Amid Taliban's rapid advances across Afghanistan, cricketer Rashid Khan on Tuesday appealed for peace.
In a tweet, the all-rounder wrote: "Dear World Leaders! My country is in chaos, thousand of innocent people, including children & women, get martyred everyday, houses & properties being destructed. Thousand families displaced..," he wrote. "Don’t leave us in chaos. Stop killing Afghans & destroying Afghanistan. We want peace," he added.
This comes amid the escalating violence in Afghanistan. On Monday, the Taliban captured another provincial capital in the North, Aybak city, reportedly without any resistance by the Afghan defense forces.
Further, the Taliban have intensified assaults on the capitals of Balkh (Mazar-e-Sharif); Baghlan (Pul-e-Khumri); Badakhshan (Faizabad) and Farah (Farah).
At present, heavy fighting is going on between the government and Taliban forces around the capitals of Helmand, Kandahar, Herat, and Badakhshan provinces, reported Al Jazeera.
Meanwhile, in a security advisory, the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan has advised the Indian nationals to make "immediate" travel arrangements to return to India. It has also "strongly advised" the Indian companies to "immediately withdraw" their Indian employees out of their project sites in the war-torn country. In the advisory, they have further asked the Indian mediapersons to "establish contact with Public Affairs and Security Wing of the Embassy for a personalized briefing".
Besides, the Indian Consulate General in Mazar-e-Sharif earlier today asked Indian nationals to evacuate from places in and around Mazar-e-Sharif in Balkh province.
"A special flight is leaving from Mazar-e-Sharif to New Delhi. Any Indian nationals in and around Mazar-e-Sharif are requested to leave for India in the special flight scheduled to depart late today evening," the Indian Consulate General in Mazar-e-Sharif said.
