New Delhi

When Zablon Simintov had agreed to a rescue plan offered by an American NGO that helps Jews relocate from dangerous places, he was accompanied by 29 Muslim children and women neighbours who too wanted to escape the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

According to reports the 62-year old Simintov and his entourage has reached a neighbouring country after five-days of travel by road and on foot and escaping scrutiny by the Taliban check posts.

Zablon Simintov had been living in Kabul, while his Tajikistan-born wife and their two daufghtes had left for Israel 20 years ago.

Zablon was rescued by Moti Kahana, an Israeli-American businessman, who runs a security agency that arranged such rescue missions. His rescue was sponsored by Moshe Margaretten, a US ultra-Orthodox Jewish charity that helps Jews in relocating.

Simantov, a carpet and jewelry trader, had been living in a dilapidated synagogue in Kabul. He was born in Heart, a historic city that used to have a sizeable population of Jews a till a decade ago. He eventually moved to Kabul. For a few years he had even fled to Tajikistan in 1992.

Simintov had told the Afghan media that he would leave the country in case the western forces left and the Taliban returned to power.

He said he was worried about the fate of religious minorities in a scenario where the Taliban take charge of the country. Moti Khanna told the international news agencies that Simintov “didn’t fear the Taliban; he feared the Al Qaeda and the ISIS terror outfits that have re-emerged in Afghanistan.”

Simintov, whose wife and two daughters have been living in Israel for more than two decades, used to say it was God’s will that he lived in Afghanistan. But he has worried about his future there ever since Washington began talking about a peace deal with the Taliban in 2018.

He didn’t prefer to migrate to Israel because of his dispute with his wife. He fears and since he has refused to grant divorce to her, the Israeli law will prosecute him under its very strict laws.

Afghanistan was once home to 40,000-strong Jewish community who started migrating from mid nineties, as soon after the Taliban took control of the country.

Since the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan has seen panick stricken religious minorities Sikhs, Hindus etc leaving the country.

Afghanistan’s religious minorities faced discrimination despite the country’s previous constitution guaranteeing protections.

They had gained limited government protection, the freedom to worship, and token representation in the government. But their future now hangs in the balance as the Taliban-led government announced a hard-line cabinet composed of Sunni clerics.

In 2001, months before the demise of its regime, the Taliban had caused an international uproar after they announced a plan that required all Hindus in the country to wear yellow badges.

Islamic law, as interpreted by the Taliban, will play a larger role in the country’s politics and public policies. The Taliban has revived its Ministry of Vice and Virtue, which indicates a keenness to return to more literal interpretations of Islamic law.

Afghan clerics and Islamic scholars have insisted that discrimination against non-Muslims has no place in Islam.

During the 1990s, the Taliban and rival Islamist groups pledged to protect minorities, but most Hindus and Sikhs fled to India.

Last month, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) called for an evacuation of religious minorities from Afghanistan because they were at extreme risk of persecution by the Taliban