Loved Ones Mourn The Death Of Afghan Teen Who Fell From U.S. Evacuation Plane
Loved Ones Mourn The Death Of Afghan Teen Who Fell From U.S. Evacuation Plane
Zaki Anwari, a member of Afghanistan's youth soccer team, died this week as he tried to cling to a U.S. military plane evacuating people from Kabul. He is remembered as a "very good human."
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Another story of what has been lost in Afghanistan this week. Yesterday, the country's sports federation announced on its official Facebook page that Zaki Anwari had died.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
He was a teenager and an up-and-coming soccer player on Afghanistan's national youth team. And he was among the crowd that descended on the runway at the Kabul airport earlier this week.
KELLY: People clung to the outside of a U.S. military plane desperate to get out of the country as the Taliban seized control of the capital. The sports federation reported that Zaki Anwari died in a fall from the plane.
CHANG: His coach cried as he told The Daily Beast that Anwari was a brilliant young player and a very good human.
KELLY: A representative for the sports federation told The New York Times that Anwari felt his dreams would end with the arrival of the Taliban. The representative added he had no hope and wanted a better life.
(SOUNDBITE OF BRIAN ENO'S "AN ENDING (ASCENT)")
Copyright © 2021 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.