During a trek across Afghanistan, Ahmad was assaulted, tortured, and fired at while attempting to get his family away from the Taliban. Twelve months after failing to board an evacuation flight in Kabul, he finally reached safety in Iran last week.
One Taliban fighter yelled, “Look at this man… he worked for British soldiers,” as a group began to beat Ahmad in front of his wailing wife and children.
It was August 15th, 2021. The family was at the airport entry in Kabul, attempting to board an evacuation flight. They encountered scenes of turmoil as thousands of other Afghans attempted to flee the country.
Ahmad had to pass the Taliban at the airport’s gate to reach Western forces – the very people he was attempting to flee.
He was halted by Taliban fighters who demanded to see his passport. Ahmad was nervous throughout the search since his military paperwork from his stint with British forces in Helmand Province was concealed at the bottom of his backpack.
A tense wait ensued as the family’s belongings were inspected. Unavoidably, one of the combatants pulled out Ahmad’s paperwork, revealing that they bore printed army emblems and Union Jacks.
Instantaneously, he was thrown to the ground and thrashed in front of his wife and children. He was only twenty meters away from British soldiers, and his former colleagues.
Ahmad’s back was covered with bruises and scratches after his wife yelled “Stop!” but the attackers continued to pound him despite her cries.
Ahmad’s five-year tenure with the army ended in 2014 when British forces withdrew from Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, the hub of their Afghanistan mission. His activities, particularly his assistance in communicating with captive fighters, made him a target.
With the Taliban entering his native city of Kunduz in the north on August 6 of last year, Ahmad thought that his family would be safer in Kabul, which had not yet fallen.
He drove them the 322 kilometers (200 miles) to the capital in the hope that they may escape on an evacuation flight.
Safety was their sole concern. “We were contemplating how to stay alive and preserve ourselves,” he claimed.
The beating failed to discourage Ahmad’s family. They sought unsuccessfully to board an evacuation flight for ten days, spending days in the scorching Kabul sun.
One day they came agonizingly close when a British soldier plucked Ahmad out of the crowd because he was a former translator eligible for the evacuation aircraft. Before his family could proceed ahead, a crowd surge produced havoc at the gates, pushing them further from safety.
During the twelve months following his inability to obtain a flight out of Kabul, Ahmad spoke about his arduous and perilous trek to safety.
To protect those in Afghanistan who helped him escape, his identity has been altered and some facts have been omitted.
Ahmad feels that the British government “didn’t have a clear plan to assist interpreters… they told people to go to the airport, but it was crowded with so many people.”
So many interpreters were left behind because they were unable to arrive safely.
An examination by the foreign affairs select committee revealed “systemic shortcomings” on the part of the Foreign Office during the withdrawal’s planning.
Facebook homicide threats
A danger of terrorism at the airport caused Ahmad to cease his efforts to board a flight. This choice may have saved his life. IS-K attacked the area on August 26, killing at least 170 civilians and 13 US marines.
However, he was still in danger. A Facebook post by a Taliban member he helped apprehend in Helmand revealed him as a former British interpreter, prompting death threats against him and his family.
With little hope for an evacuation aircraft and now being an exposed target of the Taliban, Ahmad resolved to leave Afghanistan via another means. He drove north to the border of Uzbekistan.
Smuggled to Uzbekistan
Ahmad and his family were waiting in a small village on the Amu Darya River, the natural boundary between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, at the beginning of September.
His sister in Turkey had paid $600 to people traffickers for their safe passage across the border, or $100 for each family member.
They waited on the riverbank for days, until a particular night two days before the new moon. Six individuals crammed into a small dinghy and began paddling.
It was terrifying. Ahmad stated that he had to accept the risk.
A gunshot abruptly broke the tension. Uzbek border guards spotted the vessel and opened fire on it.
Ahmad was terrified for his family, but the smugglers continued across the river, landing in Uzbekistan. The officers promptly pulled the family back across the border after surrounding the boat.
Incarcerated, beaten, and tormented
After two failed attempts to flee. Ahmad spent months away from his family in a village, where he worked in a pharmacy using the medical abilities he had acquired while serving in the British Army.
This relative calm was disturbed when he visited his family near Mazar-i-Sharif in late December.
The Taliban were conducting house searches in Ahmad’s village, mere meters away.
He panicked and deleted every photo, video, and communication from his prior life that was associated with his profession as an interpreter from his smartphone.
A few minutes later, a group of Taliban fighters assaulted the room, and he was brought to the local police station.
There, he was held in a tiny cell with other inmates accused of collaborating with Western forces in the past.
Upon initial interrogation, Ahmad said he was merely a neighborhood pharmacist.
“Because I was a doctor, I showed them my medical records and images from the drugstore, and instructed them to ask the locals.”
He was transferred to Kabul, where his interrogation resumed.
He was beaten and tortured for 17 days. He claims that the Taliban would electrocute him while interrogating him continuously. He now finds it difficult to recall those days spent in a cell, describing them as a “really horrible circumstance.”
Ahmad reported that men with documents tying them to Western soldiers were abducted at night, and he never saw them again. He believes that they were killed.
In January, the United Nations stated that there were “reliable claims” that the Taliban had murdered at least one hundred former government officials, security forces, and translators in the five months since they seized power.
Ahmad was not among them. His family and community leaders petitioned successfully for his release. He concealed himself near his family.
Security in Iran
Ahmad led a peaceful life until July 2022, when he received the worst news. His wife and children were abused by the Taliban for refusing to disclose his location.
As a member of the British armed forces, he was accused of being responsible for the deaths of Taliban fighters.
For months, it was too perilous for Ahmad to emerge from hiding, but he had to get his family to safety. They spent days through Afghanistan en route to the Iranian border in the west.
They entered Iran on August 12 – one year after the family was unable to board an evacuation flight in Kabul.
For the first time in a year, they could picture a future free of Taliban fear.
