Taliban Kidnap Over 150 People, Mostly Indian Nationals, From Area Near Kabul Airport: Report

Taliban has reportedly abducted over 150 people, mostly Indian nationals from from an area near Hamid Karzai international airport in Afghanistan's capital Kabul.

According to the reports by Afghan media outlets, men affiliated to Taliban on Friday (20 August) abducted multiple people near the Kabul airport.

However, latest reports claimed that all Indians are safe and the abductors told them that they would be moved back to the airport, and now they have been moved to a garage near the airport. Further, their documents are being processed for evacuation.

Earlier, Afghan media outlet Kabul Now quoted a source, who managed to escape along with his wife and some others, as saying that that the abductees include some Afghan citizens and Afghan Sikhs as well but most of them are Indian citizens.

"The source added that they were all boarded on eight minivan vehicles around 01:00 am, this morning, heading to the Kabul airport for evacuation but they could not enter the airport for lack of cooperation," Kabul Now reported.

A group of “the Taliban who were not armed approached them and then took them all to Tarakhil, an eastern neighborhood in the capital Kabul, after beating them physically", according to the source.

The source added that he, his wife, and few others could manage to escape by throwing themselves down from windows of the minivans.

“The Taliban told the passengers that they would take them into the airport from a different gate but their whereabouts is not yet clear,” the source said.

Meanwhile, a Taliban spokesman Ahmadullah Waseq has reportedly rejected the media reports over abduction of the Indian nationals.