The withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan is already starting to claim victims. Sohail Pardis he was killed and beheaded on 12 May. The 32-year-old, an interpreter of the American forces, was traveling a stretch of desert on his return home to Kabul, when Taliban militants stopped him at the checkpoint. The story of Pardis tells it Cnn.
A few days earlier he had received letters containing death threats for collaborating with the US for 16 months. He had confided this to his friend, Abdhulhaq Ayoubi. “They accused him of being an American spy, of being the eyes of the Americans and therefore an infidel. They told him they would kill him and his family,” Abdhulhaq told the American broadcaster.
Afghanistan, the drama of the interpreters: “No future in Kabul for us. There is exile or death”
by Francesco Bussoletti
Some witnesses to the murder said they saw him at the checkpoint, pushing the accelerator. Failed escape due to Taliban gunshots. Once dragged out of the car, the militiamen beheaded him.
At least 35,000 Afghans have collaborated with the US armed forces in 20 years of US-Taliban war. And now they are all at risk of death. The US is preparing to transfer and host them in two bases located in Kuwait and Qatar. The “Wall Street Journal” had anticipated it, pointing out that this is yet another effort by the administration of Joe Biden to help those who risk being punished.
Plans are underway to build temporary housing and other facilities in As Sayliyah in Qatar and Buehring in Kuwait, intended to house interpreters for at least 18 months.
The plan is to welcome the interpreters and their families pending the permanent resettlement process thanks to the granting of US visas. In the past few hours, the House of Representatives approved a bill with a wide bipartisan margin, 407-16, to increase the time limit for visas and ensure coverage of all Afghan applicants still in line.
Some of the bureaucratic requirements to qualify as a refugee are also removed. The bill, presented by Democratic Congressman Jason Crow, also makes family members of already deceased asylum seekers eligible to travel to the United States.
Pardis leaves a 9-year-old daughter, now in the custody of the interpreter’s brother. “We must escape from Kabul – he said – we risk dying too”
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