SOS Afghanistan: Inside the Phone of a Helpless Refugee

As Taliban takes over Afghanistan, here's a reconstruction of a conversation between an Afghan refugee, her brother.

As the Taliban returns to Afghanistan, here's a reconstructed conversation between an Afghan refugee & her brother.

(Photo: The Quint)

(The following is a reconstruction based on real-life experiences of Afghans trying to flee the Taliban and is inspired by a video published by the BBC Media Action group during the 2016 refugee crisis in Europe.)

"Our Mazar-e-Sharif has fallen, the horror... the Taliban has taken out the city," rued Bashira, responding to the barrage of messages from her elder brother Samad that, heretofore, were undelivered.

Dreading the death knell sounded by the Taliban, which she heard was on a hunt for all those associated with the erstwhile Afghan government or foreign embassies – Bashira tells Samad that she and her parents "should have left for India" with him.

As Samad wonders just how close the Taliban is to his family, he hears what he knew was inevitable – that the Taliban is looking for his relatives, for he had worked with an embassy in Afghanistan.

(Image: The Quint)

"They will come after you... because I was working with the embassy... all because of me!" Soon, Bashira and her parents make a dash for Kabul airport, where too, they face greater challenges.

As the US finally pulls out of the war-ravaged country, 20 years after first invading it in 2001, will helpless Afghans like Bashira manage to escape the clutches of the Taliban, and leave the country they once called home?