Paralympics dream over for Afghan athletes trapped in Kabul

Afghan women, holding placards, gather to demand the protection of women's rights in front of the Presidential Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan.

A person holds the flag of Afghanistan during a protest against support for the Taliban, in Berlin, Germany.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid speaks at his first news conference in Kabul.

Taliban fighters stand guard outside the Green Zone where most of the embassies are situated.

Afghan security forces patrol on humvee vehicle along a road in Bazarak town of Panjshir province.

Schoolgirls sit in a schoolyard in Herat.

Afghans wait outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport to flee the country.

A Taliban fighter raises their flag on a vehicle as they patrol in Kandahar.

French citizens and their Afghan colleagues wait to board a French military transport plane at the airport in Kabul after the Taliban's stunning military takeover of the Afghanistan.

French soldiers at the airport in Kabul as they arrive to help French citizens and their Afghan colleagues to flee after the Taliban takeover.

A US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft filled with about 640 Afghans fleeing to Qatar from Kabul, Afghanistan.

Crowds on the tarmac of Kabul International Airport, Afghanistan. Several people were reportedly killed at the airport on August 16 as Afghans tried to hang on to a moving US military plane leaving the airport.

A satellite photo shows swarms of people on the tarmac at Kabul International Airport, also known as Hamid Karzai International Airport. Afghans rushed on to the tarmac of the capital's airport on Monday as thousands tried to flee the country after the Taliban seized power with stunning speed.

A traffic jam outside Kabul International Airport, Afghanistan after Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar declared victory and an end to the decades-long war in the country. President Ashraf Ghani fled and conceded that the insurgents had won the 20-year war.

Qari Muhammad Hanif, centre, director of the Taliban's cultural and Information department, talks to journalists in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

Humvee vehicles from the Afghan Security Forces in Panjshir province, Afghanistan.

Thousands of Afghans rushed to Hamid Karzai International Airport in an attempt to flee the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Afghans on the tarmac at Kabul airport in Kabul after a swift end to the 20-year war in the country. Thousands of people mobbed the city's airport trying to flee the group's rule.

A US soldier keeps close watch on Afghan passengers at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul. Thousands of people packed the airport trying to flee Taliban rule.

Passengers sit inside a plane as they wait to leave the runway of Kabul after the stunningly swift end of Afghanistan’s 20-year war.

People climb on top of a plane in Kabul.

People try to enter Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.

People cross the boundary wall of Hamid Karzai International Airport to flee the country after rumours that foreign countries were removing people even without visas.

Taliban fighters stand guard along a roadside near Zanbaq Square in Kabul.

A Taliban fighter sits on his motorcycle by a road in Shahr-e Naw, Kabul.

Talibs patrol the streets of Kabul as the militants take control of Afghanistan. after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

Afghans gather on the asphalt at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul.

Afghans gather by the runway in Kabul as US soldiers stand guard.

Taliban fighters on a police vehicle outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Baradar Akhund, a senior official of the Taliban, with a group of men, makes a video statement.

Taliban fighters take control of the presidential palace in Kabul, after Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

Passengers from Kabul arrive at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, India.

Families on a motorway trying to flee Kabul.

Afghan security forces on patrol in Kabul.

People line up outside Azizi Bank to withdraw cash during a run on deposits.

Taliban fighters use a captured Afghan security forces vehicle at a checkpoint in Herat.

Ahmadullah Muttaqi, centre left, the Taliban's director for information and culture, addresses journalists.

Police officers conduct their duties after the Taliban took control of Kandahar.

People prepare to cross into Afghanistan, at Pakistan's Chaman border. Pakistani authorities reopened the border with Afghanistan on August 13 after it had been closed for several days.

Afghans wait in long lines for hours to get visas at the Iranian embassy, in Kabul.

Taliban fighters patrol after taking control of Jalalabad.

