KURSEONG/ DARJEELING/ KOLKATA: Some are still having nightmares of weeklong terror, while some shared contrasting experience of diplomatic decency by the Taliban. But the feeling that united almost all Bengal returnees from Afghan soil was that of relief to be finally back home from a state of commotion, chaos and uncertain future.
Sitting at his Kurseong Naya Bazar home, Kishan Gurung, an ex-serviceman who was deployed at Italian embassy in Kabul, remembered the horrifying last week spent at his workplace which, according to him, was “rougher than all the years of experience in the Indian army”.
“We were trying to escape Afghanistan since August 15 and managed to reach the airport by August 17 but were stopped by the Taliban. We were more than 90 people and the Taliban held us at gunpoint and began questioning each of us with whip in hand,” said Gurung. They made one Afghan national get down on his knees while pointing a gun at his head. Seeing all this, an Afghan woman got heart attack and died right there.
Gurung still shivered to recall how one of them carrying a whip had asked him about his nationality. “I somehow said in Hindi that I was from Hindustan. The man asked if there was no job in India. I didn’t reply. He asked if I would come back again to Afghanistan. I said I wouldn’t and he left me,” said Gurung.
He and many others were turned back from the airport and had to spend the next few nights on the lawn of a hotel sleeping inside garbage bags to protect them from the cold.
“Waking up to gunshots had become a routine and we fed on just biscuits and water. We tried to head to the airport again on August 20 but the sight of several bodies strewn on the road made us turn back,” he said.
Gurung and the rest of the group were rescued by NATO officials on Saturday and were taken to the airbase where from they were flown to Kazakhstan. He landed in Delhi four hours later where from he flew to Bagdogra. “It still feels like a nightmare. But I am relieved to be back home with my family,” he said.
On Monday, there were at least 44 other Afghan returnees who landed at Bagdogra. Subash Subba (44), another ex-armyman and a resident of Kalimpong who had recently left home to take up a job of a security guard in Kabul, said: “We were in touch with the Indian embassy since August 15 and on Friday, we finally managed to reach the Kabul airport where we had to wait for 24 hours. Later, the officers of the Indian Air Force arrived and helped us board the flight to Delhi.”
Sambhu Bomzan, a resident of Rohini in Darjeeling, said: “The situation is pathetic back there. Everyone is fleeing in fear.”
Another returnee from Darjeeling, Rajesh Thapa, said the Taliban are firing in the air and on streets from open jeeps. “We had the tickets to fly on August 16 but we could not board the flight. Many people are still stuck there,” said Thapa, who worked as a security guard
Sarbajit Mukherjee, a resident of Kolkata’s Jatin Das Road and a professor of international relations at Kandahar University, said there is panic among a section of Afghan nationals who either used to work as translators or were closely associated with the US Embassy. He, along with some other Indians, had a smooth passage out of the country.
“Those who used to work with the US administration are fearing that the Taliban will be vindictive towards them and that is causing the rush outside the Kabul airport,” said Mukherjee, who had returned home on Sunday night.
