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Over 565 persons, mostly Indian nationals, Afghan nationals and 15 from other countries have been evacuated from Afghanistan following the takeover by Taliban.
The Centre on Thursday apprised floor leaders of various parties in Parliament about the measures it has taken to evacuate Indians stuck in Afghanistan. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar briefed the leaders about the situation in the neighbouring country and added that Delhi is adopting a wait-and-watch approach and the immediate concern is the evacuation of Indians.
Jaishankar is learnt to have told the meeting of e-visa system for Afghan nationals to enter India. So far, 565 persons have been evacuated this include 175 embassy personnel, 263 other Indian nationals, 112 Afghan Nationals including Hindus and Sikhs and 15 citizens of other countries.
‘Difficult environment’
Following the meeting, Jaishankar told reporters, “We have undertaken evacuation operations in extremely difficult conditions especially at the airport. Our immediate concern and task is evacuation and long term interest is the friendship for the Afghan people.”
Responding to queries from leaders, the Minister reportedly told that the Centre has also facilitated evacuation of Indians by other agencies. Frequent firing incidents near the airport and inside Kabul, multiple checkpoints by various groups, issues at the airport, landing permission delays, overflight clearances from relevant countries and coordination on the ground pose a challenge.
‘Afghan cell ‘
A special Afghan cell with 20 officials of the Ministry was set up on August 16 to coordinate repatriation and other requests from Afghanistan in a streamlined manner. It is responding to requests over calls, emails and WhatsApp messages.
“Let the situation settle...You will have to keep patience on the question of our future policy,” Jaishankar said. “Our immediate concern and task is evacuation and long term interest is the friendship for the Afghan people,” he said. “We have a strong national position on Afghanistan. The friendship with the Afghan people is something which matters to all of us. So we (all parties) approached this situation very much in a spirit of national unity,” he added.
The meeting was also attended by union ministers Piyush Goyal and Pralhad Joshi, Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla, Opposition leader in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, DMK MP TR Baalu and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda attended the meeting.
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