The Taliban on Tuesday asked skilled Afghans to stop fleeing the country. Speaking through its spokesperson on Tuesday, the militant warned that it would not accept any extension of the August 31 deadline for evacuation.
The hardline Islamic group alleged that the United States Government was taking “Afghan Experts” such as Engineers, Doctors out of Afghanistan.
“We ask them to stop this process,” spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said at a press conference in Kabul.
“This country needs their expertise. They should not be taken to other countries,” Mujahid added.
The spokesman of the Taliban laid out a series of demands in a live broadcast on Tuesday as US-led troops have ramped up operations to get thousands of people out of Kabul.
The spokesman repeated the group’s earlier announcement that the Taliban would not allow the US to extend next week’s deadline for a complete withdrawal.
“They have planes, they have the airport, they should get their citizens and contractors out of here,” said Mujahid.
The Taliban also tried to offer assurances, promising that women would be allowed to return to the workforce once security was established in the country.
“We want them to work but we want the security to be right,” he told reporters.
The US President, Joe Biden has said he hoped to stick to the August 31 deadline he set to pull out American forces, but he is facing pressure from European allies and Britain to go beyond the dates.
According to the United States government, about 50,000 foreigners and Afghans have fled the country from its capital’s airport since the Taliban took over about nine days ago.
Many Afghans fear a repeat of the brutal interpretation of Islamic Law the Taliban implemented when they were first in power from 1996-2001, and retribution for working with the US-backed government over the past two decades.
The Taliban, who ended two decades of war with an astonishingly swift rout of government forces, have been publicly tolerant of the evacuation effort.
