'How will we believe Taliban?' Afghan student in Bengaluru says he must now live through what he witnessed as a child

A fortnight ago, Afghan national Romaan Rashid Sherzad was enjoying his vacation in the verdant and picturesque Nangarhar province of Afghanistan where his family originally hails from. A final-year student of BBA in Bengaluru, he had no inkling of the dramatic chaos that was to descend on his country in the ensuing days. Back in Bengaluru, he could only watch in disbelief as the cities and provinces of his homeland fell in quick succession to the Taliban. He is disappointed and deeply concerned.

“I was home just two and half weeks back and everything was normal. Within 10 days, Taliban took over Afghanistan,” he rued.

Romaan comes from a family of 33 members. "All in one house," he says. His father Haroon Rashid Sherzad is the former first deputy minister of Internal Affairs and his grandfather was an army general. His uncles too were in the ministry.

Read more: The Taliban in Kabul: Time India fortifies the guardrails

“My father has no job now,” he said.

As images of Taliban unleashing violence on the streets come out, tens of thousands of Afghans are looking for an exit passage, where hardly any exist. With uncertainty staring at his country, Romaan is once again taken back to the Taliban regime which he lived through as a kid. “I remember girls not being allowed to go to schools, women banned from going out alone, human rights were unheard of and there were no proper policies nor technology,” he said.

“But now, the Taliban say girls can go to school and women can go to work but with hijab.” Their statements have taken him by surprise. “How will we believe the Taliban, who are uneducated people? How will the international community believe them?”

Romaan sees a bleak future for his homeland under the Taliban, a thought shared by many young Afghans like him, he said.

He explained that the Taliban is against "certain kinds of freedom". “For instance, a woman cannot go out without being accompanied by her father or brother," he explained.

"Secondly, they will punish you if you are not beneficial to them. I fear how my country will grow economically and technologically with these people at the helm,” he said.

Earlier, the international community was helping the country. Now he fears they won’t.

Even after the Taliban had taken over Afghanistan, Romaan, fortunately, was able to talk to his family. They are safe, he said. "My father says even if he’s captured, they can’t do anything to him since he is not corrupt.”

His brother, however, cannot go to school since the teachers are refusing to step out fearing the Taliban.

Romaan hopes to be a tax specialist. More than that, he wants to contribute to build a new Afghanistan. “Even as a kid, I wanted to serve my people and my country," he said.

He nurtures a hope that someday his country will become a democracy as he believes that the Taliban is not going to be there forever. "I want freedom for girls and boys to pursue their education."

"I don’t want to be in politics but I want to become a mentor for the development of Afghans in the educational sector,” he said.

Back in Afghanistan, does his family worry about their safety under the new regime?

“We are not scared,” he said.