Feature: Five-month-old Nepalese infant deprived of father due to Kabul attack

The only international airport in the Himalayan nation, Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA), unlike the regular upbeat hustle and bustle, was cast under a dark shadow on Wednesday.

The airport was full of tearful faces telling of irreparable loss and shattered dreams. Some were mourning the loss of their husbands whereas others had lost a son, a father, a brother or a friend.

Among the crowd, was 30-year-old Sanjita Lama, with her five-month-old baby boy, sitting on the side of the pavement, and sometimes, feeding her new-born with a plastic bottle.

Dressed in a pink shirt and blue trousers with a small red 'tika' dot on her forehead, she looked frantic, having been waiting more than five hours to get a final glance of her husband Jitendra Singh Thapa.

Jitendra, 41, was among the 12 Nepalese killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul on June 20 while they were riding in a mini bus towards their duty station. He had a morning shift that day as a security guard for a Canadian mission.

"You know why we named him Jenish? Because the initial of his name 'J' is similar with his father's name Jitendra. And look at the fate of my child, he will never see his father again," a distraught Sanjita told Xinhua.

Jenish was born just five months ago in Kathmandu as the first child of this couple who got married 15 months ago. During the delivery of her son, Jitendra was about to step into the war-torn Afghanistan to work as a security guard.

The couple lived in the outskirts of Kathmandu in a rented two-bedroom flat had hurriedly managed to perform the naming-ritual of their son on the 5th day after his birth, instead of the 11th day, as per the Hindu tradition.

The father and son had spent just 15 days together, but they were full of bliss and happiness.

Sanjita, however, had never ever imagined in her worst nightmare that their baby would be deprived of his father's love and guidance this early.

Carrying Jenish, dressed in a flowery vest and yellow trousers with black eye-liner known as 'gaajal', Sanjita told Xinhua, "His father loved him a lot. Our online conversations often revolved around what our son did, what he ate and how he played. We had so many dreams about him, but now they are all shattered."

Sanjita didn't want to recall that dark day which left her small but beautiful world upside down, but she felt comfortable sharing about her cute infant Jenish while waiting for the chartered flight of national flag carrier, Nepal Airlines, which was airlifting the remains of the Kabul victims.

She was desperately waiting for that special flight that would bring her husband back close to her, but unfortunately, in the confines of a coffin.

This tragedy was brought on due to unemployment and a lack of opportunities in this country, which was engulfed in conflict for 10 years out of which a democratic republic emerged in 2008.

Originally from the western district of Rupandehi, Jitendra had chosen Afghanistan, full of high security risks, as his destination, to better provide for his family. His salary was nearly Rs 100,000 per month (about 928 U.S. dollars), which he felt he could never have earned if he stayed at home.

"He was planning to return with some savings after two years so that we can start a business here," Sanjita said of their future plans, adding, "We wanted to give a good life to our son."

But fate had other ideas, due to which Sanjita couldn't welcome her husband in person, but could see him only inside a closed box.

Sanjita had become unconscious several times from her screams of loss and pain after the arrival of the coffins whereas Jenish, unaware of his father's loss, was playing on the lap of his aunts.

The families of 11 other victims had something similar to share about their painful losses. Being indifferent to the monsoon downpour, the barbaric act of the Taliban had brought together hundreds of people at the airport to offer their final tributes to the Gurkhas.

They all felt the heaviness in their hearts and had a common plea to the government not to send any more Nepalese to such risky destinations.

Their appeal however comes at a time when nearly 9,000 Nepalese migrants have already received work permits for Afghanistan in the past 10 years.

Moreover, the Nepalese government has no official records of how many have already returned from Afghanistan and how many more may have to face a similar fate as Jitendra and his 11 colleagues. Endit