Taliban militants are seen inside the Ghazni city, eastern Afghanistan, Aug. 12, 2021. Taliban militants Thursday overran Afghanistan's eastern Ghazni province's capital city Ghazni, 150 km from the national capital Kabul, provincial council member Hasan Reza Yusufi said.Photo:Xinhua

The Taliban have offered a pledge of reconciliation, vowing no revenge against opponents and to respect women's rights in a "different" rule of Afghanistan from two decades ago.

The announcements came on Tuesday night shortly after the return to Afghanistan of their co-founder, crowning the group's astonishing comeback after being ousted by a US-led invasion in 2001.

With huge concerns globally about the Taliban's human rights record - and tens of thousands of Afghans still trying to flee the country - they held their first press conference from Kabul.

"All those in the opposite side are pardoned from A to Z," Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told foreign and local reporters, revealing his identity for the first time.

Mujahid said the new regime would be "positively different" from their 1996-2001 stint, which was infamous for deaths by stoning, girls being banned from school and women from working in contact with men.

He also said they were "committed to letting women work in accordance with the principles of Islam," without offering specifics.

A spokesperson for the group in Doha, Suhail Shaheen, told Britain's Sky News that women would not be required to wear the all-covering burqa, but did not say what attire would be acceptable.

Nevertheless, Afghans and foreigners continued to flee the country, with US and other nations stepping up evacuation airlifts from Kabul airport.

Desperate scenes from the airport at the start of the week have created searing images of Afghans terrified of the Taliban, and a diminished US unable to protect them.

Some footage showed hundreds of Afghans running alongside a US Air Force plane as it rolled down the runway, with some clinging to the side of it. 

The United Nations Human Rights Council announced on Tuesday it would hold a special session on Afghanistan next week to address the "serious human rights concerns" under the Taliban.

US President Joe Biden's administration gave a non-committal response to the Taliban's pledges of tolerance.

"If the Taliban says they are going to respect the rights of their citizens, we will be looking for them to uphold that statement and make good on that statement," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said.

AFP