As the Taliban entered Kabul on August 15 taking over Afghanistan, an Indian journalist recounts her experience of coming back to India amid the chaos and mayhem. In an article for The Print, journalist Nayanima Basu said while going to Kabul was risky, coming out from the war-torn country required skills she had never imagined.
Nayanima was to return back to India onto the Air India flight AI0244 scheduled for 16 August at 11 am. When she reached the Kabul airport early on Monday, she saw that the airport had been completely taken over by the Taliban and the main entry was blocked by 8-10 armoured vehicles. There were firing in the air by Taliban while people were made to sit outside the main terminal buildings on the road.
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While thousands wait outside the airport to catch the flight, she sheltered herself from the bullets that were fired in the air as many Afghan families were sitting with little children. Crowds started running inside the airport at 7 am when the gates opened and the firing increased by the Talibans as the crowd swelled.
Basu recalls the experience as people were getting scared with the sound of bullets being fired. But she came to know later that all the flights at the Kabul airport have been suspended.
However, as more and more people started pouring into the airport to catch flights out of Kabul, the Talibs guarding the airport got angrier and started firing at the mob indiscriminately.
With the chaos and firing around, Nayanima was given three options by the Indian embassy and MEA headquarters in Delhi- “go back to the hotel where I was staying, go to the technical area of the airport, or go to the Indian embassy,” she said.
“On my way out, I was also checked by a handful of yelling Taliban guards as they were about to throw my bags on the floor. Keeping my composure, I told them I am a journalist from India and have come to cover the situation on the ground. They immediately set me free,” Nayanima added.
She adds that later around 11:15 am a massive crowd from outside attempted to gatecrash the airport, the guards started firing to control the mob and one person standing beside her got shot.
While she managed to get out of the airport and get a cab to reach the Indian embassy she was stopped by Taliban who said that there was no entry. However, she negotiated with the main leader and managed to get access.
Nayanima, in her article said that there was a crowd waiting to get into the embassy in search of a better life. “I was approached by a woman who was crying and told me she wanted to visit India to meet her brother. There were two boys who wanted to come and apply for visas to work in India,” she said.
As the embassy was under evacuation, she and other fellow journalist friends and civilians living there were put inside designated bullet-proof Land Cruisers and rushed to the airport.
She and other fellow Indians boarded the Indian Air Force C-17 Globemaster that was parked in the technical area of the Hamid Karzai International Airport, which was being manned by US forces. After a brief stopover at Gujarat’s Jamnagar, we landed at the Hindon air base Tuesday evening.
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