Evacuate Bangladeshi citizens trapped in Afghanistan

As the situation continues to evolve from day to day, it is becoming increasingly difficult to assess the current climate of Afghanistan. However, despite the seemingly restrained tone taken by the Taliban spokesperson during their first press conference since taking control of Kabul, it is safe to say that the country's current status is still a highly volatile one. As such, there is a pressing need for the government of Bangladesh to ensure that the Bangladeshi citizens who are currently in Afghanistan are safe, and are able to return home if they so choose.

This Monday, we witnessed chaotic scenes at Kabul's airport, and at least three Afghan civilians were killed as people desperately scrambled to get onto the departing planes. This resulted in a cancellation of all commercial flights leaving from the airport, making it almost impossible for anyone to book passage out of the country. According to a recent report in The Daily Star, almost all of the 21 Bangladeshi citizens known to be in the country have expressed an interest in returning home. Of them, eight were working for telecom companies, six for Brac International, two for the sewerage department and one who got out of jail. The eight engineers were scheduled to return Monday evening and the six Brac officials have secured air tickets for today. But since commercial flights have not yet resumed, it is unclear when they might actually be able to travel. We urge the authorities to ensure that this is done as soon as possible. Other countries, including India, have already taken steps to evacuate their citizens using their own airforce's planes—this is an option that we should also explore, as well as the possibility of evacuation via land borders.

At the same time, we also hope the wider repercussions of the upheavals in Afghanistan on our country will also be taken into account most seriously. In a recent interview with The Daily Star, the chief of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit and additional commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said the authorities will be vigilant about any Taliban supporters within our borders who may take inspiration from what is happening in Afghanistan and plan subversive activities in Bangladesh. Given that Bangladesh has already been victim to terrorist attacks by militants who had returned to the country from Afghanistan—and even in recent times, the authorities have arrested two militants whose conversation involved plans to travel to Afghanistan—this threat cannot be taken lightly at all.