The Afghan nationals who reached the Afghanistan Embassy in Delhi’s Chanakyapuri area here on Monday said they felt “homeless” and “stateless” and were worried about the situation back home, following the Taliban taking power. The Embassy was guarded by Delhi Police and paramilitary forces since morning on Monday.

Sadaf Habib, an Afghan national, said, she and her family are “living in India as asylum seekers.” Her mother was tortured by the Taliban, she lost five teeth and got a fractured nose, adding, “this is a testimony to Taliban violence. It really hurts me to see my country in this situation.”

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The youngster said, she graduated from Afghanistan with 95 per cent marks and had to leave everything when she and her mother sought asylum five years ago in Delhi. “I feel the pain of those girls who are living there. I have been through it. My country is in a bad situation, worst for women. They are all scared, they are all horrified. There is no hope for women in Afghanistan anymore.”

“20 years of war, and now what? Nothing? Twenty years of nothing. The dark chapter has started again,” she said, adding, “We are stateless people. We don’t have a place to go back.”

A refugee in India for the last four years, Ahmad Zaki came to the Afghan Embassy in Delhi to get a passport for his child born here two years ago. “They said, I will not get any passport right now. Maybe one week later”, he told IANS.

Terming the situation in Afghanistan as “too bad”, Zaki said, “I have been a refugee for four years. The United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHCR) has not helped. I don’t have any work. Many Afghan people face a situation like that of mine.” Zaki, however, said he wanted to go back to Afghanistan.

Adeeba, an Afghan resident, called the situation “worst” and said, “They (Taliban) didn’t show their real face, they are clever. They want to be accepted by (some) governments after that their government in Afghanistan will show their real face.” Adeeba and her mother had come to India in 2019. A lawyer and a civil activist, Adeeba had received threats from Taliban and they came to find a safe place in Delhi.

Adeeba said as per the calls that she received from her relatives and friends from Afghanistan since Sunday, “the situation is normal but the feeling is what was 20 years ago. They feel like prisoners, their homes have become jail for them.”

She also expressed hopelessness as she called herself “homeless”, “without land” and “without flag”. “Soon the name of our country will change,” she said.

Abdul Fateh left Afghanistan four years ago. He said the situation is not good to “continue our life. People like to have a good life, but now the Taliban will decide everything — how to walk on the road, whether you will go to school or not. Afghan people have never accepted the Taliban, never. Taliban insults our army, our people. They occupied Afghanistan.”

Both Adeeba and Fateh blamed Pakistan for the current mess in Afghanistan.
To a question, why Pakistan?, Adeeba said, “(Pakistan) It is always our enemy, cannot be a friend. They want our land.”