10.58 pm: American media outlets urge the United States’ administration to protect Afghan journalists who want to leave the country, reports AFP.

10.50 pm: German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas says that the Taliban checks at the Kabul airport were making it difficult to evacuate Afghans who worked with Western countries, reports AFP. Maas also says that the West will judge the Taliban “by their actions”.

10.48 pm: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan tells an Afghan delegation, led by former Vice President Muhammad Younas Qanooni, that Islamabad was committed to supporting the government in Kabul, reports PTI.

Khan’s Office said in a statement that the prime minister underlined that no other country is more desirous of peace and stability in Afghanistan than Pakistan.

9.38 pm: Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh says that he is the caretaker president in the absence of the president, according to Afghanistan’s constitution. He adds that he is seeking support of leaders on the country.

9.35 pm: The Taliban spokesperson says that Afghanistan will no longer be a hub for poppy cultivation or for drug business, reports TOLOnews. He seeks the world’s support to promote an alternative for poppy cultivation.

9.32 pm: The Taliban spokesperson says that the group’s ideologies and beliefs are the same to what it was in the 1990s (when the insurgents were in power in Afghanistan) because they are Muslims, reports TOLOnews. Zabihullah Mujahid adds that they have, however, more experienced and have a different perspective.

9.29 pm: Zabihullah Mujahid says that foreign embassies in the country will be safe and pledges to all countries that no threat will be posed to them.

“We want to establish a government that includes all sides,” says Mujahid, adding that the Taliban want an end to the war.

9.26 pm: Zabihullah Mujahid says that media outlets in Afghanistan can continue their work and offers three suggestions, reports TOLOnews. He says that the media should not broadcast anything that is contradictory to Islamic values, is against the country’s interest, and that the media personnel are impartial.

9.24 pm: The Taliban spokesperson says the group has pardoned everyone, including former military members and those who worked with foreign countries, reported TOLOnews. “No one will search their house,” he says.

9.02 pm: The Taliban’s spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid says the group is committed to providing women their rights based on Islamic laws, reports TOLOnews. He says that women can work in the healthcare sector and other sectors where they are needed.

Mujahid adds that there will be no discrimination against women.

7.30 pm: The Taliban’s spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid will hold his first-ever press conference later in the day in Kabul, reports India Today.

7.27 pm: Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says that Moscow was “in no rush” to recognise the Taliban government in Afghanistan, reports AP. He has called for a dialogue of all political parties in Russia.

7.26 pm: Top Taliban official Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar meets with Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, reports AP.

A statement says the two “reviewed the latest security and political developments in Afghanistan, stressing the need for the protection of civilians, intensifying necessary efforts to achieve national reconciliation, working for a comprehensive political settlement and a peaceful transfer of power.”

6.57 pm: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor says that India needs to watch the situation in Afghanistan carefully, reports ANI. He claims that a base would be set up in Afghanistan for Pakistan-backed terrorists that will target India.

“I’m not sure if Pakistan should be 100% happy that these guys [the Taliban] have come to power because not everyone who has come to power is necessarily going to be pro-Pakistan,” he says, however, adding that many groups are supportive of Pakistan.

6.50 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is holding a high-level meeting on the situation in Afghanistan, reports NDTV. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval are present in the meeting.

6.47 pm: Union Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar says that the evacuation of the Indian ambassador and the embassy from Afghanistan was a “difficult and complicated” exercise and thanks all those whose cooperation made it possible.

6.42 pm: The Ministry of External Affairs says that the evacuation of embassy staff from Kabul to India has been completed, reports PTI. The ministry says that India is committed to the safe return of all Indians in Afghanistan, adding that it will have flights ready when the Kabul airport opens for commercial operations.

6.04 pm: The Indian Embassy in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul is not closed, unidentified officials tell ANI. They add that embassy staff members are providing consular services. Over 1,600 people have submitted applications to return to India, the officials say.

5.43 pm: The World Health Organization says the chaos at the Kabul airport is delaying essential medical supplies that Afghanistan needs, CNN reports.

