'Where will we go?': Returning Indians recount Afghans' apprehension

As 129 passengers from Kabul landed in Delhi on Sunday evening, most had a similar concern: What happens to the Afghans left behind?

"The locals are very scared about their future. When we were coming back to India they said to us, 'You are going. Where will we go? This is our motherland," one of the returnees told NDTV.

"There was heavy traffic on the way to the airport. I walked for 2.5 km to reach the airport," he added.

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"People were rushing to the airport and all flights were sold out. Women in Afghanistan were very concerned because in the last few years they have made a lot of progress in freedom, education and their way of living. I don't know what will happen in the days to come. Very few people might be able to get out," another returnee who works with a USAID-associated NGO told the publication.

Women are especially apprehensive as the as memories of the Taliban's 1996-2001 regime during which women were subjected to persistent human rights violations, denied employment and education, forced to wear the burqa and forbidden from leaving home without a male “guardian” or mahram, are still afresh.

The Taliban sweep continues across the country and they are steps away from gaining full control of Afghanistan.

Also Read | A week into Taliban rule, one city’s glimpse of what Taliban future may hold

Afghanistan stares at an uncertain future as President Ashraf Ghani left the country just before Kabul fell into the hands of the Taliban on Sunday.

Senior Air India officials said the Afghanistan airspace has been declared "uncontrolled" by the Kabul airport on Monday and transit flights have been asked to avoid the airspace.

It is not clear if Air India would be operating its Delhi-Kabul-Delhi flight on Monday.

India had first evacuated its officials from Mazar-e-sharif and later from Kabul as the situation worsened.

(With agency inputs)