By: Zohreh Abdollahkhani
The world has been stirred up by a new wave of tragedies
In recent days, heartbreaking videos surfaced on social media showing Afghans desperately trying to cling to planes departing Kabul as Taliban occupied the Afghanistan capital.
Zaki Anwari, 19, a former member of Afghanistan’s youth football team, was one of the many who flocked the Hamid Karzai International Airport in hopes of fleeing the country in turmoil. He was said to have grabbed on to the landing gear of a US C-17A transport airplane. Sadly, upon landing, “his body parts were found in the landing gear bay” by officials. Following the tragic news of his passing, Anwari’s friends paid tribute to him on social media.
Meanwhile, the future of Afghanistan sports is still unclear since Taliban took control. The two Paralympic athletes of the country pulled out “due to the serious ongoing situation in the country, all airports are closed and there is no way for them to travel to Tokyo,” IPC said. The Afghan women’s national football team has also been disbanded. It remains to be seen what the future holds for sports in the country.
Afghanistan has competed in 15 editions of the Summer Olympics, collecting a total of two bronze medals from the Beijing 2008 Olympics and London 2012 Olympics.
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