Mohammad Yousuf* was five-years-old when the Taliban was removed from power in Afghanistan. Now a 25-year-old, studying at the Osmania University in Hyderabad, he dreads a life under the Taliban regime. Yousuf has just two months left on his Indian visa. He hopes the Afghanistan Consulate will request the Indian government to extend visas and student scholarships of all Afghan nationals presently in India, "If the Indian government doesn't extend my visa, i will have no option but to return back to Afghanistan," says Yousuf, who finished his final year exams in July and is now counting his final days in India. Yousuf grows quiet when asked about home and is hesitant to talk about his life as a teenager.
“Life wasn’t bad,” he says. “We had decent public administration and had freedom of speech but now, I don’t know how things will be like," he adds, and goes quiet.
Yousuf can’t afford to flee to other countries as a refugee and says that he just wants to return to his family. "I am not thinking of becoming a refugee in other countries. I can’t afford it. I can’t bring all of them (his family) to India either. When the visa expires, I will return home to my family. Live or die, it will be with my family," he adds.
A day after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, visuals of desperate and petrified Afghans trying to leave the country shocked the world on Monday. Amidst the political turmoil back home, Afghan students in India are fighting their own battles. TNM spoke to students in Bengaluru and Hyderabad who are living in fear every minute for the safety of their families back home and also for their own futures.
The family of 23-year-old Fazil Ahmed Adil is in their hometown of Jalalabad. He came to Bengaluru three years ago to get a degree in Computer Applications. And in six months, as he completes his course, he had hoped to put his degree to use back home. “But now everything has suddenly changed. I cannot go back to Afghanistan now. There are many Pakistanis there now and they do not like Indians, so I too, will be targeted. Our degree is a worthless paper for them,” Adil tells TNM.
Adil has three sisters aged 15, 18 and 20 years old in Jalalabad. “Before this, everything was normal and they went to college with male students also. But now, they have been told to not go out without male family members. So they have not been to college and everything is shut,” he says, worrying about their safety. All his family members, like others in his neighbourhood, have been asked to stay in their homes till further announcements. While Adil’s family is safe, he says many others face perils every day. “In places like Herat, we are hearing that the Taliban have been announcing that women who are not married or engaged yet will be forcibly married off. Everyone we know is trying to get out in any possible way,” he adds.
Suhail Ashraff*, a student from Herat, who has been studying in Bengaluru, says that he has been living his worst nightmare for the last two days as he has not been able to get in touch with his family. “When I last spoke to them, they told me that the Taliban has been announcing on loudspeakers that all communication gadgets including mobile phones, television sets and computers should be handed over to them, failing which, they will raid the houses,” he says. His family ran a private construction business but had worked with the previous government on a few road contracts many years ago. “So we have come under the Taliban radar now,” he says.
Ashraff has two sisters and a brother back home and his mother was a school teacher in a girls’ school in Herat. “She wanted me to study computer software so I could teach more people in my town. But now, all that seems impossible”.
“My family has been sending pictures and videos of heavily armed Taliban fighters patrolling our roads for over a week now. I was very young when the Taliban rule had ended. While the shadow of guns and violence never left Afghanistan, the scenes we are seeing are chilling,” Ashraff says. “I have not been able to eat for days now and when I see visuals of how people trying to get out were hanging on to US planes, it fills me with guilt for what I have here,” he adds.
While he remains glued to news channels to remain updated on the latest developments which are getting more worrisome by the day, he and two friends narrate the last conversations they had with their families before being cut off. And the tales that they have heard fill them with trepidation. “A neighbour’s daughter was working in the US for the last eight years. A family of six were still living in Afghanistan. Now they have gone missing. We don’t know if they managed to flee or if they have been captured,” Ashraff recalled. He says when they hear Taliban spokespersons say that they will protect everyone, their assurances are hard to believe.
Several families are being ‘marked’ by the Taliban and with all routes to escape closing in, they are living in anxiety about what awaits the marked families.
Another Afghan national from Ghazni living in Bengaluru for four years now says they have been cynical of everyone after what has happened in their country. “We no longer know who is our friend and who our enemy. The world can analyse the role of America, Pakistan, China and even India but we are only looking at our survival every hour. We can look at the larger picture if we make it intact,” he says, choosing to remain anonymous.
He says that their futures look bleak and all scenarios seem to only fill them with further despair. “The future looks like a struggle every day. If we and our families manage to survive, then we have to look at what life will look like after the Taliban settles down in power. What will be allowed and what will not. Will we be allowed to continue with our livelihoods? What will be our educational future? Will basic amenities like electricity, water and transport even be available?” he asks.
Adil, too, echoes similar concerns and is extremely sceptical of the Taliban's assurances. “Now around 6,000 American troops are still there, which is why the Taliban is saying they will not harm anyone and will maintain peace. Once they go away, see what they will do,” he says.
Those who returned to Afghanistan from India are facing a new set of challenges. Like Maqbool Khan* who studied in Hyderabad and until a few days ago worked with the Afghanistan government. He is trying to flee the country with his family and fears for his and their safety. "I haven't stepped out of home since the Taliban came to power. My family worries about me, they fear I will be assassinated. I am worried about my family because if the Taliban knows that I have graduated from India and work with the government then my family is also at risk,". Farhan and his family are making attempts to flee the country and are desperate.
Adil says the Afghani students have been given no clarity yet from universities and the Indian government. “I have not been able to sleep for the last three days. I have my exams approaching but I cannot study,” he says. “We do not know what the Indian government plans to do with us. We have not heard anything yet. I have six months left to complete my education. Now I want to try and work here because if I go back, my degree is not worth anything. I came to India on a scholarship,” he adds.
Ashraff says he is trying to get in touch with thousands of Afghans living in India as they collectively face a precarious future. He says it is too early for them to even ask the Indian government what their stand will be, as the situation continues to teether.
For Abdul Mateen*, an Osmania University student in Hyderabad, who is married to an Indian woman, his hopes of not returning to Afghanistan are pinned on the Indian bureaucratic process of obtaining an Overseas Citizen Of India status, "I had plans to return but now I can’t and won’t go until the situation improves. I have three months left to graduate and hope the visa can be extended."
Mateen’s native province had fallen under Taliban control weeks ago. "My family are safe, for now, and the Taliban hasn't imposed anything yet. But, they keep track of families that have relatives abroad and check if we are against them or in their support," he says. Mateen is trying to bring his younger sibling to India for higher studies. Several Afghan nationals TNM spoke to urged the Indian government to extend their visas until the situation on the ground improves.
With no clarity on whether the Afghanistan government will be recognised and considered legitimate, students in India are unsure about who will really represent them. They say their days here seem numbered and fraught with dread and despair at being sent back to a country where they will be most likely met with hostility.
When TNM contacted the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Consulate in Hyderabad, the embassy was yet to formulate a coherent response to the events unfolding back in their homeland. Consul General Muhammed Suleman Kakar was busy attending meetings and could not be reached for a comment.
*Names changed on request