The Afghan embassy in Canberra has quietly closed its doors, lowering the country’s tricolour flag and dimming one of the last remaining lights of a fallen democracy.

The decision, by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, reportedly followed a request from the Taliban and has left members of Australia’s Afghan community on edge.

I was a cadet journalist working in Afghanistan in 2012 when the news broke of Julian Assange taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. I was amazed that diplomatic rules barred the British police from entering the embassy and arresting him.

At the time, I was covering the bloody Afghan conflict. The US had just deployed the “mother of all bombs” and the Taliban ruthlessly fought back using child suicide bombers.

There seemed to be no end in sight to the bloodshed and misery. The Taliban would boast the Americans might have watches but “we have the time”. They would drag things on, with no........

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