The Taliban has called upon Kabul residents to hand over government vehicles, arms, and ammunition if those assets have been left with them, according to the group’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

All those living in Kabul are informed “to return all government assets including vehicles, arms, and ammunition or any other things”, the Xinhua news agency quoted Mujahid as saying in a Twitter post.

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The Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted, “Announcement of the security organs of the Islamic Emirate: In Kabul, all those who have the means, weapons, ammunition, and other government goods are informed to hand over the mentioned objects to the relevant organs of the Islamic Emirate within a week. So that there is no need for the offenders to be prosecuted or dealt with legally if they are discovered.”

To back the Taliban’s call for returning the government assets, prayer leaders in their sermons have also urged people to hand over government assets if they have kept the assets with them.

Conveying the Taliban messages, the prayer leaders have also called on government employees to return to their offices and resume their work normally.

Meanwhile, as the security situation deteriorates in Afghanistan, a group of US lawmakers has urged President Joe Biden to ensure that the Taliban do not destabilize Pakistan and acquire nuclear weapons,

The lawmakers said that over the past weeks, the world watched with utter shock as the Taliban took over Afghanistan, “the result of unforced errors made by withdrawing completely the small remaining footprint of our main military force from Afghanistan, and by unnecessarily delaying the evacuation of US personnel and its Afghan partners”.

The lawmakers further pointed out that the situation in Afghanistan has rapidly “metastasized” into Taliban rule with reinstated oppression of women and girls, the repression of civil society, the displacement of countless Afghans from their homes, and a power vacuum that China seeks to fill by increasing its ties to Taliban.