Exodus chaos at Kabul airport, day after Taliban takeover; 7 killed

Sandeep Dixit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 16

A day after the Taliban captured their country, there were grisly scenes at the Kabul international airport as thousands of Afghans tried to flee the country with at least seven reportedly killed in the evacuation chaos that lasted all day. Videos showed thousands of Afghans rushing onto the tarmac towards a taxiing plane even as US troops fired warning shots. Three persons holding onto a US military jet as it took off fell to death. Hundreds of people also ran alongside a US Air Force C-17 transport plane as it moved down a runway with some clinging to its side.

There were lifeless bodies at the airport premises after unidentified security forces opened fire on a large crowd trying to enter the airport and clamber aboard planes waiting for takeoff. As major European nations and the US deployed their military aircraft throughout the day to evacuate their diplomats and the local Afghan staff, there were hundreds of posts on social media from distraught Afghans who had served with them but were left behind. Employed women as well as those who had worked for the betterment of women had heart-rending tales of having been abandoned.

Uzbekistan shot down an Afghan military jet that entered its airspace while the pilot bailed out and was detained. Taliban fighters having entered Kabul without a fight on Sunday were shown sauntering into the Presidential Palace while its security personnel patrolled the streets on SUVs.

Taking heed of the international community’s exhortation for an orderly transfer of power, the Taliban said leaders and elders from Afghanistan would travel to Doha for the purpose. With Ghani and his close associates, including the Finance Minister and the NSA having fled, former President Hamid Karzai has pitched himself for the negotiations with Kabul’s chief peace negotiator Abdullah Abdullah and the eastern Afghanistan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Cannot abandon people: Guterres at UNSC

“Afghans are a proud people with a rich cultural heritage. They have known generations of war and hardship. They deserve our full support,” he said. Antonio Guterres, UN Secy Gen

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

New Delhi: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday called on the international community to unite and use “all available instruments” to ensure Afghanistan was never again used as a safe haven for terrorists, telling the UN Security Council that “we cannot and must not” abandon the people of the war-torn country.

“The world is following events in Afghanistan with a heavy heart and deep disquiet about what lies ahead. Chaos. Unrest. Uncertainty. And fear. Much lies in the balance. The progress. The hope. The dreams of a generation of young Afghan women and girls, boys and men,” Guterres told an emergency meeting.

The Security Council, under India’s p Presidency, met for the second time in over a week to discuss Afghanistan. Guterres urged all parties, especially the Taliban, to exercise utmost restraint.

Guterres called for an immediate end to violence, for the rights of all Afghans to be respected and for Afghanistan to comply with all international agreements to which it was a party.

He said he was “particularly concerned” by accounts of mounting human rights violations against women and girls of Afghanistan who “fear a return to the darkest days.”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Will interact with the Taliban. It has already sought to bring public order. Still concerned by terrorist threat by ISIS (Khorasan) which can spill across borders to Central Asia – Russia

We respect the choice of the Afghan people but the ISIS and ETIM pose a serious threat. The bottom line is that Afghan must never become a safe haven for terrorists – China