- Title: "I'd never go back home": Afghan refugees in India heartbroken over conflict
- Date: 13th August 2021
- Summary: NEW DELHI, INDIA (AUGUST 13, 2021) (ANI - NO USE INDIA) MARKET SHOPS OF AFGHAN REFUGEES SIGNBOARD OF AFGHAN BAKERY OUTSIDE SHOP VARIOUS OF AFGHAN NATIONALS LIVING IN DELHI WORKING AT THEIR FOOD STALLS AFGHAN NATIONAL LOOKING ON AFGHAN FOOD STALLS AFGHAN NATIONAL SEATED AND SMILING AFGHAN NATIONAL WORKING (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) AFGHAN NATIONAL LIVING IN DELHI, MOHAMMAD QAIZ, SAYING: "I'd never go back home, never. I believe that even if 100 years were to pass, peace will never come to Afghanistan. Afghanistan will never be fixed. It has been 45 years of war in Afghanistan and I am 33 years old. I grew up in war. I have never known anything like peace until I came here." VARIOUS OF SHOPS OF AFGHAN REFUGEES (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) AFGHAN NATIONAL LIVING IN DELHI, HASIBULLAH SIQQIDUI, SAYING: "It has been 3-4 months, I have no idea where are my mother-father and other family members. I swear I have no idea where they are or if they are even alive. There mobile phone is off. I also try to connect with them through my mother's brother but he said that they live in the village taken over by Taliban and there is no mobile phone there. The situation is very bad there in my village. They even took Herat yesterday."
- Embargoed: 27th August 2021 17:06
- Keywords: Afghanistan India Pakistan Taliban USA refugee violence war
- Location: NEW DELHI, INDIA/ CHAMAN, PAKISTAN
- City: NEW DELHI, INDIA/ CHAMAN, PAKISTAN
- Country: India
- Topics: Asia / Pacific,Conflicts/War/Peace
- Reuters ID: LVA001EQ44EVJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Afghanistan refugees living in India are saddened by the events in their country over the past few weeks.
"I'd never go back home, never. I believe that even if 100 years were to pass, peace will never come to Afghanistan. Afghanistan will never be fixed," said 33-year-old Mohammad Qaiz on Friday (August 13).
"I grew up in war. I have never known anything like peace until I came here," Qaiz added.
Qaiz has a shop in New Delhi, where he sells Afghanistani food and came to India two years ago.
Taliban insurgents tightened their grip on Afghanistan on Friday, seizing the second- and third-biggest cities and raising fears that an assault on the capital Kabul could be just days away.
More than 250,000 people have been forced from their homes since May, 80 percent of them women and children, the U.N. refugee agency's Shabia Mantoo said. Many reported extortion by armed groups on the way and having to dodge improvised explosive devices along major roads.
U.N. agencies on Friday warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan as Taliban advances drive tens of thousands of people from their homes amid spreading hunger.
Under Taliban rule, women could not work, girls were not allowed to attend school and women had to cover their face and be accompanied by a male relative if they wanted to venture out of their homes. In early July, Taliban fighters ordered nine women to stop working in a bank.
The United Nations has said a Taliban offensive reaching Kabul would have a "catastrophic impact on civilians." But there is little hope for a negotiated end to the fighting, with the insurgents apparently set on a military victory.
Television footage showed families camping out in a Kabul park with little or no shelter, escaping violence elsewhere in the country.
The militants, fighting to defeat the government and impose their strict version of Islamic rule, have taken control of 14 of Afghanistan's 34 provincial capitals since Aug. 6. - Copyright Holder: ANI (India)
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