Guwahati News Desk: The Central Asian country Tajikistan is preparing to take in up to 100,000 refugees from its neighbouring country, Afghanistan, amidst the increasing security concerns over the fallout of the Taliban’s territorial gains in the northern part of the war-torn country.
The first deputy head of Tajikistan’s Committee for Emergency and Civil Defense, Imomali Ibrohimzoda, told a briefing on Friday, that if the number of Afghan refugees exceeds the 100,000 number, Dushanbe will turn to international groups for help. As the former Soviet republic was already building two large warehouses to store supplies for refugees in the Khatlon and Gorno-Badakhshan provinces adjacent to the border.
Ibrohimzoda added, that 11 flights were organized in recent days to repatriate 1,600 Afghan citizens who entered Tajikistan to flee military clashes between Afghan government forces and the Taliban militants.
Earlier this week itself, Khatlon regional Governor Qurbon Hakimzoda said that a temporary camp for refugees will be set up in the region’s Jaihun district.
According to sources, hundreds of Afghans, including police and government troops, have already fled the country in recent weeks and have entered Tajikistan and neighboring Uzbekistan amidst the on-going Taliban’s territorial gains.
Even in the last week, almost 350 ethnic Kyrgyz shepherds from Afghanistan with their families and some 4,000 livestock entered Tajikistan. They have since been sent back to their village in Afghanistan after Kabul guaranteed their safety.
However, amidst the rapid withdrawal of U.S. forces, the Taliban insurgents are gaining control of more and more territory in Afghanistan, which now extends to over half of Afghanistan’s district centers, and the continuous territorial gains are stoking concerns that the Western-backed government in Kabul might collapse.
Photo | Representative Image/Reuters
