Taliban meet with ex-leader Hamid Karzai, quash protesters in Jalalabad

One day afer telling the world that they are no longer the brutal militant force that ruled Afghanistan during the 1990s, the Taliban on Wednesday moved to quell a protest in the country that opposed their takeover.

Taliban fighters fired into the crowd of demonstrators in Jalalabad in one of the frst glimpses of how the fundamentalist group may handle dissent going forward. Jalalabad is Afghanistan’s ffh-largest city.

Activists at the rally held the national fag of Afghanistan in the streets of Jalalabad to voice disapproval of the Taliban’s swif and surprising takeover in the capital of Kabul this week.

Witnesses said members of the group, who have been patrolling virtually the entire city of Kabul and provinces throughout the country this week, attempted to break up the show of opposition by frst fring into the air and then into the crowd when they refused to disperse.

Part of the event included raising the Afghan national fag to commemorate Afghanistan’s independence from British rule in 1919, and lowering the Taliban fag.

Al Jazeera reported that at least two people were killed in the fracas and several were hurt.

The show of force came less than a day afer Taliban leaders sought to present a new image to the world in a news conference from the presidential palace on Tuesday