Hundreds of people braved sub-zero temperatures in Afghanistan’s capital to queue outside the passport office early Sunday, a day after the Taliban government announced it would resume issuing travel documents, IgbereTV reports.
Many began their wait the previous night and most stood patiently in single file — some desperate to leave the country for medical treatment, others to escape the Islamists’ renewed rule.
Tense Taliban personnel periodically charged crowds that formed at the front of the queue and at a nearby roadblock.
“We don’t want any suicide attack or explosion to happen,” said Taliban security operative Ajmal Toofan, 22, expressing concerns about the dangers of crowding.
The local branch of the Islamic State group, the Taliban’s principal enemy, killed more than 150 people in late August when citizens massed at Kabul airport in a desperate bid to leave during the early days of the new regime.
“Our responsibility here is to protect people,” Toofan added calmly, his gun pointed professionally towards the ground. “But the people are not cooperating
