Taliban urge ex-Afghan military pilots to stay, serve nation
ABC News
A top Taliban official has urged former Afghan military pilots to remain in the country, saying they are protected by a national amnesty and would not face arrest
ISLAMABAD -- A top Taliban official on Wednesday urged former Afghan military pilots to remain in the country, saying they were protected by a national amnesty and would not face arrest.
The comments by chief government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid came amid reports that more than 140 U.S.-trained Afghan pilots and crew members left Tajikistan in a U.S.-brokered evacuation Tuesday, three months after they sought refuge there from a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The Associated Press could not immediately confirm the reports independently.
Afghan air force pilots played a key role, alongside their U.S. counterparts, in the 20-year war against Taliban insurgents that ended with the departure of foreign troops in late August. The airstrikes inflicted heavy casualties among the Taliban and repeatedly drove them from positions they had seized in different parts of the country.
As the U.S.-backed Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban took over in mid-August, dozens of Afghan pilots fled to Central Asian countries, including Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
