The last 24 hours of the evacuation were the “most frightening”, recalled many Indian and Afghan nationals, who completed their 14-day quarantine on Tuesday, after their arrival in India. “After taking over Kabul, the Taliban fighters visited the Khan steel plant at Kabul 2-3 times, where I was working. They held discussions with the owner of the plant and told him that all businesses need to pay taxes since they were now in control of Kabul. Around 8-10 armed young boys assured us our safety, but it was all uncertain,” recalled Kapil Panchal (25), who was among the evacuees.Besides Panchal, 31 Indians and more than 170 Afghans were working at the steel plant. Majority of the Indians have been evacuated from there. Ahead of its closure, the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan made arrangements to work closely with those willing to leave the country. Indian nationals were contacted and told to leave as early as possible. “On August 22, the embassy instructed us to assemble at the Gurdwara near Kabul airport from where we were taken to the airstrip in a bus. We had a lucky escape with Taliban fighters surrounding the airport and firing in the air to disperse the crowd at the gate of the airport,” said another Afghan evacuee who did not wish to be identified.“Once inside the IAF aircraft, all the 78 evacuees were taken to Tajikistan from where they were put on an Air India flight, after 16 hours. The 24-hour ordeal was most frightening as there was chaos, panic, and fear among all of us,” said the person cited above. A computer science lecturer at a university in Kabul, Afroj Alam, recalled his days in Kabul and said, “We were inside the university campus when the administration ordered the closure of the colleges in the wake of the Taliban advancing towards Kabul.” Alam has been teaching at the university since 2014-15.Others, including entrepreneur Lakhbir Singh Soni, said they asked their families to leave Afghanistan in June this year and obtained three-year multiple visas for their families much before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. “We had four shops and a house in Kabul. Once the Taliban took control, we were left with no option but shut down everything and save our lives,” Soni told ET over phone. The sixty-year old shopkeeper has six children, three of whom are settled in London. “My children from London advised me to leave Afghanistan,” Soni added.Members of a Christian NGO, active in Afghanistan, were among those rescued from Kabul. “The NGO had four members in Afghanistan. A few months back, the government advised the two of us to leave Kabul citing security threats. They, however, allowed two of us to stay . Once the situation deteriorated, the Indian embassy asked us to leave the country and arranged for our evacuation,” said the NGO member, who did not wish to be named.Among the 78 evacuees, there were 53 people from Afghanistan (34 men, nine women and 10 children), and 25 Indians (18 men, five women and 12 children), said ITBP spokesperson Vivek Kumar Pandey. These people were brought to the quarantine facility on August 24. The facility still has 35 people, who returned from Afghanistan, under quarantine, which includes 24 Indians and the rest from Nepal. This group is expected to be discharged on Wednesday, the officer said.
from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3BS2hUc
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