Among the heartbreaking scenes emerging on social media since the Taliban captured power in Afghanistan, the latest is that of desperate Afghan women throwing their babies over the razor wire of Kabul airport compound. According to reports by Sky News, a senior British officer told Stuart Ramsay that the women were throwing their babies over the wire, asking the soldiers to take them and some got caught in the wire. He added that he was counselling the men and that everyone cried over the picture of chaos at the Kabul airport. Further, the Sky News report narrated that families had to duck past aggressive Taliban who sometimes beat and harassed them. On August 18, a Taliban commander at the Kabul airport said that at least 40 people were killed in shooting by foreign forces and due to a stampede since Monday. He said the people should not be deceived by fake rumours about travelling abroad and asked them to avoid coming to the airport, Afghan media reported.
Meanwhile, a video is being widely shared on social media that shows a small girl being lifted over the perimeter wall of the Kabul airport and handed over to an American soldier. It is being termed as representative of the pathos in the prevailing scenario. However, news agency Reuters was not able to immediately verify the video. A Reuters report said it was not clear whether the girl was being reunited with her family within the airport premises or if she was being handed over to get her on board a flight leaving Afghanistan.
The following are bits of footage that emerged from the scene which are being shared on social media:
US soldiers rescue a BABY which was thrown over the wall of the airport in #Kabul in #AfghanistanThat is how desperate people are to get out.
Think about throwing (literally) your CHILD to random strangers over a wall.
Heartbreaking pic.twitter.com/TZkdLsZo6Z
— Emily Schrader - אמילי שריידר (@emilykschrader) August 19, 2021
US troops fire shots into the air and use teargas on desperate crowds as chaos at Kabul airport enters fifth day: Taliban block Westerners from reaching flights Babies were thrown over barbed wire towards troops in a desperate bid to get them out of the country pic.twitter.com/FbPxw8lYnh
— Lilian Chan (@bestgug) August 19, 2021
Reports suggest that the Taliban are going back to their retrograde policies, followed during their rule between 1996 and 2001, in the areas captured now.
The Taliban, in recent years, have said they are committed to providing women their rights and allowing them to work and attend school, provided they do not flout Islamic or Afghan values. However, the Taliban also said they want to limit the freedom gained in recent years by women, which has promoted “immorality” and “indecency”.
Military flights evacuating diplomats and civilians from Afghanistan resumed on Tuesday after the runway at Kabul airport was cleared of thousands of people desperate to flee after the Taliban seized the capital.
The number of civilians had thinned out, a Western security official at the airport told Reuters, a day after chaotic scenes in which US troops fired to disperse crowds and people clung to a US military transport plane as it taxied for take-off. “Runway in Kabul international airport is open. I see airplanes landing and taking off," Stefano Pontecorvo, NATO’s civilian representative, said on Twitter. Under a US troops withdrawal pact struck last year, the Taliban agreed not to attack foreign forces as they leave.
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