Afghan police have resumed work at Kabul airport checkpoints alongside the Taliban, two officers were told on Sunday, a first since the Islamist movement took power on August 15.
Members of the Afghan police were at several checkpoints outside the main airport buildings on Sunday, an AFP journalist said on the spot.
“I returned to work yesterday, more than two weeks after being sent home,” one of the police officers told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“I received a call from a senior Taliban commander who asked me to come back. It was great yesterday. Very happy to serve again, ”said another.
An airport employee, in charge of security for a private company, confirmed that the police had been deployed around the airport as early as Saturday.
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“They are providing security with the Taliban,” he told AFP, a week after the country’s new masters called on ex-government forces to join the new security services.
Twenty years after being ousted from power by a coalition led by the United States, the Taliban took control of the country on August 15 after a lightning military offensive.
Their arrival in power gave rise to scenes of chaos at the Kabul airport at the end of August, with thousands of Afghans, frightened by the return of the Taliban, desperately trying to board the gigantic airlift organized by the United States, among others. United States.
In recent days, signs of the start of a return to normal at the airport have multiplied.
Two charter flights operated by Qatar Airways took off this week, with foreign nationals and Afghans on board who could not be evacuated at first.
Pakistani national airline PIA, for its part, hoped to be able to resume commercial flights between Islamabad and Kabul on Monday.
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