This story is from August 19, 2021

Pratapgarh engineer returns safely from Afghanistan with help of US Air Force

At a time when thousands of people are fleeing from the strife-torn country of Afghanistan, and the Indian government is evacuating its nationals from there, a 35-year old engineer from the neighbouring district of Pratapgarh was also able to leave Afghanistan and reach home.
Pratapgarh engineer returns safely from Afghanistan with help of US Air Force
PRAYAGRAJ: At a time when thousands of people are fleeing from the strife-torn country of Afghanistan, and the Indian government is evacuating its nationals from there, a 35-year old engineer from the neighbouring district of Pratapgarh was also able to leave Afghanistan and reach home.
Ashok Kumar Singh is native to Kunwar Ka Purva in Babuganj Bazar of Lalganj tehsil.
He returned to India via Kuwait with the help of US Air Force.
Ashok Kumar Singh, who reached Pratapgrah on Wednesday, spoke to TOI on phone and narrated the sorry affairs in the country which is now fully controlled by the Taliban. Ashok was working as an IT engineer at the American Army base camp in Kabul at the time of Taliban takeover.
Ashok said, “Our base camp was located about 8-10 km from Pul-e-Charkhi, the biggest prison in Kabul, and employed 60 people. Among them were five Indians, 35 Americans and 20 British nationals. Two hours before the Taliban were about to reach Kabul on the night of August 14, we received a call from the US embassy to vacate the camp. Before leaving the camp, we secured back-up of the entire data and destroyed around 200 laptops. As many as 40 armed vehicles of the US army were burnt. After this, six Chinook helicopters of the US army airlifted us.
“We were taken to Doha by a US Air Force plane on the night of August 15. After staying there for the next day, we reached Kuwait, and then landed in New Delhi on Tuesday night,” he informed.
Talking about the present scenario in Afghanistan, Ashok said, “Although the Taliban are being welcomed by some Afghans, a substantial part of the population wants to escape for their freedom and better opportunities because their fate is very bleak in their own country now.”
He also informed that although the Indian government is evacuating their nationals from several locations, there are still a lot of Indians who are yet to be flown back to safety as soon as possible.
“There is utter chaos in Afghanistan. When locals are trying to get out by all means possible, one can imagine the plight of many Indians who are still stuck there,” said the young engineer who was lucky enough to reach his home within three days of being airlifted.
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