Ranchi: Only two days before the Taliban controlled Afghanistan, a banker from the city identified as Satayendra Kumar (39) managed to return to India on August 12, fled narrowly from the horrors of the torn country.
Kumar said following an advisor from the Indian Embassy in Kabul on August 10, he decided not to take risks and managed to get Indian water flights on August 12 and reach India at night.
On August 13, he finally reached his home at the location of Chutia.
Immediately after, he went to Bhojpur in Ara Bihar district to visit his parents at his ancestral home and relax.
But witnessing the turn of the ongoing events in Afghanistan made him stress, he said, underlining the fact that he cared more about some of his colleagues, including one of Delhi and the other from Patna, who was stranded there, and also worried about the local friends he met For two years his job there.
Talking to Ti on Tuesday, Kumar said even though serving in a torn country was not easy for anyone with a constant threat to life that loomed in mind, he always felt Afghanistan as the second home, remembering his warmth.
And supporting him and his colleagues have been received in the past two years.
“Through a job portal, I got an offer with one of the top banks in Afghanistan to work there two years ago.
The offer was interesting and I chose to accept even though my family was afraid of my safety,” Kumar, father of two children, said.
Kumar completed his college education at Dhanbad when his grandfather had lived in Bhuli and worked at BCCL.
Then, he did his PG diploma in computer science from Raniganj and settled in Ranchi with work at a private bank before his job.
In Kabul, he lived in Sehri Nav, close to the Indian Embassy.
“About nine Indians work in banks and we live flatly.
I am the only one from Jharkhand but we are all like a big family,” he said, adding that his colleague from Patna is currently stranded in Kabul after commercial flight operations have stopped.
On Monday, the Ministry of ENI external fields said they were working on how to bring Indians safely.
Speaking with ToI about this problem, Secretary of the Chairperson of Minister Vinay Kumar Choubey said the state government did not have information about anyone from the country stranded in Afghanistan and no one approached them for help now.
He said, “We are alert to the situation, but until now, we do not know if there are those from our country stranded in Afghanistan because we have not received communiques from the center or individual who is looking for our intervention.
The government will definitely go into action if anyone comes to the notification, “Choubey said.
Kumar said while the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan issued an advisor since June, they continued to live there in the hope that the situation would soon normalize.
“But the August 10 advisor was specific to Kabul who stated that the Taliban was only 100 km.
Advisor asked Indians to leave earlier before commercial flights stopped operating.
That’s when I realized it was not safe to stay and rushed to the airport leaving all the items I was there.
I managed to get Indian air flights that took me and nine others to India on August 12, “he said, adding that officials at the Indian Embassy were very helpful in everything.
Given the terrible riot scene in Afghanistan, he said in the past two years, he witnessed around 36 explosions.
“The last one was at the Ministry of Defense’s house in Kabul (Vizier Akbar Khan Area) by the Taliban in the first week of August.
Even though our flat was 200 km from the place, the explosion intensity could be heard and felt,” he said, recalling how his family came home will be often asks him to return.
Considering security issues, Kumar said they were escorted by the security guard provided by the bank to move for the smallest things, he said.
“Even to buy Toffees, we have guards to accompany us, but our employers often advise us to quit anywhere and provide 15 days of leave in three months to visit our family at home,” he said.
Kumar added, “I returned to Afghanistan will depend on the ministry of external affairs.
If they say that it is safe to return, I will definitely choose to go there as a bank where I work always supports us.”