Taliban ‘Lock Women in Kabul Bank Basement’ After Thousands March for Freedom
RISING UP
Hoshang Hashimi/Getty
Thousands of anti-Taliban protesters took to the streets in Kabul on Tuesday, and reports say they were pushed back with with gunfire, arrests, and one video appeared to show women locked in a bank’s basement. BBC News reported that the protesters demanded that women’s rights were maintained and denounced Taliban rule before they were scattered by heavy gunfire. A BBC team was prevented from filming the protest, and a cameraman from the Afghan news network Tolo was detained. The head of news at Tolo posted a video of dozens of women in an underground parking lot with the caption: “Taliban kept tens of women in the basement of Azizi Bank to prevent them from joining protesters in Kabul streets, some eyewitnesses say.” The street protests came a day after after Ahmad Massoud, the leader of the forces resisting the Taliban, urged civilians to join a “national uprising” against Taliban fighters.