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Fleeing Kabul and the kindness of strangers

Our friends at York City of Sanctuary have been working with University of York to help resettle an Afghan student and his family in York.

They were forced to flee their home in Kabul with nothing. He wanted to tell his story. These are his words…

As Taliban fighters started house searching operations in different districts and cities to target ex-government officials and those who worked with foreign agencies, I had to destroy all my certificates, copies of contracts, ID cards and education documents. In addition, I had to burn my father’s documents as he was an ex-police force member.

Since all flights were suspended, airports and borders were closed immediately after the fall of the Government, in order to save my life and my family, I decided to ride a pick-up type vehicle with my family and go to Chaman border of Pakistan, which is in southern parts of Afghanistan. As the border was closed, we had to return to Kabul after several days.

The Torkham border is where hundreds of Afghans leave the country to Pakistan. Torkham border is probably one of the worst places in the world.

It is like a hell that you don’t want to spend even a minute.

The most dangerous and brutal fighters of the Taliban and Pakistani border forces are deployed there. People with their families wait for hours and days to cross the border from Afghanistan to Pakistan.

Targeted killings of government officials, and people who served with foreign agencies continues to be a daily tragedy in many parts of the country mainly in capital Kabul. They are deliberately assassinated either by the Taliban or Islamic State (ISS) agents.

These photos show the magnitude of Taliban and ISS attacks on foreign agencies and government institutions. These attacks normally cause multiple human causalities, traumas and massive collateral damages.