At least three people shot dead and more than a dozen wounded in the eastern city of Jalalabad as militants signal a hard line on dissent

By Suddaf Chaudry IN KABUL ; Roland Oliphant ; Ben Farmer and Danielle Sheridan, Telegraph POLITICAL AND DEFENCE CORRESPONDENT

Taliban militants shot dead at least three people in three cities after protesters pulled down the group’s banner and raised the Afghan national flag in its place, in an early show of defiance to their rule. 

Witnesses said more than a dozen were also wounded after gunmen dispersed the protest in the eastern city of Jalalabad on Wednesday.  

The deaths appeared to signal a hardline on dissent that marred the militants’ promise not to exact reprisals and cast further doubt on the group’s offer of a general amnesty.

It came as Boris Johnson said Britain would judge the Taliban’s new government “by its actions, not its words” and Britain’s top general urged “patience” before deciding if the movement had evolved. 

General Sir Nick Carter, the Chief of Defence Staff, told Sky News: “I do think they have changed and recognise Afghanistan has evolved and the fundamental role women have played in that evolution.”

One man who called himself Wahid said the incident in Jalalabad began when protestors replaced the Taliban’s flag with the national tricolour near the city’s Pashtunistan Square. 

The Taliban’s Islamic Emirate flag is white and emblazoned with Islamic scripture in black. The same verse is also on the Republic flag, but features less prominently. 

He said: “Living is not possible any more. These youngsters here, I understand they hate the Taliban, but changing the flag has caused trouble for all of us in Jalalabad. One of our dear men was killed by the Taliban.

“There was absolute mayhem, gunfire ensued to disperse crowds who proudly carried the Afghan flag down the street.”

Footage from the scene showed one young man carrying the red, black and green national tricolour crying: “They can shoot me. I will die for this flag.”

Protesters also gathered in the eastern cities of Khost and Asadabad to take down the Emirate’s white flag and replace it with the black, red, green banner of the Afghan Republic. Hundreds of protesters chanted “God is great” and “Long live the flag.” 

A group of women on Tuesday took to the streets of Kabul demanding the Taliban respect their rights.

Taliban spokesmen have gone to great lengths to reassure both fearful Afghans and foreign governments that they will not return to the brutal methods of government they employed in the 1990s, when public floggings and beheadings were common.

Mullah Baradar, the group’s co-founder, arrived in Kandahar on Tuesday, but has yet to make any public pronouncements. Other leaders are returning from exile.

One senior Taliban official on Wednesday suggested that the country may be run by a ruling council while Haibatullah Akhundzada, the movement’s supreme leader, remains in overall charge. 

“There will be no democratic system at all because it does not have any base in our country,” Waheedullah Hashimi told Reuters.

Asked about female education, he said: “Our ulema [scholars] will decide whether girls are allowed to go to school or not.”

He said the group also wanted to merge serving army soldiers and pilots with its fighters to create a new defence force.

Shabnam Dawran, a well-known female presenter for Afghan TV station RTA Pashto, said on Wednesday that she was stopped from working by the Taliban.

Ashraf Ghani, the fugitive Afghan president, arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday evening, three days after he had fled Afghanistan while his government collapsed.

Mr Ghani said he was “in consultation with others” and intended to return to Afghanistan “so that I can continue my efforts for justice for Afghans”.

In Kabul, life on Wednesday appeared to be returning to some semblance of normality, with ice cream vans resuming playing music and more shops slowly opening.

Taliban fighters were still highly visible on the streets and there were continued reports of search parties looking for government officials and journalists.

However, chaos continued to reign at the city’s international airport, where Western governments are trying to evacuate their own citizens and Afghans who worked with the troops and diplomats during the occupation.

Thousands of fearful people crowded into gridlocked roads, while some attempted to tunnel under or climb over the fence.

Many said they had come from outside Kabul and had arrived without visas or plane tickets in the belief, or hope, that British and American troops inside would help them to leave the country.

At the airport’s east gate, one woman was heard screaming “The Taliban are coming for me” as she begged soldiers inside to let her in.

Britain’s ambassador in Kabul said the skeleton diplomatic crew left in Kabul were putting “everything we can” into rescuing as many people as possible from the city.

“Yesterday, we got about 700 people out. We are trying to scale up the speed, the pace over the next couple of days,” Sir Laurie Bristow, who is overseeing the evacuation from an emergency facility at the airport, said in a video posted on Twitter.

Some 1,200 people have left on UK flights since Sunday. About 5,000 people who worked with British diplomats and soldiers during the 20-year war in Afghanistan are thought to be eligible for Britain’s Arap resettlement scheme.

However, the evacuation effort has been badly hampered by the chaos on the streets outside and poor co-ordination between the Western teams inside the wire.

The foreign ministry of the Netherlands on Wednesday complained that Dutch embassy staff, translators and family members missed an evacuation flight because US troops refused to let them into the airport.

The military aircraft, which was operated by the Dutch with other northern European countries, eventually left Kabul on Tuesday night without any people destined for the Netherlands.

“It’s awful. Many were there at the gates of the airport with their families,” Sigrid Kaag, the Dutch foreign minister, told the Dutch news agency ANP.

By Wednesday afternoon, Taliban fighters had set up rudimentary checkpoints on some approach roads in an apparent effort to impose some order.

They fired in the air with automatic weapons and used whips to disperse crowds near the main entrance to the airfield.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office confirmed to The Telegraph that the British team is in “operational contact with the Taliban in Kabul to facilitate the departure of foreign and Afghan nationals through the airport”.

However, there are fears that Taliban checkpoints controlling access to the airport could further complicate efforts to rescue former soldiers, government officials, and military translators still hiding in the city.

“I can manage [to go to the airport] as long as they let me get into a UK plane,” said a senior Afghan official who has been in hiding since the Taliban captured Kabul on Sunday. “I can’t risk my life going there and then coming back. I won’t have another chance.”