New Afghan cabinet ‘today’

The Taliban said yesterday they were close to forming a new government, as dozens of women held a rare protest for the right to work under a new regime that faces enormous economic hurdles and deep public mistrust.

The Islamist militants, who have pledged a softer brand of rule than during their brutal reign of 1996-2001, must now transform from insurgent group to governing power.

The announcement of a cabinet, which two Taliban sources told AFP may take place today following afternoon prayers, would come just days after the chaotic pullout of US forces from Afghanistan, ending America's longest war with an astounding military victory for the Islamist group.

In one of the most symbolic moments since the takeover of Kabul on August 15, the militants paraded Wednesday some of the military hardware they had captured during their offensive, even flying a Black Hawk helicopter over Kandahar, their movement's spiritual heartland.

Now, all eyes are on whether the Taliban can deliver a cabinet capable of managing a war-wracked economy and honour the movement's pledges of a more "inclusive" government.

Speculation is rife about the make-up of a new government, although a senior official said Wednesday that women were unlikely to be included.

Senior leader Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai -- a hardliner in the first Taliban administration -- told BBC Pashto in an interview that while women could continue working, there "may not" be a place for them in the cabinet of any future government or any other top post.

In the western city of Herat, some 50 women took to the streets in a rare, defiant protest for the right to work and over the lack of women's participation in the new government.

"It is our right to have education, work and security," the protesters chanted in unison, said an AFP journalist who witnessed the protest. "We are not afraid, we are united," they added.

Herat is a relatively cosmopolitan city on the ancient silk road near the Iranian border. It is one of the more prosperous in Afghanistan and girls have already returned to school there.

One of the organisers of the protest, Basira Taheri, told AFP she wanted the Taliban to include women in the new cabinet.

"We want the Taliban to hold consultations with us," Taheri said. "We don't see any women in their gatherings and meetings."

Among the 122,000 people who fled Afghanistan in a frenzied US-led airlift that ended on Monday was the first female Afghan journalist to interview a Taliban official live on television.

Speaking to AFP in Qatar, the former anchor for the Tolo News media group said women in Afghanistan were "in a very bad situation".

"I want to say to the international community -- please do anything (you can) for Afghan women," Beheshta Arghand said.

'BUSINESS BELOW ZERO'

Women's rights were not the only major concern in the lead-up to the Taliban's announcement of a new government.

In Kabul, residents voiced worry over the country's long-running economic difficulties, now seriously compounded by the militant movement's takeover.

"With the arrival of the Taliban, it's right to say that there is security, but business has gone down below zero," Karim Jan, an electronic goods shop owner, told AFP.

On Wednesday, a Qatar Airways flight landed at the trashed airport in Kabul -- a first step towards getting the facility back up and running as a crucial lifeline for aid.

Qatar is working with the Taliban to reopen the airport as soon as possible, its foreign minister said yesterday, urging the hardline Islamists to allow Afghans to leave.

"Hopefully in the next few days we will hear some good news," Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told a news conference in Doha.

A source with knowledge of the matter said the goal was to resume flights both for humanitarian aid and to provide freedom of movement, including the resumption of evacuation efforts.

More than 123,000 foreign nationals and Afghans fled the country in the airlift operation, but many more are desperate to depart.

FIGHTING OVER VALLEY

Taliban forces and fighters loyal to local leader Ahmad Massoud, fought in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley yesterday, with each side saying it had inflicted heavy casualties in recent days of combat in the last province resisting Taliban rule.

Following the fall of Kabul on August 15, several thousand fighters from local militias and the remnants of army and special forces units have massed in Panjshir.

The Taliban said it has failed to find a peaceful resolution with the resistance movement due to the "irrational demands" it put forward, according to Al Jazeera's Rob McBride reporting from Kabul.

Taliban fighters had entered Panjshir and taken control of some territory, the group's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said yesterday.

However, a spokesman for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRFA), a grouping of rebels, said it had full control of all passes and entrances and had driven back efforts to take Shotul district at the entrance to the valley.

The spokesman said NRFA forces had also killed large numbers of Taliban fighters on two fronts since clashes first broke out earlier in the week.