that in the streets and roads of Kabul, apart from members of the Taliban administration, no one feels festive, and the atmosphere in Afghanistan\u2019s cities is \u201clike a funeral home.\u201d According to him, the flags installed by the Taliban administration have turned the face of the capital into something resembling a \u201cshroud.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saleh also described Afghanistan, from the perspective of its people and the international community, as still an \u201cunresolved case,\u201d saying the country is still seen as an unfinished matter, not a stable nation-state. He added that the Taliban administration\u2019s version cannot treat the current crisis.<\/p>\n
The former vice president also criticised how the Taliban administration came to power and called on the group to publish the \u201chidden annexes of the Doha Agreement.\u201d He said the Taliban administration itself knows it came to power as a result of \u201ca deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
In another part of his remarks, Saleh also questioned the Taliban administration\u2019s economic performance, saying the group has spent about 50 billion Afghanis over the past five years on public works and development programmes, but, according to him, has spent several times that amount on a \u201crepressive policy.\u201d He claimed that if the budget were made public, it would become clear that the Taliban administration\u2019s priority is strengthening repressive structures and providing for the livelihood of its forces, not the welfare of the people.<\/p>\n
These remarks come as the Taliban administration on Saturday marked the fifth anniversary of its return to power in Kabul and hoisted its flags in a number of cities. Several diplomats, including the ambassadors of Russia and China, were also present at the Kabul ceremony.<\/p>\n
At the same time, some citizens on social media referred to 24 Asad as a \u201cblack day\u201d in Afghanistan\u2019s modern history and pointed to its bitter political and social consequences. 24 Asad corresponds to 15 August, the day the Taliban regained control of Kabul in 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Amrullah Saleh marks the Taliban’s return anniversary as a day of mourning, criticising its rule, budget priorities and rise to power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}