Escape from Afghanistan
These are pics and stories to Before the Fall, Chapter 2 of Hollie McKay's and my photobook on Afghanistan. Hollie's writing is in the book and this substack is my account and story behind the images.
We were now trapped in the Gazanfar Hotel in Mazar with dozens and dozens of Taliban outside. However, they did come to hotel security door and assured the security guards they would not come. If it was ISIS they would come for the cash in the bank at least.
The floor was barricaded and safe. Occasionally I would go on the top floor which was a gym and overlook the scenery. I assumed the Taliban would desecrate the Hazrat Ali shrine since they were Sunni majority and the site was Shia. None of that.
People opened their shops. Life seemed to be back to normal. Hollie had pulled the pin and it soon to be known that we were trapped in Mazar with no flights back to Kabul. It would be a minimum of 10 hours driving to Kabul. We had the State Department, FBI, CIA, MOD and random ex military keyboard warriors try to reassure us. Some sort of rescue would be on the way.
I did however get a casual call from DFAT officer working in Moscow to see if I was alright. This wasn't the shittiest experience in my life and seem in control of whatever was going to be a plan to get out.
What made it all worse? The Taliban took over Kabul.
We were watch the news as it was happening. I expected a fight but Ashraf Ghani and his cronies fled the scene. The Minister of Interior advised the Afghan National Army to stand down. One viral video summed it up. A young private was crying having to give up his weapon and allow the Taliban to take over.
It was the barbarians at the gates as they took over the presidential palace and assumed the president's spot. People panicked and rushed to the airport. People wanted to leave urgently. They ripped up the seats to make more room and destroyed consoles which made it impossible to fly. The airport was the one guarded place by what ever forces was left. Whatever Americans were there held the towers.
The Taliban didn't fire back and neither did US. But it was time to go. Evacuation planes were being called in. Everything was chaos. And I was at least 800 kilometres away from being evacuated. However Uzbekistan was close by and assumed this could be my route out.
I was on phone calls to the Department of Defense and Special Operations. They want to get a helicopter to land and get us out. It was impossible to land on the roof unless I dismantled alot of aerials which I began the process. I stayed up at night looking at the Taliban checkpoint and knew all of them sleep at 4 am in the morning.
One alternative was to land at Hazrat Ali shrine and it would be a 200 metre run. We looked at a dawn rescue in the morning and driving to gps location for extraction. I figured it could be done and I buy Hollie a burqa.
I walked through the streets of Mazar in my Afghan clothes and scarf. I seem to blend in with the flip flops. There was dozens of Taliban on all the corners. Most of them looked fascinated by technology. New phones and tvs and fancy things they were not totally accustom to. They didn't really pick me out but then I looked like a large Hazara man.
I bought a burqa from the burqa seller. He was glad to see me and sold me a tallish burqa that would fit Hollie. I returned quickly back to the hotel. The security guards were glad to see me. We had a security guards brother be able to drive us to the gps coordinates. They could also bring their mother along in a burqa so it seemed it was a family driving out. However, this plan got cancelled.
I was back and forth with control office at the Kabul Airbase. Dozen of evacuation flights were coming in and there was hundred of thousands wanting to flee. It seemed like we were low priority. I told them I could make it back to Kabul by local taxi or something. They told us to keep on holding on tight for a plan.
The good thing was we had the internet. Holly was doing lives from our hotel room while I worked on numerous escape ideas. I chatted to my friend Benny and that helped while trying to plot escape.
Suddenly a plan came. We got a phone call and somebody was to come. It was a young Afghan man who worked for Kam Air in Mazar. He had a driver who would get us to the Uzbek border. Sounded good enough to me. The car would come get us. Lo and behold it was the Taliban.
Part of me was shitting bricks but then there must of been a plan. The Taliban driving looked like your local taxi driver. Turned out it was the new governor's brother. He apologized his brother couldn't be there. We took the opportunity to photograph them and interview them.
They answered politely and took us to the Uzbek Consulate. There we met their first secretary and security detail that were in full adidas jumpsuits. They had handguns strapped in their underwear and uzis.
The secretary took our passports and was informing the border guards. In a few hours we were ready to leave with the Uzbeks with the Taliban escorting us.