The central government has activated foreign missions near the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan to ramp up the evacuation process of Indian and Afghan nationals, including Sikhs and Hindus, from the nation. The Indian authorities have been coordinating with the Indian embassies in Tajikistan, Qatar to facilitate the evacuation process from Afghanistan and have asked them to provide all support, including transports, stay, and other required assistance.
This comes as the Indian authorities, involved in the evacuation process, have been facing major challenges in locating different Indian workers stuck in different parts of Afghanistan. There is also a threat of an attack on the convoy fighters if the Indian authorities take the stranded citizens to the nearest Indian embassies, such as in Doha, by land routes.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has also set up an ‘Afghanistan Special Cell’ in New Delhi that has been working to respond to the queries and requests related to the evacuation process.
According to officials, so far a 1,650 Indians has put their request to this cell and they received over 2,000 calls, 600 WhatsApp messages, and 1200 e-mails.
The MEA said that till Sunday evening, 526 people, evacuated from Afghanistan, arrived in Delhi and 168 more arrived by the IAF’s transport aircraft C-17 at the Hindon airbase on Sunday morning, including 2 Afghan MPs and a few Afghan political leaders.
The Indian Air Force mission was kept secret until the flight took off amid fears of the Taliban may prevent Afghan public representatives from going.
The evacuation process is only being done through the Kabul airport which has been secured by the US military. The Kabul airport is not operating any commercial flights and only military aircraft are allowed there to facilitate the evacuation process.