Narrow escape for J’khand man in Af

Ranchi: Just two days before the Taliban took full control of Afghanistan, a banker from the city identified as Satyendra Kumar (39) managed to return to India on August 12, narrowly escaping the horrors of the war-torn country.
Kumar said following an advisory from the Indian Embassy in Kabul on August 10, he decided to take no chances and managed to get an Air India flight on August 12 afternoon and reached India at night. On August 13, he finally reached his home at Chutia locality of the city. Soon after, he left for Bhojpur in the Ara district of Bihar to visit his parents at his ancestral home and unwind.
But watching the ongoing turn of events in Afghanistan is making him stressed, he said, underlining the fact that he is more concerned about a few of his colleagues, including one from Delhi and another from Patna, who are stranded there, and also worried about the local friends whom he got acquainted during his two-year stint there.
Talking to TOI on Tuesday, Kumar said even though serving in the war-torn country wasn’t easy for anyone with the constant threat to life looming in the back of the mind, he had always felt Afghanistan as his second home, given the warmth and support he and his colleagues had received in the last two years.
“Through a job portal, I got an offer with one of the top banks in Afghanistan to work there two years back. The offer was enticing and I chose to accept despite my family fearing for my safety,” Kumar, a father of two kids, said.
Kumar completed his college education in Dhanbad as his grandfather used to live in Bhuli and worked in BCCL. Later, he did his PG diploma in computer science from Raniganj and settled in Ranchi with a job in a private bank before his foreign stint.
In Kabul, he lived in Sehri Nav, close to the Indian embassy. “About nine Indians worked in the bank and we lived in a flat together. I was the only one from Jharkhand but we all are like one big family,” he said, adding that his colleague from Patna is currently stranded in Kabul after commercial flight operations have ceased.
On Monday, the Union ministry of external affairs said they are working on ways to bring back Indians safely.
Talking to TOI on the issue, chief minister’s secretary Vinay Kumar Choubey said the state government does not have any information about anyone from the state stranded in Afghanistan and neither did anyone approach them for help as of now.
He said, “We are on alert over the situation, but as of now, we don’t have any idea if anyone from our state is stranded in Afghanistan as we haven’t received any communiqué from the Centre or any individual seeking our intervention. The government will certainly swing into action if anything comes to its notice,” Choubey said.
Kumar said while the Indian embassy in Afghanistan was issuing advisories since June, they continued to stay there hoping that situation would normalize soon. “But the August 10 advisory was specific to Kabul stating that the Taliban are only 100 km away. The advisory asked Indians to leave at the earliest before the commercial flights stop operating. It was then that I realised it wasn’t safe to stay and rushed to the airport leaving all my belongings there. I managed to get an Air India flight which brought me and nine others to India on the night of August 12,” he said, adding that the officials at the Indian embassy were very much helpful in all respects.
Recalling the horrific scenes of unrest in Afghanistan, he said in the last two years, he was witness to some 36 blasts. “The last one was on the house of the ministry of defence in Kabul (Wazir Akbar Khan area) by the Taliban in the first week of August. Even though our flat was 200km from that place, the intensity of the blast could be heard and felt,” he said, recalling how his family back home would often ask him to return.
Considering the security concerns, Kumar said they were escorted by security guards provided by the bank to move out for the smallest of things, he said. “Even for buying toffees, we had guards to accompany us, but our employer often advised us to desist from going anywhere and provided 15 days leave in three months to visit our families back home,” he said.
Kumar added, “My return to Afghanistan would depend on the external affairs ministry. If they say that it is safe to go back, I will certainly choose to go there as the bank in which I worked always supported us.”