Zaki Anwari
An Afghan national team footballer died in a fall from a U.S. plane at Kabul airport on Monday, the Afghan news agency Ariana said yesterday.
Crowds of people seeking to flee Afghanistan have thronged the airport since Taliban insurgents swept to power on Sunday, many seen trying to board a moving plane.
Ariana said Zaki Anwari fell from a USAF Boeing C-17 and that the death had been confirmed by the General Directorate for Sport.
Yesterday, the former captain of the Afghan women’s football team, Khalida Popal, urged players to delete social media, erase public identities and burn their kits for safety’s sake now that the country is again under Taliban rule.
Copenhagen-based Popal told Reuters in a video interview on Wednesday that the militants had killed, raped and stoned women in the past, and female footballers were scared of what the future might hold.
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