‘Taliban burnt our house… India safe, we won’t go back’

Ghaziabad : The situation in Afghanistan is getting worse day by day after the Taliban came to power. Thousands of people have gathered at Kabul airport so that they can live a peaceful life away from this dreadful and stifling atmosphere. However, not everyone is getting this opportunity. Such people are breathing a sigh of relief, who are able to leave Afghanistan. Some such Afghan citizens reached India, who now do not want to return from here under any circumstances.

Special aircraft C-17 of the Indian Air Force landed 168 people from Kabul at Hindon Airport in Ghaziabad, including 107 Indians and 23 Afghan Hindus and Sikhs. They were so scared under the rule of Taliban that they felt better to leave their own country. These include Sadia, who has arrived here with her daughter and two grandchildren. She shudders as she recalls the hair-raising experiences of the Taliban regime and says she no longer has to go back to the same atmosphere.

‘The Taliban set my house on fire’

He told how the Taliban held him hostage for four to five hours and eventually burned down his house. She never gets tired of thanking India for her evacuation from Afghanistan. She says, “The situation in Afghanistan was getting worse day by day. So I moved here with my daughter and two grandchildren. Our Indian brothers and sisters came forward to help us. They (Taliban) burnt my house. Women are not safe in Afghanistan. I thank India for helping us.

Another Afghan citizen said, ‘Now we feel relieved here. The situation in Afghanistan is getting worse everyday. There is a lot of fear in people’s mind. We have seen how they keep firing in the crowd.

‘Took refuge in the gurudwara’

A Sikh citizen who arrived in India from Afghanistan said, ‘The situation in Afghanistan is very bad. Firing and bombing is happening everywhere in Kabul. India came forward to help us, I am grateful for this. We had taken shelter in the gurudwara till we boarded the plane.