Afghan refugees recall horror stories of home

On Sunday, as news came in that Taliban forces were closing in on Kabul and Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani could resign soon, representatives from the Afghan refugee community, residing in Lajpat Nagar and Bhogal assembled to lament over how their country is descending into “dark times” and how the worst was yet to come.

Refugees from Afghanistan who have either fled to India or are waiting for their visas to be processed, and are presently in Kabul, said the situation in Afghanistan is very grim. They told their relatives that the Taliban forces have killed the male relatives of police personnel and already started new restrictions on women, apart from killing supporters of the Afghan army or the government.

“No music for anyone, no school for girls, and guns and grenades everywhere, this is how my khala (aunt) in Herat described the situation.. They have burnt down all the houses in her village to terrorise people who are now cheering for the Taliban calling the earlier government corrupt and unethical... The radio is only playing some ads and Islamic prayers all the time… We used to have programmes on Herati music with Tabla and Iranian pop singers that have been banned. Soon, even the ad jingles will be stopped, and they will bring back the Voice of Sharia they had in the nineties. The artists are the most scared,” said Majid Ahmed (45), who came to India on a medical visa a month ago, and is now staying in Bhogal.

Fauzia Sayedi, a translator from Kundoz, said at least 21 of her family members have died or are untraceable in the bombings between the Taliban forces and Afghan army in the last few days, while the rest have trekked for five days to reach the Shahr-e-Naw park in Kabul.

“I am trying to get my parents here, but the wait is going to be long. They tell me that all the people around them have been sleeping for days outside on the ground in the blazing summer heat. They have no access to basic toiletries, food and medicine, and the numbers are swelling everyday. Even a tent costs hundreds.”

“We are most worried about children and women in the family... Taliban has taken over the official buildings, markets and schools, and the whole of north Afghanistan. Their judges have taken over courts and have already started handling crimes and giving direct punishments... There is never any case of any appeal,” Mansoor Heravi from Balkh, presently in Kabul, told ET. He said there were sounds of helicopters everywhere. Although the Taliban has been saying that it will not disrupt normal life or impose “modest clothing” on women only through preaching and not through force in many villages, no one believed the assurances.

“The Taliban is just putting on the pretence because it wants its government to be recognised by the international community. But we all know they will use brute force and violence. Right now, there is no help for our people. People are on their own,” Ahmad Zia Ghani, head of the Afghan solidarity committee told ET.