Video Producer: Shohini Bose
Video Editor: Shubham Khurana
As a Taliban-seized Afghanistan finds itself descending into a humanitarian crisis, desperate visuals of Afghans attempting to flee the nation have emerged from the capital city of Kabul, including a hard-hitting video that shows a baby being handed over to an American soldier at the Kabul airport over the fence.
As the visuals went viral, the US Marines has now confirmed that the baby has reunited with her family and is safe at the airport.
In an email exchange with The New York Times, James Stenger, a spokesman for the Marines said the baby was taken to a medical facility and given medical attention.
In the video, American and British security personnel stationed at the perimeter of the Kabul airport, can be seen guarding the wall.
The clip shows desperate Afghans thronging the airport threshold, with some attempting to climb over the wall to reach the airport premises.
As the militant organisation captured control of Afghanistan on Sunday, 15 August, concerns over women's rights under Taliban reign have resurfaced.
When the Taliban had first occupied Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, they had imposed the strictest of patriarchal rules. Girls were not allowed to enter schools or attend universities. Women could not step out of their homes without a male relative to escort them, and they had to cover their face at all times.
The women who defied these rules were subjected to humiliation and even public beatings under the Taliban's ultra-conservative police.
At Kabul, Desperate Afghan Women Throw Babies Over the Airport Wall
In a separate incident at the Kabul airport, Afghan women could be seen attempting to throw their babies over the razor fencing a the Kabul airport, Sky News reported.
"It was terrible, women were throwing their babies over the razor wire, asking British soldiers to take them, some got caught in the wire," a senior British officer told Sky News, adding, "I'm worried for my men, I'm counselling some, everyone cried last night."
(With inputs from Sky News and The New York Times)
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