Afghanistan: Women's youth football team successfully evacuated to Pakistan

On September 15, members of the Afghan women's young football team, who had been threatened by the Taliban, arrived in Pakistan with their families. Pakistan's Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Fawad Chaudhry said in a tweet that they welcome the Afghanistan Women Football Team, who arrived at Torkham Border from Afghanistan, adding that the footballers were met by a representative from the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF).

According to Sputnik, players were originally scheduled to travel to Qatar, but the trip was cancelled after a terrorist attack on the Kabul airport on August 26. The majority of the women's senior football squad was able to fly out of the country last week with the assistance of the Australian government, but the young players were unable to do so due to document issues. The militants compelled them to flee.

The evacuation was assisted by Football for Peace

The evacuation of the teenage football players and members of their families was assisted by the non-governmental organisation Football for Peace, the Pakistani government, and the PFF. They will now travel to Lahore, where they will be stationed at the PFF headquarters.

According to The Diplomat, they had requested Imran Khan's "immediate action" in granting temporary visas until the girls were placed under the United Kingdom's Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) and related programmes and schemes in a letter addressed by PM Imran Khan. Several attempts to fly the girls out of Kabul had been made, according to the letter, but the August 26 catastrophic attack had closed all possibilities. The letter further stated that the girl's only choice today is to enter Pakistan by land. The letter also said that the girls are facing significant threats from the Taliban as well as the deteriorating security situation in Kabul. 

Former captain Khalida Popal tweeted how they managed to get out of Afghanistan

Former Afghanistan women's team captain Khalida Popal tweeted about how she managed to evacuate more than 79 young female footballers and family members out of Afghanistan. She wrote, "I am happy to announce that once with the great support I managed to get more than 79 youth female footballers & family members out of Afg. This time I got the support from the great team."

Image: Twitter/@Arazaqhabibi