Taliban were ‘catching and killing us’: Afghan intel officer who fled to Delhi on last flight from Kabul
The National Directorate of Security (NDS) officer said that the Taliban had sent them notices, asking to ‘revolt the government or die’.
An Afghan intelligence officer, who wished to be identified as only Asif, found himself in a small room comprising an attached bathroom and a marble slab with a sink – that he called a kitchen -- in Lajpat Nagar for ₹500 a day. His compatriot assisted him in finding the place after Asif escaped Afghanistan on the last commercial flight from Kabul to Delhi.
With tears in his eyes and speaking in broken Hindi, the 41-year-old officer said, “I had to run, else the Taliban would have killed me. Everything ends here. I could not bring my family along.”
Asif fled the war-torn nation, which was completely captured by the Taliban on Sunday, leaving behind his ailing mother, wife and an 8-year-old son.
He said that he “will try” to get a cheaper room in Delhi that costs between ₹200 and ₹300. The officer of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), however, broke down when asked if he had food while departing from Afghanistan. As his hands shook and lips quivered with tears streaming down his face, Asif showed his passport, an NDS ID card and photographs of his family from a bag he carried.
He said that the Taliban are “catching [and] killing” them. “They sent us notices, asking us to revolt against the government or die,” Asif added.
Stating that all hopes of survival were quashed following Afghan president Ashraf Ghani fleeing the country, the officer informed that hundreds of Afghan officers like him from the security establishments have “fled to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and other countries.”
Also Read | President Ashraf Ghani leaves Afghanistan as Taliban take over Kabul
Asif said he didn’t know how his family had been doing back in Afghanistan as internet services were affected in certain regions of Kabul, which fell into the hands of Taliban on Sunday. “I got my visa a month ago. Ten days ago, we had intel that the Taliban is going to return,” he added.
The NDS officer, looking back at his life in his homeland, pointed out that Pakistan “betrayed [them].”
He added that he and some of his colleagues, who also took the last flight to India, had changed into civilian robes before boarding the plane. Notably, the national carrier Air India said on Monday that commercial flights have been suspended to Kabul owing to the closure of Afghanistan’s airspace. As many as 129 passengers were brought back to India on Sunday after flight AI 244 departed from Kabul at 6.06pm. The Monday morning flight was first rescheduled and later cancelled.
Also Read | Air India can’t operate Kabul flight as airspace shuts down
Asif also highlighted how women in Kabul have already commenced to ditch salwar-kameez for burqas, and have been staying off streets – keeping indoors, adding that they will be killed if they don’t.
“Sab khatam (everything is over) …There’s no chance we will ever return to our country. Our beloved home is lost. I don’t even know if my family will be able to make it to India,” he said.
Similar to Asif, one of Ghani’s advisors on public health affairs, R Ahmadzai, also arrived in Delhi on Sunday after the Taliban’s entry into the capital city of Afghanistan. He said all Afghan politicians and ministers have fled Afghanistan.
“There was a lot of anxiety and depression over the last one month, but now there is not much fighting [in Afghanistan]. People are at peace now,” the advisor said.
He added that around 200 such ministers and advisors like him have reached Delhi, and that till 5pm on Sunday, Ghani was in Afghanistan. “We don’t know where Ghani has left for,” Ahmadzai said.
Watch here | Afghan president's advisor arrives in India, says all ministers left Kabul
He further stated that the Taliban have promised that they won’t impose a brutal rule over the country like the last time, and will especially allow more freedom to women and girls, including letting them work wearing a hijab.
Ghani’s departure, leaving behind his country, has drawn major flak with regional social media platforms even calling him a “coward.” However, the former President defended his choice saying that the Taliban made their way back into Afghanistan with their “swords and guns” and that he escaped to prevent a “flood of bloodshed.”
Notably, Taliban captured the presidential palace on Sunday itself.
Meanwhile, US troops reportedly temporarily closed the evacuation of its diplomats and other citizens from Afghanistan on Monday in order to clear the airfield at the Hamid Karzai International Airport, senior defence officials said.
This came after they reportedly fired shots into the air when several Afghans tried to catch the planes at the Kabul airport to flee Afghanistan.
(With inputs from agencies)
