After 20 years hiatus, Taliban flag flies high

KABUL, Afghanistan－The Taliban raised their flag over the Afghan presidential palace on Saturday, a spokesman said, as the United States and the world marked the 20th anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks in the US.

The white banner emblazoned with a Quranic verse was hoisted by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the prime minister of the Taliban interim government, in a low-key ceremony, said Ahmadullah Muttaqi, multimedia branch chief of the Taliban's cultural commission.

The flag-raising marked the official start of the new government, he said. The composition of the government was announced last week.

Afghanistan's former president Hamid Karzai called for "peace and stability" in a Tweet and expressed the hope that the new caretaker cabinet would become an "inclusive government that can be the real face of the whole Afghanistan".

He marked the 20th anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks with a meeting of tribal elders in his high-walled compound in the Afghan capital, where he has remained with his family since the return of the Taliban to Kabul last month.

Universities open to girls

With women's rights in the country attracting much international attention, the Taliban announced that women can study in universities, including at postgraduate level, but classrooms will be gender-segregated and Islamic dress code will be compulsory.

In a sign that things were returning to normal, Pakistan International Airlines said on Saturday that it would resume flights to Kabul from Monday, the first foreign commercial service since the Taliban seized power last month. The schedule would depend on demand, the airline said.

"We have got all technical clearances for flight operations," Agence France-Presse quoted a spokesman as saying.

"Our first commercial plane …is scheduled to fly from Islamabad to Kabul on Sept 13. We will make the decision about the regular commercial operations in due course after assessing the situation."

On Sunday police at Kabul airport returned to work manning checkpoints alongside Taliban security for the first time since the Islamic group seized power.

An AFP reporter at the airport saw border police members deployed at several checkpoints outside the main buildings of the airport, including the domestic terminal.

"I came back to work yesterday more than two weeks after being sent home," one of the police force members said.

Kabul airport was severely damaged during the evacuation of more than 120,000 people that ended with the withdrawal of US forces on Aug 30.

The Taliban have been scrambling to get it operating again with Qatari technical assistance.

In the past few days Qatar Airways has operated two charter flights out of Kabul, carrying mostly foreigners and Afghans who missed earlier evacuation flights.

Two aircraft from the United Arab Emirates landed on Saturday carrying aid supplies including meat, powdered milk, cooking oil and other items, part of what an official called a "humanitarian air bridge".

On Friday the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that engaging the Taliban and providing humanitarian aid to the Afghan people are crucial if a humanitarian catastrophe and an economic meltdown are to be avoided.

"These are two things that are interlinked, and they depend on how they evolve," he said in New York. "For the moment, what is important is to have engagement. That engagement is necessary, and at the same time there is an absolute priority, which is humanitarian support."

The UN has been in Afghanistan since 1947, he said, and has a key role to play in humanitarian aid to people now in desperate need.

"We believe that a dialogue with the Taliban is absolutely essential at the present moment."

Speaking about the economic situation in the country, Guterres said "an economic meltdown of Afghanistan is in nobody's interest".

Agencies - Xinhua