International Desk :
At least 17 people were killed in celebratory gunfire in Kabul, news agencies said on Saturday, after Taliban sources said their fighters had seized control of Panjshir, the last province in Afghanistan holding out against the Islamist group.
Leaders of opposition to the Taliban have denied that the province has fallen.
The Shamshad news agency said “aerial shooting” in Kabul on Friday killed 17 people and wounded 41. Tolo news agency gave a similar toll.
At least 14 people were injured in celebratory firing in Nangarhar province east of the capital, said Gulzada
Sangar, spokesman for an area hospital in the provincial capital of Jalalabad.
The gunfire drew a rebuke from the main Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid.
“Avoid shooting in the air and thank God instead,” Mujahid said in a message on Twitter. “Bullets can harm civilians, so don’t shoot unnecessarily.”
Meanwhile, many Afghan women in the city of Jalalabad have expressed concerns about the return of Taliban rule in the country, even as the armed group gave assurance that it has changed its ways.
Mushkan Babri, a teacher in Jalalabad, told Al Jazeera’s Osama bin Javaid that while she understands people’s fears, she has decided to stay in the country and study to become a doctor.
Female health workers have also returned to work at the Nangarhar Regional Hospital, even as the Taliban imposed new rules on gender segregation.
“Nearly all the women we have spoken to said that they are nervous about what will happen under the Taliban,” Javaid said, quoting the same women as saying that the Taliban members have been “respectful” since they returned to the city as rulers.
Besides, a technical team has been able to reopen Kabul airport to receive aid and that it would be prepared for civilian flights soon, according to Qatar’s ambassador to Afghanistan.
The runway at Kabul airport has been repaired in cooperation with authorities in Afghanistan, the ambassador added.
The United States Congress is expected to finance the United Nations’ humanitarian work in Afghanistan but is unlikely to directly fund a new Taliban-led government, according to US officials, as the world body prepares to discuss aid for the war-torn country.
UN chief Antonio Guterres is travelling to Geneva to convene a high-level conference on aid for Afghanistan on September 13.
Even before the Taliban victory, Afghanistan was heavily aid-dependent – with 40 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) drawn from foreign funding.
The Taliban has yet to form a government, but there have been reports that an announcement is imminent.
Meanwhile, fighting continues between the Taliban and resistance fighters in Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, raising fears of more civilians being displaced.
