As a senior officer in Afghanistan’s former national intelligence services, Feroz worked for years with US and Nato forces, tracking Taliban activities and planning military action. The night the Taliban took Kabul, fighters came to his house to hunt him down; he evaded capture because he was sheltering with a friend.

Yet despite his deep involvement in the US-led war against the Taliban and the risk of retribution, the former National Directorate of Security officer and his family were left stranded in Afghanistan in the tumultuous US departure from the country. Although a decorated US military veteran made frantic phone calls on his behalf, Feroz’s repeated attempts to get into Kabul airport with his family to board a military evacuation flight failed.

Today he, another senior Afghan military intelligence officer Hamid, and their wives and children, are in hiding in Pakistan, reached after a dangerous three-day land journey. From there, Jayson Harpster, the American army veteran trying to help the men and who worked closely with them during the war, hopes to get them to the US.