Ballia (UP), Aug 30 (IANS): Rajesh Pandey, a man from Uttar Pradesh who worked at an iron grill manufacturing company near Kabul, has returned home with haunting memories.

As he sits with his family in his home in Jaanpur Mudiyari village in Bansdih, Pandey, who left behind many of his belongings in Kabul, recalls: "There was a state of anarchy when the Taliban took over. We had to struggle for over 10 hours to cover a distance of 8 km to reach the airport. It was scary with bombings and firings all around."

Pandey said that the Indians were moving in a group and were only a hundred metres away from the airport when the Taliban abducted around 150 Indian nationals and took them to a secluded place on August 21.

"On many occasions, I had lost all hopes of being able to return home and meet my family again. But, thanks to the government of India, we were rescued and brought back home safely," he says.

It has been six days since Pandey returned from Afghanistan, but the stream of visitors to his house has not stopped.

"They all keep asking him about the situation there and he is made to recount those tales of horror all the time which makes him even more upset. People do not understand and we cannot even turn them away," says a relative.

Pandey went to Kabul in February this year but now has no plans to return.

"I will live here and try to do something that can help me earn," he says.