TALIBAN URGES EX-MILITARY PILOTS TO STAY

A top Taliban official urged former Afghan military pilots to remain in the country, saying they were protected by a national amnesty and would not face arrest.

Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid’s assurances came after dozens of American-trained Afghan pilots left Tajikistan in a US-brokered evacuation this week, three months after they sought refuge there from the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

The pilots played a key role in the 20-year war against Taliban insurgents that ended with the departure of foreign troops in late August. The air strikes inflicted heavy casualties among the Taliban and repeatedly drove them from positions they had seized in different parts of the country.

As the US-backed government collapsed and the Taliban took over in mid-August, dozens of pilots fled to Central Asian countries, including Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It is not clear how many military pilots and crew members remain in Afghanistan, what risk they face or to what extent Taliban assurances can be trusted. There have been some reports of revenge killings by the Taliban, but not on a large, organised scale.

A US defence official confirmed on Wednesday that about 140 pilots and other personnel were flown from Tajikistan to the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday. It is likely that the evacuees will eventually go to the United States.

Mujahid said Afghanistan needed pilots and all was forgiven. “My message is, there is no security problem for them in Afghanistan, there is no plan of arresting them, national amnesty is announced,” he said. Pilots, in the military or in civil aviation, “can be at the service of their country”.