Taliban welcome return of five Afghan army pilots

KABUL: Five Afghan Air Force (AAF) pilots who fled the country after the Taliban seized power in August, last year, have returned to Afghanistan.

The pilots were warmly welcomed by Afghan Defence Minister Moulvi Muhammad Yakub upon their return to Kabul and distributed cash prizes.

The ministry claimed in a statement that the pilots fled the country following the Taliban’s victory in August, but have now returned with the encouragement of the authorities to serve in the country’s air force again.

A photo shared by the ministry showed the returnees being welcomed by Defence Minister Moulvi Yakub. It may be noted that the Afghan government is ensuring protection to the expatriates who flew after the Taliban’s victory to return to the country.

The faces of the pilots were blurred out in the photograph and no further information was available.

In November, it was reported that more than 140 stranded Afghan pilots and crew members were flown from Tajikistan to the United Arab Emirates with the help of the American authorities.

Earlier, Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities have said they would resume issuing passports in Kabul.

Thousands of Afghans have applied for new travel documents to escape a growing economy as well as a humanitarian crisis described by the United Nations as an “avalanche of hunger”.

Authorities will start issuing the documents from Sunday (today) at Kabul s passport office, Alam Gul Haqqani, the head of the passport department in the interior ministry had told reporters.