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The assurances from Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid came after dozens of US-trained Afghan pilots left Tajikistan in a US-brokered evacuation. Previously, for three months they sought refuge in Tajikistan from the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.
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“My message is that there is no security issue for them (Afghan pilots) in Afghanistan. There are no plans to arrest them, a national amnesty was announced,” Mujahid said, as quoted by Arab News, Thursday (11/11/2021). According to him, pilots, whether in the military or in civil aviation, can serve their country.”
“It is regrettable that a number of pilots have left, or they have left,” he added. Afghan Air Force pilots play a key role alongside their US counterparts in the 20-year war against Taliban insurgents. Airstrikes by pilots in the past have caused heavy casualties among the Taliban and have repeatedly driven them from positions they have seized in various parts of the country.
When the US-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.
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It is not clear how many military pilots and crew members remain in Afghanistan, what level of risk they face or the extent to which the Taliban’s assurances can be trusted. Over the past three months, there have been several reports of retaliatory killings by the Taliban, but not on a large and organized scale.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said at a briefing with reporters that about 140 Afghan pilots and others were flown from Tajikistan and arrived in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday morning. He said the US Embassy would immediately begin processing them to eventually enter the US.
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