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Will make all arrangements to evacuate Indians from Afghanistan: HS Puri
The Union minister’s remarks come hours after Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh appealed to the Centre to evacuate Indian nationals trapped in Afghanistan, including nearly 200 Sikhs.
Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday said that the ministry of external affairs and all central government departments, responsible for bringing back stranded Indian nationals from Afghanistan, will make necessary arrangements for their evacuation.
“Ministry of external affairs (MEA) and others who are responsible for it will make all the arrangements,” Puri said.
His statements came hours after Congress leader and Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh appealed to the Centre to arrange for the “immediate evacuation of all Indians, including around 200 Sikhs,” trapped at a Gurdwara in the war-torn nation following the rapid takeover by the Islamist extremist group Taliban on Sunday.
“My government is willing to extend any help needed to ensure their safe evacuation,” Singh tweeted, tagging foreign minister S Jaishankar and the external affairs ministry.
Meanwhile, an official of the national carrier Air India said scheduled flights to Kabul would not be able to operate as the airspace over Afghanistan was declared closed. “Our scheduled flight to Kabul also cannot go,” an Air India spokesperson said.
The airline was scheduled to send a flight to Kabul from Delhi at 8.50am on Monday but it was rescheduled to 12.50pm before being eventually suspended owing to the airspace closure.
On Sunday, as many as 129 Indians, including diplomats and civilians, were brought back to India by an Air India flight that departed Kabul at 6.06pm. At the time, the national carrier said that it is monitoring the situation and will continue with the scheduled flights to Kabul.
Also Read | Monitoring situation in Kabul; flights to continue as of now, says Air India
Singh also took to the microblogging site on Sunday, cautioning that the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan, “doesn’t augur well for our country.”
“It will strengthen the Sino-Pak nexus against India (China has already sought militia’s help on Uyghur). The signs are not at all good, we need to be extra vigilant now at all our borders,” the Twitter post read.
The situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has been slowly making progress over the past few weeks by taking control over 15 provincial capitals, was completely disrupted after the group captured the capital city of Kabul on Sunday. Later in the evening, President Ashraf Ghani and some of his close aides fled the country with reports citing that they may have escaped to Tajikistan.
Although the Taliban projected a more moderate outlook this time as opposed to two decades before when they gained reign over Afghanistan for the first time before being ousted by the US forces, by reportedly promising more freedom for women and not causing harm to anyone, there were reports of sporadic gunfire around Kabul on Sunday.
The Islamist group has already taken over the presidential palace, even as a few regional social media users termed the president a “coward” for leaving his fellow country people in chaos.
Also Read | ‘Coward’: Afghan social media angry as Prez Ashraf Ghani flees amid chaos
Issuing a statement on Facebook, the former President said that he left the country in order to prevent a “flood of bloodshed.” “If left unchecked, countless patriots would be martyred and the city of Kabul would be devastated, resulting in a major humanitarian catastrophe in the six-million-strong city,” his post read.
Also Read | Afghan president Ghani says left to prevent 'flood of bloodshed'
“The Taliban have won with the judgement of their swords and guns, and are now responsible for the honour, property and self-preservation of their countrymen," Ghani added in the statement. Afghanistan or they will give priority to other places and networks," he added, saying he left to prevent a "flood of bloodshed".
(With inputs from ANI)
