Several military airplanes carrying a total of over 100 Afghan soldiers have landed at the airport in the Tajik city of Bokhtar, the Tajik foreign affairs ministry said on Monday.

The Tajik authorities allowed the aircraft to enter the country's airspace and land after receiving a distress signal from them on Sunday, Russia's RIA news agency quoted the ministry as saying.

However, a fighter jet pilot who was fleeing to Uzbekistan was not so lucky and was shot down by the Uzbek air defence on the same day. 

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RIA news agency reported that the military jet was shot down by Uzbek air defences as it tried to cross the border.

It quoted Uzbekistan's defence ministry as saying that while the plane crashed in Uzbek territory on Sunday, the pilot ejected and survived.

The pilots and soldiers were fleeing from Afghanistan to escape the wrath of the Taliban fighters who had advanced at lightning speed to take over the entire country in a little over a week.

The Taliban had been targeting the country’s pilots in particular and had even sent out special hit squads to kill them so that the air force could be grounded.