Stories from Afghanistan and India
In a matter of hours, Sara’s perfect teenage life turned upside down on August 15 as the Taliban marched into her city and took control of Afghanistan. “I knew things were bad, but I didn’t imagine that my Kabul would fall […]
Taliban fighters in Kabul fired warning shots and beat protesters demonstrating against the militant group on Tuesday, as unrest broke out in cities across the country. Eyewitnesses in Kabul told The National that several women were injured after taking part in the […]
Protests marking Afghanistan’s independence day were the scenes of bloodshed on Thursday as Taliban fighters shot at demonstrators in Kabul. Eyewitnesses to the shootings in the Wazir Akbar Khan area, a diplomatic district in the Afghan capital, and Zanbaq Square said over […]
Thousands of Afghans continued to flock to Kabul’s airport on Monday, as foreign diplomats and security forces left a city overrun by the Taliban. Videos and images shown to The National by witnesses displayed scenes of chaos and suffering at a once well-run international airport. […]
video from the recently besieged Kabul was shared with me this morning, of what looks like a man falling out of an airplane. I dismissed it at first because it isn’t uncommon for exaggerated misinformation to spread in times of crisis. But […]
LAST MONTH, Ajmal Omari found himself stuck in a taxi, waiting at one of the many Taliban checkpoints that have proliferated across Afghanistan over the past year. Omari, a 34-year-old journalist, was traveling with his father, who was weak and breathless […]
Danish Siddiqui, an Indian photojournalist with Reuters, was embedded with the Afghan forces. On Friday, July 16, he was reporting from Spin Boldak in Kandahar province when Taliban fighters ambushed him as well as Sediq Karzai, an Afghan special forces commander. […]
It is a warm spring afternoon in Herat Province in western Afghanistan. The winter was unseasonably short, and Mohammad Salehi is concerned that might have affected the sun-loving crops. Salehi closely inspects each deep-orange strand in the palm of his hand. […]
MOHAMMAD RAHMANI IS NOT a Covid-19 denier. He wears a mask and practices social distancing. But the 24-year-old software engineer from Kabul, Afghanistan is deeply skeptical of Covid-19 vaccines. Online videos — created in Afghanistan and neighboring countries, then uploaded on […]
ON THE NIGHT OF April 23, Samridhi Diwan and her father drove around New Delhi, India’s capital city, from one hospital to another, searching for a facility that would admit Diwan’s mother, who was infected with SARS-CoV-2 and needed immediate medical […]