Roads full of hostiles, embassy staff reached airport amid peril

The drive from the Indian embassy in Kabul to the airport doesn’t take more than 20 minutes on a good day. But on Monday night, it took the convoy of 14 bulletproof vehicles carrying Indian ambassador Rudrendra Tandon and other officials almost an hour — every minute of it a heart-stopping suspense.
The Taliban had created roadblocks all over the city. Foreign minister S Jaishankar tweeted, “Movement of the Indian ambassador and the embassy staff from Kabul to India was a difficult and complicated exercise.” The security of the Indian officials was the government’s primary concern as was made clear by PM Modi and the leadership, which included NSA Ajit Doval and Jaishankar. The operations were spearheaded by J P Singh, joint secretary MEA, while Tandon was holding up the Kabul end of things.
The Taliban roadblocks outside the Indian embassy were bad enough. What was worse was there was no armed escort for the Indians. Intelligence suggested the 15 checkposts between the embassy and airport were filled with men from all types of outfits — Taliban, Lashkar and Haqqani and suspected IS.
Travelling unescorted wasn’t an option. The Americans would not help, citing their own evacuation responsibilities. Finally, the Indian security agencies gathered a group of “local assets” who could negotiate with the men manning the checkposts.
PM & NSA monitored convoy’s midnight drive to Kabul airport
The plan was highly risky, though in the circumstances, the best that could have been done.
On Sunday night, the government moved the first batch of 45 officials in a convoy at night to the airport. A C-17 aircraft had taken off at night from India and picked them up on 16th morning, bringing them back by the afternoon.
But things deteriorated and became volatile on Monday. Ordinary Afghans stormed the airport, and the world saw heart-rending scenes of people climbing on top of aircraft, crowding into US Air Force aircraft to get out. Armed Taliban were all over the city and the roads were jammed.
The Indians had to wait for nightfall. By then, many Indian citizens in Kabul, who hadn’t obeyed government travel advisories in time turned up at the embassy. They could not be turned away. A convoy of 14 vehicles, with armed ITBP personnel bringing up the rear and the “local” escort set off for the airport late at night. By then all the documents had been shredded and the embassy pared down to the minimum. India hasn’t officially closed the embassy, with Afghan staff continuing to man it. It has been evacuated in view of the prevailing situation.
A second C-17 took off from Hindon on 16th night and parked in Dushanbe, ready to hop over to Kabul. The Americans, who had, by then, taken control of Kabul airport, gave the Indian aircraft a three-hour window. But first they had to get the officials and other Indian nationals to the airport safely.
The midnight drive was nothing short of hair-raising. At every checkpost, the local escort “negotiated” movement.
Back in New Delhi, Modi and Doval and other top officials stayed up late at night, following the convoy through Kabul’s streets until they were safely through the gates of the airport. Jaishankar was monitoring from the plane that he was travelling in to the US. At one point, it needed high level intervention to get the Americans to facilitate Indian movement.
The Indians had to wait for daybreak, when the C-17 arrived from Dushanbe. The return home was over Iranian airspace, avoiding Pakistan, landing first at Jamnagar for fuel and food, before arriving at Hindon.
The threat to Indians in Afghanistan is very real, and efforts are continuing to bring back another 1,650 who have registered on the helplines. The task is complicated as many must first be brought to Kabul after negotiating Taliban checks and housed at a hotel close to the airport. Thereafter special flights, possibly hired from Qatar as well, could be used to bring them back.