Afghan military planes make beeline to Tajikstan to escape Taliban wrath

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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.</p>
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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.</p>
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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. </p>
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<em>RIA</em> news agency reported that the military jet was shot down by Uzbek air defences as it tried to cross the border.</p>
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It quoted Uzbekistan's defence ministry as saying that while the plane crashed in Uzbek territory on Sunday, the pilot ejected and survived.</p>
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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.</p>
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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.</p>