KABUL – A young Afghan footballer has been identified among those who lost their lives after clinging on to the landing gear of a US military plant at Kabul airport earlier this week while attempting to leave Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover.
19-year-old Zaki Anwari, who played for the Afghan national youth football team, either died after falling from the departing C-17 plane or was crushed to death in the landing gear, media reports said.
Videos circulating on social media show hundreds of Afghan and foreign nationals swarmed to the Kabul airport after the Taliban took over the country. Various Chaotic incidents were observed at the airport but one of the horrific was the falling of desperate Afghan from the US military plane.
British newspapers the Times and Daily Mail Online reported Anwari was believed to have died in the landing gear. “He is thought to have been caught in the landing gear and his remains were found in a wheel well by the US aircraft crew,” the Times said citing the Afghan general directorate of physical education and sports.
The Afghan general directorate of physical education and sports issued a statement on Thursday confirming the death of the young player.
