‘One of those who fell from USAF aeroplane was member of Afghan national football team’

PTI, Aug 20, 2021, 8:38 AM IST

One of those who tragically fell from a US Air Force aeroplane departing from Kabul as the Taliban took over the war-torn country was reportedly a member of the Afghanistan national football team, Director General of the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies Davood Moradian told the UN Security Council on Thursday.

Moradian, who escaped from Kabul as the Taliban took control of the country on Sunday, virtually spoke at the UN Security Council briefing on ‘Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts,’ chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held under India’s current Presidency of the Council.

“I was at Kabul airport when desperate passengers held departing US aeroplanes and also my own aeroplane that was due to leave Kabul airport,” he said.

“It was sheer human desperation, helplessness and fear. One of the passengers that fell to the ground from a flying USA plane was reportedly a member of the Afghanistan national football team. These passengers were not alone in their desperation and fear. They represent millions of Afghans from diverse backgrounds, from women’s rights activists to farmers. The world must intervene to avert and mitigate an apocalyptic humanitarian tragedy,” Moradian said.

He said that he is using the word catastrophe to describe the situation in Afghanistan because ”I was in a very catastrophic situation in Kabul just 48 hours ago. The crisis of Afghanistan during the last four decades has shown that a military solution is just a brief pause to the next phase of the war. The Taliban and their regional partners, particularly the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, should reflect on their principal goal in either mitigating or accelerating a catastrophic situation in Afghanistan,” he added.

At least seven people, including three Afghan nationals who clung to a US Air Force plane to escape Taliban rule, died on Monday in a melee at the Kabul airport, as hundreds of people scrambled to board flights in a desperate bid to get out of Afghanistan, following the toppling of the government led by President Ashraf Ghani.

The Taliban insurgents swept Kabul on Sunday after the US-backed Afghan government collapsed and President Ghani fled the country, bringing an unprecedented end to a two-decade campaign in which the US and its allies had tried to transform the war-ravaged nation.

Three Afghan nationals fell to death from the sky as they failed in their bid to flee the Taliban rule in Afghanistan by clinging to a US Air Force plane, according to video clips posted by a local news agency.

According to TOLOnews, some people were killed and wounded by gunfire in the Kabul international airport as hundreds of people crowded the airport to board flights.

Kabul airport was overwhelmed on Sunday night with over 2,000 people hoping to board commercial flights leaving the country, it said.