Smoke rises near the US embassy in Kabul. Taliban fighters reached the outskirts of the Afghan capital on Sunday.

Anti-missile decoy flares are used by US Black Hawk military helicopters, while a surveillance blimp flies over Kabul.

An Afghan soldier keeps watch on a street in Kabul.

Taliban fighters and local people gather in Jalalabad province, east of Kabul.

Taliban fighters sit on an Afghan Army Humvee in Jalalabad province.

Taliban fighters travel along a street in Jalalabad province.

A US Chinook military helicopter flies over the US embassy in Kabul.

Heavily armed Taliban fighters gather in eastern Laghman province.

Militants wave a Taliban flag from the back of a pickup truck in Jalalabad.

Taliban fighters drive through the streets of Laghman province.

People head to the departures area of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul as the Taliban approach the city.

A man sells Taliban flags in western province Herat.

Taliban fighters travel in an Afghan Army vehicle in Herat.

Taliban forces patrol a street in Herat.

Taliban militants raise their flag as they gather a day after taking control of key southern city Kandahar.

Members of the Afghan security forces stand guard along the roadside in Panjshir province.

Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani and acting defence minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi visit a military site in Kabul.

Internally displaced families from northern provinces take shelter in a public park in Kabul.

Families that fled their homes because of fighting between the Taliban and Afghan security forces take shelter in a public park in Kabul.

Many of those seeking safety in Kabul have been sleeping on the streets.

Thousands of those internally displaced have been arriving in Kabul.

Afghans have been waiting for hours in long queues outside the passport office in Kabul, with many people desperate to leave the country.

Follow the latest updates on Afghanistan here

Zakia Khudadadi would have been the first woman to represent Afghanistan at a Paralympic Games when they start in Tokyo this month, but her dream has been shattered amid the country's turmoil.

The Afghanistan Paralympic Committee's London-based Chef de Mission Arian Sadiqi told Reuters on Monday that the country's two athletes would not be able to attend the Games that commence on August 24.

"Unfortunately due to the current upheaval going on in Afghanistan the team could not leave Kabul in time," he said.

US forces have taken over air traffic control at Kabul airport, where seven died on Monday in chaotic scenes with reports of firing in the air and a stampede.

Taliban insurgents have overrun major cities and now control most of Afghanistan. The hardline Islamist movement was ousted in 2001, but has made sweeping military gains in recent months as foreign forces, led by the United States, withdrew.

Sadiqi said he had been due to fly to Japan on Monday while the team - Khudadadi and track athlete Hossain Rasouli - had been scheduled to arrive in Tokyo on August 17.

Taekwondo athlete Khudadadi was profiled on the Paralympic website last week talking about her hopes for the Games.

"I was thrilled after I received the news that I have got a wild card to compete at the Games," said the 23-year-old from Herat.

"This is the first time that a female athlete will be representing Afghanistan at the Games and I'm so happy," she had said then.

Sadiqi said the athletes had been trying to secure flights, but prices soared as the Taliban took over a string of cities.

Then it became impossible.

"They were really excited prior to the situation. They were training wherever they could, in the parks and back gardens," he said.

Afghan athletes first competed at the 1996 Paralympic Games but have never won a medal.

Rohullah Nikpai became Afghanistan's first Olympic medallist in any sport when he won bronze in taekwondo at the 2008 Beijing Games, repeating the feat at London 2012.

Sadiqi said the future for Afghan athletes looked bleak, if the past was anything to go by.

"There was a lot of progress, both in the Olympics and the Paralympics," he said of recent decades. "At the national level there was a lot of participants, a lot of athletes ... but we can only predict from what happened in the past.

"Previously during the Taliban era people couldn't compete, couldn't participate, especially female athletes.

"For me, it's heartbreaking," he said. "This would have been the first female Afghan taekwondo player to take part. This was history in the making. She was excited to take part. She was very passionate to compete.

"Zakia would have been a great role model for the rest of the females in the country."