If the title has you thinking that we already covered the killing of multiple protesters in Jalalabad, that was Tuesday’s news. This morning a different set of protests erupted in the city of Asadabad, located to the northeast of Kabul. August 19th is recognized as independence day in Afghanistan commemorating its 1919 liberation from the British. Celebrants took to the streets waving the Afghan flag after reportedly tearing down a white Taliban flag. That didn’t sit well with the Taliban fighters who were patrolling the streets so they simply opened fire on the crowd. At least three people wound up dead, though it was initially unclear whether they were killed by gunfire or crushed in the ensuing stampede. I guess this is more of that “free speech” that the Taliban spokesperson was talking about. (Reuters)

Several people were killed on Thursday in the Afghan city of Asadabad when Taliban fighters fired on people waving the national flag at an Independence Day rally, a witness said, a day after three people were killed in a similar protest.

The protests by people waving the Afghan flag, in some cases after tearing down white Taliban flags according to media, are the first signs of popular opposition to the Taliban since their stunning advance across the country and capture of the capital, Kabul, on Sunday.

It was unclear if the casualties in Asadabad resulted from the firing or from the stampede that it triggered, witness Mohammed Salim said from the eastern city, the capital of Kunar province.

In their report, Reuters rather dryly includes the line, “a Taliban spokesman was not immediately available for comment.”

Interestingly, First Vice President Amrullah Saleh of the former Afghan government is apparently still in the country and he’s trying to rally the protesters against the Taliban. He told reporters today that he is the “legitimate caretaker president” after Ashraf Ghani fled the country. But it’s going to be tough to get enough people with flags to stand up to the Taliban without an army to back him up. It’s an admirable position to take, but it’s difficult to see Saleh forming any sort of government that will be recognized outside of the country.

Meanwhile, other confirmed reports from the outer provinces indicate that the Taliban has been killing people with digital copies of the bible on their phones.

The Taliban is killing people in Afghanistan they find with copies of the Bible on their mobile phones, a Christian non-profit denounced on Tuesday…

According to SAT-7, an organization that broadcasts Christian programs to churches and Christians in the Middle East and North Africa, the Taliban is using “spies and informants” to persecute the Christian minority in the country.

The Taliban spokesman previously said that there would be more freedom of religion in the country than when they were last in charge. Apparently, freedom of religion is assured, provided you are practicing strict, radical Islam. Christianity? Not so much.

That attitude seemed to be confirmed by one Taliban commander in Kabul who told reporters that Afghanistan will be ruled under Sharia law. One religious rights group that tracks freedom of religion around the world listed Afghanistan as the second most dangerous place to practice Christianity (behind North Korea) before the Taliban retook the country. They may be angling for the number one slot this year.

Is there anyone left aside from possibly the President and the Secretary of State who honestly believes a single promise that the Taliban makes? The only thing stopping them from launching a full-scale attack on the airport in Kabul at this point is a few battalions of American troops and the fear of massive airstrikes if they were to try it. Here’s to hoping that it’s enough to keep them at bay until we can at least get our people in the capital out of the country. As to those stuck in the outlying provinces, who can say? All I know is that if this withdrawal really couldn’t have been handled any better, can you even imagine what it would look like if it had been botched?