Dushanbe: Hard, patriotic music in the celebration of the recent independence day in the capital of Tajikistan a little comfort for Abdulbashir Yusufi, was still shaken from the Taliban takeover of his country, neighboring Afghanistan.
Yusufi fled to the Central Asian state of the mountains on the doorstep of the Afghanistan last month, securing a last minute visa and flight for his family, just like the Taliban arrived at the Kabul gate.
When high-tempo music played in Dushanbe Central Square, the 43-year-old player explained that his friends and relatives faced death in the hands of the Taliban in Panjshir, the last province to fall into the group.
“I’m very worried for them,” Yusufi, a former resident of North Mazar-e-Sharif, told AFP.
A doctor who worked with the German army and an English pharmaceutical company before that, Yusufi said he could not reflect home with his family.
“If we go back to Afghanistan there is a threat to our lives,” he explained.
Instead of staying in Tajikistan, Yusufi hopes to be given protection in the West.
The sweep of the Taliban Afghanistan which was fast when foreign troops fell after 20 years triggered an exodus of bustle – especially among Afghans who worked with foreign military – which was centered at the airport in Kabul.
Tajikistan, secretic and authoritarian ex-Soviet countries close to Russia and China, have not provided numbers for the number of Afghans who have arrived there since the Taliban started takeover in May.
But the Minister of Home Affairs Ramazon Hamro Rahimzoda said earlier this month that the country could not admit around 80 Afghan family camping on his border with Afghanistan, said it did not have infrastructure to accommodate them.
The Tajik leader Emomali Rakhmon then criticized international institutions for their “indifference” with the fate of Afghanistan, but he did not make a commitment to accommodate refugees in his own country.
For Afghanistan who have succeeded in to Tajikistan, the famous important anti-Taliban position might be a good sign.
While other neighboring countries, such as Uzbekistan, began to develop relations with the Taliban for a long time, the Tajik authorities had repeatedly criticized the group and refused to get involved with him.
Strongman Rakhmon has complained about the buildup of “terrorist groups” on the southern border of Tajikistan since the Taliban mastered it.
He has given awarded anumertor to the Anti-Taliban Commander Ahmad Shah Massoud and late former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani.
The old Afghan government ambassador to Tajikistan, Zahir Aghbar, also denied the Taliban, instead promised loyalty to the vice president who was overthrown in the country Amrullah Saleh.
In a news at the Embassy building on Wednesday Aghbar rejected the new Taliban government in Kabul as “some mullah, some of them had not even read two books”.
He said he could not say how many Afghan refugees arrived in Tajikistan in recent months but credited by the government to “always treat refugees warmly”.
The younger Afghan escape observes the celebration of the Tajikistan Independence Day in Dushanbe Central told AFP that they saw their long-term future outside Afghanistan and in the West.
Princess Abdulbashir Yusufi, Mahsa Yusufi, 15, said that he dreamed of living in the United States, Canada or England.
“If I go there, I think I can be someone who can be someone who can help my people,” Yusufi said.
Abdusabbur Alizai, a 23-year-old student said he planned to continue to study at the University of Tajik where he was registered.
“Then, I will try to go to the country where I will be able to make a good living,” Alizai said.
Many of his relatives felt the same way, he told AFP.
“They used to have a job.
Now nothing.
They are all unhappy with the Taliban and all want to leave Afghanistan for a better life,” Alizai said.
In Tajikistan, Afghan foreigners fear the beloved people who are left behind
