Kunduz airlift

The Kunduz airlift, also called the Airlift of Evil, refers to the evacuation by Pakistan of hundreds of top commanders and members of the Taliban and al-Qaeda as well as their Pakistani advisors (which included agents of the Inter-Services Intelligence and personnel of the Pakistani military) from the city of Kunduz, Afghanistan, in November 2001. The incident reportedly occurred just before the Siege of Kunduz, which saw the city fall into the hands of the Northern Alliance and the United States during the opening phase of the War in Afghanistan. From Kunduz, the militants were taken to Chitral in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit in the Northern Areas. However, both the United States and Pakistan have denied that the airlift ever took place; Richard Myers, the then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the Kunduz Airport had been disabled by American bombing raids; Donald Rumsfeld, the then-Secretary of Defense, stated on 2 December 2001 that "neither Pakistan nor any other country flew any planes into Afghanistan to evacuate anybody".