5.26 pm: Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov asks ethnic groups in Afghanistan to hold discussions about the country’s future after the Taliban takeover, Al Jazeera reports.

5.18 pm: Germany has halted its development aid for Afghanistan amid the turmoil, AFP reports.

5.07 pm: Afghan students in India are seeking a visa extension till stability returns to their country, the Hindustan Times reports. They are also constantly worried about their families back home.

“It’s not about Afghanistan alone, but the entire world is affected,” Misabahuddin Yousufzai, a political science student at the Himachal Pradesh University in Shimla, tells the newspaper. “Hopefully, the Taliban sticks to what it announced on forming a welfare government. We went to bed when one government was in power and woke up to another ruler in the chair.”

4.26 pm: China criticises United States’ hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan, says it has left an “awful mess of unrest, division and broken families” in the conflict torn country, AFP reports.

“America’s strength and role is destruction, not construction,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying says.

4.16 pm: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier criticises Western countries for the chaos at the Kabul airport as thousands made desperate attempts to leave Afghanistan on Monday, AFP reports.

“The images of desperation at Kabul airport are shameful for the political West,” Steinmeier says. The president adds that the Afghan turmoil is a “human tragedy for which we share responsibility”.

4.13 pm: The United Kingdom is planning to increase by 10% its humanitarian help to Afghanistan, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says, according to AP.

4.08 pm: Amid the Afghan crisis, a Twitter spokesperson says the platform’s priority is to keep people safe, ANI reports. “The situation in Afghanistan is rapidly evolving,” the official adds. “We’re also witnessing people in the country using Twitter to seek help and assistance.”

The company adds: “We will continue to proactively enforce our rules and review content that may violate Twitter Rules, specifically policies against the glorification of violence, platform manipulation and spam.”

4.05 pm: In India, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda says the Afghan crisis is a difficult moment for India and the entire South Asia. “We have to respond in a humane manner besides developing an independent policy of fostering friendship and peace in our neighbourhood,” he says.

3.58 pm: Ajmal Ahmady, the head of Afghanistan’s central bank, flees the country. He blames former President Ashraf Ghani and other Afghan leaders for the turmoil in the country.

“It did not have to end this way,” he wrote in a lengthy Twitter thread. “I am disgusted by the lack of any planning by Afghan leadership. Saw at airport them leave without informing others.”

3.49 pm: Rudrendra Tandon, India’s ambassador to Afghanistan, thanks the Air Force for flying him and embassy officials out of Afghanistan under tough circumstances, NDTV reports.

“You cannot imagine how great it is to be back home,” he adds. “We are back home safely, securely, without any accidents or harm to any of our people.”

Tandon adds that India has not abandoned the people of Afghanistan. “Their welfare and our relationship with them is very much in our mind,” he says, according to NDTV. “We’ll try and continue our interaction with them, I can’t exactly say in what form the situation is changing.”

Tandon says that the situation in Afghanistan is grim, IANS reports.

1.58 pm: Political chief of Palestinian militant group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, congratulates the Taliban on the end of “United States’ occupation” of Afghanistan, reports Al Jazeera.

1.54 pm: Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, urges women to join its government, reports AP.

“The Islamic Emirate doesn’t want women to be victims” Samangani says. “They should be in government structure according to Shariah law.”

1.43 pm: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan requests Centre to take urgent steps to repatriate citizens of the state stranded in Kabul, PTI reported. As many as 36 people, currently in Kabul, have contacted NORKA Roots, the state-run welfare agency of non-resident Keralites.

12.53 pm: Former United States President George Bush and First Lady Laura Bush express “deep sadness” about the developments in Afghanistan, Reuters reports.

“Our hearts are heavy for both the Afghan people who have suffered so much and for the Americans and NATO allies who have sacrificed so much,” Bush says.

12.48 pm: British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says the circumstances at the Kabul airport are stabilising, Sky News reports.

