Belgrade, Dec 3 (AFP/APP):Boxing is risky at the best of times, but Hasib Malikzada now faces one of his most unpredictable opponents yet — the uncertainties of life as an Afghan refugee far from home.
Just 19 years old, the lightweight amateur champ of Afghanistan is stuck in Serbia following his team’s decision to not return home after competing at the International Boxing Association (AIBA)’s world championships in Belgrade last month.
In the weeks since the tournament, Malikzada and the members of the Afghan national boxing team have been bouncing between hotels, while finding the occasional gym for training.
Even amid the relentless bustle, their new life in Serbia is an island of stability compared to the chaos back home.
“After the Taliban came… we couldn’t continue boxing,” Malikzada tells AFP, saying his gym in Kabul closed shortly after the insurgents overthrew the US-backed government in August.
Life after Kabul’s fall to the Taliban has been mired with worries ever since, says Malikzada, who fears his family will be targeted for their links with the past government.
His brothers, he admits, had also joined the fledgling resistance in the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul — where former government soldiers and militia fighters briefly made a last stand against the Taliban.
“If the Taliban find us… they will kill us,” says Malikzada.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are believed to have fled the country in recent months, hoping to escape persecution and a collapsing economy in the face of international sanctions and a banking crisis that has mired much of the population in deepening poverty.
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