Anxious Afghans in Delhi fear for families back home, want them in India

Pharmacies and medical stores opposite Afghan Colony in Lajpat Nagar.

Farishta, 26, has barely slept in a week. She is among several Afghans on a medical visa who are stranded in India.

 She is staying at an Afghan colony in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar with another family that is also in the capital for medical treatment.

 Her head covered with a sky-blue stole, Farishta says she came to Delhi in May with her elder sister, who needed medical care, and her brother in law.

 She is anxious about her parents, a brother and two other sisters in Kabul. She would have returned to Afghanistan in August, but after the Taliban seized power, Farishta now waits anxiously for communication and news from her family and relatives.

 "I am very tense for my family. We got stuck here but I still want to bring them here. But there is nothing that I can do so I pray for their safety," says Farishta.

 She says that ever since the Taliban took control of the country, nobody in her family has stepped out. Her brother in law, she says, has been trying in vain to contact the Indian authorities.

 Similarly, Nazeer, 25, a civil-engineering graduate from Pune University, was hopeful of visiting his family in Herat after graduating this year. Speaking to Moneycontrol, Nazeer says, “Hamara mulk barbaad ho gaya hai (Our nation has been destroyed)."

 Nazeer has also tried to contact the Indian authorities for help. "I am very stressed for my family. They don't have a future in Afghanistan. But I cannot do anything and I feel helpless because there are no flights," he says.

 He is worried about his country under Taliban rule.

 "The news channels are showing that the Taliban have changed. This is fake. They have ruined Afghanistan. They don't spare even the little children," he adds.

 Nazeer had come to India in 2016 to pursue engineering and hopes  to move to Germany with his family. "India can only provide safety to us. But I cannot get a job here because India has a big population. I just want to bring my family to India and then move to Germany with them. Our life will be much better there," Nazeer says.

However, for all the requests that they make, the authorities plainly tell them to wait.

 Old wounds reopened

News from Afghanistan has reopened the wounds of the refugees who fled to India to start a new life. They had experienced life under the previous Taliban regime, and don’t expect things to be any better this time.

 At the Afghan colony in Lajpat Nagar, where about 2,000 people from the country reside, one could see several money exchange and flight-booking offices. Right outside are medical stores, restaurants offering Afghan cuisine, bakeries offering Afghan bread with signboards in Dari and Pashto.

Shahrukh works at an Afghan bakery situated inside the Afghan Colony in Lajpat Nagar

Freshly prepared Afghan breads inside a bakery in the Afghan Colony in Lajpat Nagar
About a kilometre and a half from this colony is another neighbourhood in Bhogal, Jangpura, where Afghan nationals who had fled the war-torn country have been residing.

Afghan bakeries and restaurants opposite a refugee colony in Lajpat Nagar
 Like Lajpat Nagar, this place also has several travel agencies, money changers, restaurants, groceries, food stalls, bakeries  and pharmacies etc run by Afghans themselves. The signboards here are also written in Dari and Pashto.

Pharmacy in Lajpat Nagar frequented by Afghan national who come on a medical visa
 Subhan, 29 (name changed) runs a grocery store in Bhogal with five of his friends, Subhan had fled Afghanistan four years ago with his friends against his father’s wish.

 “I was working as an assistant in the government office in Afghanistan. I am educated and have studied Law. I came here because I realised that there was no future there. Even if I sleep on a street here, I will be much safer than my home in Afghanistan” says Subhan.

 Subhan says that his parents and two brothers stay in Kabul. His parents, he says, were visiting him in India and had left for Kabul just 3 weeks ago. Subhan says that they are all repenting of their decision to return.

 “Who could have imagined that the Taliban would capture Afghanistan in just one week?”

 Subhan and his friends have been taking turns to visit the Indian authorities in Delhi for help to get their families out.

 Subhan’s friend, Rafique ( name changed), who was sitting at the cash counter of the grocery store, said he is worried about his sister’s life as her husband worked in the government.

 “My sister is staying with my parents now but we don’t know where her husband is hiding, “ says Rafique.

 Ajmal runs a mobile repair and recharge shop in Bhogal on the ground floor of a three-storey society in the neighbourhood.

 Ajmal, 32, had fled to India in 2017 with his wife and a four-year-old daughter in search of a  better life. His wife, Ajmal says, works in a beauty parlour in Lajpat Nagar to help bear the expenses.

 Ajmal says that all of his family is in Afghanistan and he is worried for them.

 “I am doing what other people are doing. We cannot do much. I just keep calling my brothers and pray for their salamaati,” he says.

 According to Ajmal, moving to a different country is not an easy decision but his family back in Afghanistan is now keen on moving to Delhi with them.