“There’s been a surge of US and UK troops – we’ve got 600 extra personnel there,” he tells the news channel. “It is critically important, not just for the stability on the ground for Afghans, but critically for our evacuation effort.”

12.44 pm: France’s first military plane with carrying people evacuated from Afghanistan lands in Abu Dhabi, Al Jazeera reports.

12.34 pm: Terrorists belonging to the Jaish e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Toiba and ISIS have entered Kabul over the last few days, The Hindu reports, citing unidentified officials.

11.32 am: Taliban announce a “general amnesty” for government officials in Afghnistan and urges them to return to work, reports AFP, citing a statement from the insurgent group.

10.51 am: Flights evacuating diplomats and civilians from Afghanistan started taking off on Tuesday morning, according to Reuters.

10.47 am: Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai says Joe Biden must “take a bold step” to protect the Afghans.

10.45 am: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief and MP Asaduddin Owaisi says the Centre should have initiated dialogue with the Taliban as the “ungoverned spaces in Afghanistan” pose a worry for India.

“Whether or not India recognises Taliban, the government should have to open channels of communication with them,” he adds. “We lost time on that…Now, the Taliban is in complete control of full Afghanistan. We have no communication, no dialogue with them. All international and security experts have said that talks should have been done. But, for last seven years Central government has failed to read what is happening.”

10.41 am: Taliban leaders are said to be negotiating with Kabul’s political leadership for an “inclusive Afghan government”, reports AP.

10.35 am: Facebook has designated the Taliban as a terrorist group and banned its content on its platforms, reports Reuters.

9.47 am: Russia’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Dmitry Zhirnov says Taliban has made Kabul safer in the first 24 hours than it had been under the previous authorities, reports Reuters.

9.37 am: As many as 140 Indians, including last of the Indian embassy staff, Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel and four mediapersons have taken off from the Kabul airport on board a special military flight on Tuesday morning, reports The Hindu.

9.15 am: The Indian government has evacuated its embassy staff in Kabul in a special Air Force flight, NDTV reports.

8.55 am: Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi says that the government has decided to evacuate Indian ambassador in Kabul and his staff.

Many countries are scrambling to empty their embassies and remove their staff after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.

8.44 am: The Centre announces new category of electronic visa to fast-track applications for entry into India amid the crisis in Afghanistan.

7.53 am: Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar discusses situation in Afghanistan with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Jaishankar says he has spoken on the urgency of restoring airport operations in Kabul.

Blinken has also spoken to Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, according to Reuters.

7.30 am: India’s foreign ministry has set up a special cell for repatriation of Afghans.

7.25 am: The US president also warns the Taliban not to disrupt or threaten the evacuation of American diplomats and Afghan translators at the Kabul airport. “We will defend our people with devastating force if necessary,” he adds.

7.22 am: “We gave them [Afghans] every chance to determine their own future,” says the US president. “We could not provide them with the will to fight for that future.”

7.20 am: Biden admits that the Afghanistan government collapsed “more quickly” than what the US anticipated. “I stand squarely behind my decision,” he adds. “After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces.”

7.15 am: In a televised address from the White House, US President Joe Biden defends his decision to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan. He blames the unwillingness of the Afghanistan Army to fight the Taliban as a series of provincial capitals fell in rapid succession to the militant group.

“American troops cannot – and should not – be fighting and dying in a war that Afghan forces are by and large not willing to fight and die in themselves,” says the president.

Here are the significant developments from Monday:

  • As the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan two decades after being toppled from power by the United States, thousands of people desperate to leave the country thronged Kabul airport. Some even clung to a US military plane as it taxied the runway. At least five people were killed in the chaos in the airport, according to reports.
  • India’s Ministry of External Affairs, in its first official reaction to the Taliban takeover, said it will help members of the Hindu and Sikh communities from Afghanistan who want to come to the country amid the crisis.
  • Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said that Afghanistan has broken the “shackles of slavery”, despite scores of Afghans trying to flee the country. Meanwhile, China said that it was willing to deepen its “friendly and cooperative” with Afghanistan.