9/11 had the Falling Man, Kabul 2021 will perhaps always be remembered by the "falling men", two young Afghans desperate for freedom and life clinging on to a plane that has taken off and eventually plunging hundreds of feet below to their death. In videos that have by now been circulated the world over, shocked men and women on the ground can be heard sending out a prayer to god. Ajay Chettri from Dehradun was one of them. He witnessed the nightmare unfold right in front of his eyes.
Chhetri, a former Armyman who was evacuated from Afghanistan on August 17 on an Indian Air Force (IAF) plane, told on Friday that he is still traumatised by what he saw at the Kabul airport as he frantically scurried to leave the city that was his home for over a decade.
On August 16, after the Taliban's capture of Afghanistan's capital, Chhetri, who worked as a security officer there, had "packed up his life" in Kabul and like hundreds of others reached the airport.
"I was at the military airbase which is next to the airport when I heard gunshots. Bullets were flying all around. It was complete chaos. But that wasn't the worst part," said Chhetri, now in Dehradun with his family.
"What I will never forget is how people were running on the tarmac alongside the US cargo planes that were taking off, carrying hundreds of Afghans. One of the planes had left the ground but people were still clinging to its wheel. A little later, I saw two bodies drop down from the sky. It was horrific and I couldn't take it any more," said Chhetri.
The 60-year-old, who was accompanied by his sister-in-law, Savita Shahi, decided to turn back from the airport and take shelter in a NATO camp, a few metres away. Shahi, who worked as an assistant to a US medical team in Kabul, contacted the Indian embassy in Afghanistan and found that an IAF plane was scheduled to leave the city the next day with diplomats and embassy staff.
"On our request, the embassy officials agreed to adjust five of us on the flight home, but two more Indians joined us later and they were also accommodated in the rescue flight," she said.
21/08/21 Times of India
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