A former U.S. military official stated that the United States helped on Tuesday to transport more than 140 pilots from the Afghan air force and other military personnel who had been detained in Tajikistan since mid-August after fleeing Afghanistan. The New York Times reported that David Hicks, a retired Air Force officer leading a volunteer group that assisted the Afghans, confirmed that a plane carrying the pilots and others departed from the capital, Dushanbe, on Tuesday after a long delay.
The newspaper noted that the flight to the UAE ended a three-month ordeal for a large group of pilots who had been trained by the United States and had flown advanced military aircraft across the Afghan border to Tajikistan in August during the final moments of the war with the Taliban, only to become detained. Afghan military personnel had been relying on the U.S. administration to secure their freedom after they were held by Tajik authorities.
According to The New York Times, English-speaking pilots shared accounts via WhatsApp voice messages about the poor conditions, insufficient rations, and limited medical care at their detention site outside Dushanbe. Hicks commented on their transfer, stating, "There is a huge sense of relief among the group after the flight took off." Reuters reported last October that they would eventually be resettled in the United States.
However, for many Afghans who worked with the U.S. military, the ordeal is not over yet, according to The New York Times. Thousands of Afghan pilots and other military personnel remain in hiding in Afghanistan, with some expressing despair over leaving the country out of fear of being hunted down and killed by the Taliban.
In phone interviews from safe houses in Afghanistan, many pilots spoke about moving from one home to another to avoid detection and refraining from seeking employment for fear that militants would track them. The Taliban had declared a general amnesty for any Afghan who served in the previous government or military or worked with Americans. However, many pilots have been killed by the group this year, as noted by The New York Times.
