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The scenario in Kabul on 15 August was very tense. The Taliban had already taken management of all provinces apart from Kabul and Panjshir.
As standard, I went to my workplace at 9 within the morning. I used to be instructed to go to Kabul Navy Airport to cowl a particular safety assembly of the Kabul Navy Command. On the assembly, Normal Sami Sadat, commander of the Kabul’s defending forces, introduced that he would defend from Kabul. Safety forces determined to hold out floor and air assaults on the Taliban, however they’d already reached the gates of Kabul.
I used to be on the point of go to the workplace to cowl the assembly, when phrase of the escape of former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani was whispered. The information was a hearsay and no official supply had confirmed it, however the unfold of such information had an important affect on the scenario in Kabul.
The panic and disappointment had been simply seen within the faces of individuals, and at the moment, I believed that the agony and tragedy would by no means finish for Afghans.
I labored as a reporter for a non-public tv station. By the point I bought to the workplace, all elements of it had been closed. The workplace guards requested us to depart. My colleagues and I didn’t have the chance to gather our belongings. The scenario was chaotic and everybody was panicking. The pavements had been full of individuals.
I needed to stroll over 8km to get residence. On my method there was a 400-bed military hospital, and I noticed the sufferers, most of whom had been wounded, fleeing in hospital shirts. My mom, who was apprehensive about me, known as me greater than 20 instances that day.
It was a black day, the place tens of millions of Afghans buried their desires. That day we understood with coronary heart and soul the bitter that means of failure. That night, Ashraf Ghani’s escape from Afghanistan was confirmed. Afghanistan’s warfare and safety ministers had additionally left the nation, and safety forces had been compelled to drop their weapons.
The following day, when social media and the media reported the evacuation of a whole bunch of Afghan residents by Kabul Airport, hundreds of Afghans gathered across the airport and needed to depart the nation. Dozens of residents died within the airport chaos, and even younger Afghans hung themselves on the planes – though they knew their deaths had been sure, they needed to flee from the Taliban by any means.
Throughout these days, my mom’s home-cooked meals didn’t have the standard style. Everybody forgot to eat and sleep. Afghanistan’s home media didn’t have protection and overseas media didn’t have sufficient assets to cowl all of the information; the one supply of data for me and all of the individuals of Afghanistan in these days was social media.
The Taliban progressively consolidated their forces in Kabul, and solely the Panjshir province continued to struggle them. Panjshir was the one hope of the Afghan individuals, nevertheless it was finally captured by the Taliban. We returned to the workplace three days after the autumn, and I used to be assigned to arrange a report on the evacuation of Afghan nationals. Once we went to Kabul Airport, the Taliban beat me and my colleague and took my digital camera.
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I stayed in Afghanistan for about seven months after the Taliban got here to energy. The crackdown on protests, the detention and torture of journalists, the detention of feminine protesters and the unprecedented restrictions on the media satisfied me to lastly depart Afghanistan on 1 April 2022.
Now I’m in Pakistan and dealing with monetary issues, like many different journalists. After I arrived, I contacted all of the worldwide organisations that help journalists and requested for assist. A few of these establishments refused to assist me, and a few of those that promised to assist nonetheless haven’t offered any help.
There are various establishments all over the world which have budgets within the identify of journalists and say they help them. For me, it’s progressively turning into clear that many of those establishments are simply studying to chant slogans and that’s sufficient. There are various journalists like me who stay in very troublesome conditions and spend their day by day lives in despair.
Now that I’m in Pakistan, it isn’t clear what is going to occur to me sooner or later. I can’t return to my nation, I simply hope that no human being will undergo the ache of homelessness like me.
Rafiullah Nikzad is a journalist and human rights activist
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