Afghanistan crisis: There's no hope for us, doesn't matter whether we have Ashraf Ghani or Taliban, say Afghan refugees in Pakistan

A slum township outside of Karachi is seeing an influx of Afghan families fleeing from the Taliban rule in the northern Kunduz province in conflict-ridden Afghanistan. The refugees see little hope in their situation and many express the same sentiment - what did America do for 20 years?

Karachi (Pakistan): On the outskirts of Pakistan's populous metropolitan city of Karachi is nestled a slum township, which in recent days is seeing an influx of Afghan families fleeing from the Taliban rule in the northern Kunduz province in conflict-ridden Afghanistan. Located on the northern outskirts, just off the super highway outside Karachi, the Afghan basti (slum township), which is made up of concrete and mud houses and even has families residing in tarpaulin tents, is seeing more displaced Afghan families reaching here since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan and also took over Kabul. "We are not surprised and in the last two weeks we have some 500-600 families, which means around 4,000 to 5,000 people including women and children, joining us in the Basti," said Haji Abdullah, an elderly Afghan who has been living in Karachi for the last 25 years. "These families have nowhere else to go and mostly belong to different parts of Kunduz and other provinces where the Taliban have taken control. They have come through the smuggling routes in the border areas of Balochistan," he said. Omar Tajik, who reached the Afghan basti some five days back with his family of seven said people are fed up with what is happening in Afghanistan. "There is no hope for us. It doesn't matter whether we have Hamid Karzai, Ashraf Ghani or the Taliban. We have not lived a peaceful and prosperous life since the Russian invasion in 1979," said the 50-year old.