Newlyweds in Taliban death threat terror

ABritish man who got married in Kabul a week before it fell to the Taliban has described the experience as a “rollercoaster of emotions”.

Abdul and Fatima, whose names have been changed, had their wedding at the start of the month and within days the Taliban had arrived outside the capital, which fell into their control on Sunday August 15.

Since then the couple have been threatened with death by Taliban soldiers, fled the country and are now spending their “honeymoon” in quarantine in a hotel in London.

The medical student, who was born in Afghanistan, said: “I got married in the first week of August, on the second week, I heard the Taliban were on the outskirts of Kabul.

“You’re happy you’ve just had your wedding, invited hundreds of people, then suddenly you hear the news. I’ve never been in such a situation before where you’re very happy and then it hits the ground, and then it’s hard to come back up.”

Abdul grew up in the outskirts of Kabul before relocating to London as a teenager, and returned to his birthplace in early July after finishing his secondyear exams at a UK medical school.

He and his wife arrived into Birmingham airport on Monday night after an evacuation flight from Kabul, and are now quarantining in a hotel in Westminster.

“I told my wife, this is our honeymoon... so take advantage of it,” Abdul joked. “Hopefully in the future we will try to have one, but for now this is our honeymoon – being safe, knowing the future will be bright.”

Abdul said traditionally he would have been invited to various members of his wife’s extended family in the weeks after the wedding, but they did not even get the opportunity to say goodbye to her parents before they had to flee.

They are now concerned for the safety of those left behind. “Right now, if I don’t listen to the news I can gain peace of mind just for a while,” he said.

Abdul said a Taliban member threatened to kill him in front of his wife last week after he showed his British passport at a checkpoint in Kabul.

He was trying to reach British soldiers beyond the position, which the Taliban member allowed, but only by pulling and leading him by the arm for “100 yards or so”, leaving him bruised.

“They told me ‘if there wasn’t international pressure on us, we would have shot you dead’,” Abdul said.