- Thursday, April 18, 2024
By: Sattwik Biswal
TWO persons from the UK were among those who were killed in the Kabul attack on Thursday (26).
Mohammad Niazi, an Uber driver from Hamshire and Musa Popal, a shopkeeper from north London were among those who died after a blast shook the Afghan capital.
Popal’s daughter Zohra told the BBC that the blast happened when his father was waving his British passport at US troops.
Popal, 60, and Niazi died when thousands were waiting for evacuation at the Kabul airport after Taliban seized power.
The UK Foreign Office has so far confirmed deaths of two British nationals and the child of a British national during the attack.
In Hendon, north London, Popal had ran the Madeena Supermarket for more than 20 years and had travelled to Afghanistan in June with his wife to visit family.
Zohra said her mother survived the blast, but Popal’s 14-year-old grandson Hameed was still missing.
“Had we known anything like this would happen, we wouldn’t have let them go,” Zohra, who moved to the UK to join her parents in 2014, was quoted as saying.
“My mother, she had to crawl away, covered in blood and pieces of people. She saw everything,” she said.
She said her mother had lost everything in the bombing, including her documents and fears for her and safety of other relatives after UK’s withdrawal on Saturday (28).
Niazi, a taxi driver, who lived in Farnborough – was also killed in the attack after he travelled to Afghanistan to help his family get inside the airport. According to family sources, his Afghan wife and children were also killed.
As many as 170 people died in the suicide attack, including 13 US service personnel.
