The day after the Taliban stormed into the Afghan capital in August 2021, Afghans desperate to evacuate clung to the fuselage of a departing American plane at Kabul airport — only to fall to their deaths.

Four years later, their families still relive those desperate acts and endure wounds they say will never heal.

The images sped around the world: hundreds of people running alongside a military plane about to take off, with some clinging to it.

Other videos show figures falling from the C-17, plummeting through the air.

One of them was Shafiullah Hotak.

Aged 18, he dreamt of becoming a doctor, but lacking the money for his studies, was forced to work doing odd jobs.

On August 16, 2021, the day after the Taliban seized Kabul, Hotak was swept up by rumours that the departing Americans,

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