WASHINGTON: A US-trained Afghan pilot was talking to Reuters on a smuggled cellphone from Tajikistan, where he is being held, when something strange happened - his voice started looping, repeating everything he had just said, word for word.
His fiancee, an American nurse in Florida, was on the line too and started to panic. She shouted his name, but his words kept cycling back.
“I was freaked out,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect him. “The worst things came to my mind.”
Whatever the reason for the telephone glitch, which only happened once, it added to a deep sense of anxiety for the couple. It also came amid growing feelings of impatience and uncertainty among the Afghan pilots and personnel who have been held by the government in Tajikistan since fleeing there on Aug. 15.
There are 143 Afghans detained at a sanatorium in a mountainous, rural area outside of the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, waiting and hoping for over a month for transfer by the United States.
After flying there with 16 aircraft as their military’s ground forces crumbled before the advancing Taliban, the Afghans say they had their phones taken away. They were initially housed in a university dormitory before being moved on Sept. 1.
Contact with family is extremely limited. Although they appear to be held in humane conditions, they are on edge, uncertain about the future.
“We don’t know about our destination. ... We’re all worried about that,” the pilot said.
The pilots want to join the other Afghan military personnel being processed for U.S. visas in places like Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Germany.
“Whenever we ask the government of Tajikistan, they just answer: ‘Please wait,’” said a second pilot, speaking separately on condition of anonymity.
Among the military personnel at the facility are two Afghan women, including a pilot who is eight months pregnant, the second pilot told Reuters.
Such a pregnancy would be an important reason to move them quickly, said David Hicks, a retired U.S. brigadier general who is helping lead a charity called Operation Sacred Promise working to evacuate and resettle Afghans.
There are also 13 Afghan personnel in Dushanbe, enjoying much more relaxed conditions. Several of those pilots told Reuters they flew separately into the country on Aug. 15 and are staying in a government building. Speaking in a video call, they said they have not had contact with the Afghans at the sanatorium.
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