Afghanistan: Londonderry-based man says sister abducted in Kabul

Mr Kharotai, who has been living in Northern Ireland for the past three years, says his sister has been abducted

An Afghan man living in Londonderry has said that one of his sisters has been "taken" from his family in Kabul.

Muhammad Edrees Kharotai, who had lost all contact with his family for 10 days, said he was told of the news in a phone call on Wednesday.

"I was speaking to my mother and she said that my younger sister has been taken," he told BBC Radio Foyle.

The Foreign Office has said it is continuing its attempts to get eligible Afghans out of the country.

Mr Kharotai has been trying to get his family out of Afghanistan to the UK.

He left the country in 2011 after his government official father was murdered by the Taliban.

His mother and sisters had to flee their home and were staying in a tent on the streets of the capital when the Taliban seized control of the country.

The deadline for the UK evacuating people from Afghanistan was 31 August, but the UK is now in talks with the Taliban over further evacuations for British nationals and other Afghans wishing to flee the country.

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"Words cannot describe how I am feeling right now, it is not explainable," Mr Kharotai said.

"I don't know who has taken her, if it is the Taliban or if it was the ISIS-K - I just don't know yet."

He said his mother was distraught during their brief phone conversation on Wednesday.

Many Afghans had tried to flee the country via the airport in Kabul

Mr Kharotai said she told him that the people who took his sister had "come to the camp and taken the small young girls, whoever wasn't married or single".

"They took my sister as well, took her away from my mother," he said.

"I think between Taliban and Isis these are the two people who can do this stuff. They were abducting the small girls and children years ago and now again they will get the opportunity to do this," he said.

Mr Kharotai said his mother told him the sheer number of people trying to get out of the country ahead of the 31 August deadline was "unreal".

There is an onus now on the Foreign Office to help the "vulnerable women and children" of Afghanistan," he added.

'This family is in crisis tonight'

Previously, Foyle MP Colum Eastwood had made representations on behalf of Muhammad and his family to senior British government ministers.

Speaking on Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster on Thursday, the SDLP leader said he could not begin to imagine "what Muhammed is going through today".

"The fact is we've been speaking to the British government's Foreign Office and Home Office for almost two weeks now and those calls have fallen on deaf ears," he said.

"They have left these people in harm's way," he said.

The British and US withdrawal had left "people at the mercy of the Taliban and now we are seeing ISIS there as well," he said.

Mr Eastwood added: "I don't know how they weren't prepared to get people, vulnerable people out long before now".

The Foreign Office said it will "continue to do all we can to deliver on our obligation to get British nationals and eligible Afghans out of the country while the security situation allows".

In a statement, it said: "More than 15,000 people including British nationals, our Afghan staff and others at risk have been evacuated from Afghanistan by the UK since 15 August in one of the biggest operations of its kind in history.