--ahmed rashid. ali latifi, let's begin with you.describe the state of the capital which has fallen without the taliban firing -- well, it is unknown but hardly a bullet. >> right now it is pretty calm and quiet. just down the streets are starting to pick up. a few more people are going out. a few more stores and restaurants and the like are starting to open back up. it is slowly going back to normal. as you said, right now things are -- not a bullet has been fired. it is pretty calm. it is the exact opposite of the airport. the airport is chaotic and just looks ke a scene out of a movie where as the city of kabul itself is calm and quiet and just people going about their business stop -- business. taliban posing with pictus with people. talking to people. you know, not anything like people were fearing yet. it seems in some ways similar to the stories of 1996, the first few days. but the other difference is slowly like women are coming out, most are dressing with long scarves and loosefitting clothing. some are wearing what the west

ahmed rashid, thank you forjoining us on outside source. to have died in the earthquake that hit haiti on saturday. the bbc cosmic james clayton reports. it's been a devastating 48 hours for this already impoverished region in the south—west of the country. the earthquake hit in the morning, when many were just waking up, and it hit hard. it rocked churches, hotels and homes. the shaking earth too much for structures that collapsed in on themselves, sometimes on top of people. houses that were supposed to be places of safety, transformed into death traps. we have seen many patients that were trauma patients. orthopaedic patients and surgical trauma patients. they had to be addressed urgently. some of them had to be transferred and moved from their locality to more specialised facilities in port—au—prince or elsewhere. the earthquake was bigger than the one that hit 11 years ago, which killed up to 300,000 people. this earthquake won't compete with this death toll, but there are fears of thousands of deaths. there are several factors that ma

ahmed rashid, is a journalist and author of "taliban: the story of afghan warlords." thank you very much the past if you would define the future. so let's go back in time to 19 90,1992, i define the future. so let's go back in time to 19 90, 1992, i think it was when the taliban first came to power. that they make similar promises to those that they are making now?— promises to those that they are making now? promises to those that they are makin: now? ~ ., ., , making now? well, no, i mean, they were extremely _ making now? well, no, i mean, they were extremely popular— making now? well, no, i mean, they were extremely popular at _ making now? well, no, i mean, they were extremely popular at the - were extremely popular at the beginning because they promised they would end the civil wear and that they would disarm them and they did that then the other areas. they came to kabul, they changed their minds and sadly well now... previously said that they wouldn't want to rule afghanistan, and they held that make it became the increasingly hard... religious islamic zealots in pakistan and the

ahmed rashid is an author and a leading expert on the taliban.are using these foreign fighters in this offensive that they have launched. and they have more manpower than ever before. well, already we have afghanistan as a haven for six or seven pakistani groups, four or five central asian groups, and multiple others including isis. there doesn't seem to be any willingness of the taliban to get rid of these people. how do they get rid of them? they are not going to shoot them. the most they could do is to lock them up in some safehouse and keep them clear from any kind of instigatory trouble, but they don't seem prepared to do that simply because these militants are fighting for the taliban and dying for the taliban. there's huge efforts underway to persuade the taliban to stop their offensive. three days of talks are happening in doha between us envoy zalmay khalilzad, abdullah abdullah — the chairman of the high council for national reconciliation — he will be attending along with mullah baradar — who is the head of the taliban's political offi