He was an Afghan football prospect. Zaki Anwari, who played in the national youth team, suffered a fatal fall after trying to hang on to an American plane taking off from Kabul, AFP learned on Thursday from the Directorate General of the physical education and sports of the country.
“Anwari, like thousands of young Afghans, wanted to leave the country but fell from an American plane and died,” the organization said in a statement posted on Facebook. Thousands of Afghans have flocked to the airport this week to emigrate following the Taliban’s lightning offensive that resulted in their seizure of power after President Ashraf Ghani fled.
Unbearable scenes
In a poignant video shot on the tarmac on Monday, hundreds of people are seen running alongside a US Air Force plane about to take off from the runway, several people clinging to the device. Other footage appeared to show two people falling to their lives from a C-17 plane after it took off.
Human remains were later found in the landing gear, the US military confirmed, adding that it was investigating the reported deaths linked to the C-17. “Before the crew could unload their cargo, the plane was surrounded by hundreds of Afghan civilians,” said Ann Stefanek, spokeswoman for the US Air Force. “Faced with a rapidly deteriorating security situation around the aircraft, the crew decided to leave the aerodrome as quickly as possible,” she continued.
Joe Biden criticized in the United States
US President Joe Biden is being criticized at home and internationally for the way US troops are withdrawing from Afghanistan, especially since his administration was apparently unprepared for the Taliban’s rapid onslaught.
Memories of the brutal regime imposed by them in the 1990s, during which music and television were banned, people stoned and women confined to their homes, sowed panic among the population.