Afghan music school students flown out, headed to Portugal

By ZEINA KARAM
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — Dozens of students and teachers from a prominent music school in Afghanistan have been flown to safety on their way to Portugal, where the government has agreed to grant them asylum. The group was on board a flight carrying 235 people out of Kabul’s international airport to Qatar on Sunday. It was the largest airlift of Afghan nationals since Taliban fighters seized Afghanistan as the U.S. withdrew its forces from the country in August. The director of Afghanistan National Institute of Music says he now plans to recreate the school’s success in Portugal, to preserve the musical tradition of Afghanistan.