One of the three men who tragically fell from a US Air Force plane that was departing from Kabul as the Taliban took over the war-torn country was reportedly a member of the Afghanistan national football team, Director General of the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies Davood Moradian told the UN Security Council on Thursday. The football player has been identified as 17-year-old Zakir Anwari, who played for the national youth football team.
“It is with great sadness that we received information that Zaki Anwari, one of the players of the national junior football team of the country, died in a bad accident,” a statement by the General Department of Physical Education and Sports in Afghanistan said. He was “among hundreds of young people who wanted to leave the country,” the statement said, adding that he fell off the US Air Force plane to his death.
Davood Moradian told the UNSC, “I was at Kabul airport when desperate passengers held departing US airplanes, and also my own airplane, that was due to leave Kabul airport. It was sheer human desperation, helplessness and fear. One of the passengers that fell to the ground from a flying USA plane was reportedly a member of Afghanistan national football team.”
Three Afghan nationals fell to death from the sky as they failed in their bid to flee the Taliban rule in Afghanistan by clinging to a US Air Force plane, according to video clips posted by a local news agency.
“These passengers were not alone in their desperation and fear. They represent millions of Afghans from diverse backgrounds, from women's rights activists to farmers. The world must intervene to avert and mitigate an apocalyptic humanitarian tragedy,” Moradian said.
Moradian, who escaped from Kabul as the Taliban took control of the country on Sunday, virtually spoke at the UN Security Council briefing on 'Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts', chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held under India's current Presidency of the Council.
At least seven people, including three Afghan nationals who clung to a US Air Force plane to escape Taliban rule, died on Monday in a melee at the Kabul airport, as hundreds of people scrambled to board flights in a desperate bid to get out of Afghanistan, following the toppling of the government led by President Ashraf Ghani. According to TOLOnews, some people were killed and wounded by gunfire in the Kabul international airport as hundreds of people crowded the airport to board flights.
The Taliban insurgents swept Kabul on Sunday after the US-backed Afghan government collapsed and President Ghani fled the country, bringing an unprecedented end to a two-decade campaign in which the US and its allies had tried to transform the war-ravaged nation.
Kabul airport was overwhelmed on Sunday night with over 2,000 people hoping to board commercial flights leaving the country, TOLOnews said.
With PTI Inputs