NEW DELHI, Aug 27: A majority of Indian nationals who wished to return from Afghanistan have been brought back to India, the ministry of external affairs spokesman said on Friday. The ministry, while condemning the deadly bomb attack outside the Kabul airport, said it was carefully monitoring the situation in the neighbouring country.
The spokesman Arindam Bagchi said India’s focus had been to evacuate its citizens who are stranded in Afghanistan, adding that the last evacuation flight had only about 40 people.
“We heard reports that Afghan nationals were facing difficulty in reaching the airport. Some Afghan nationals, including Afghan Sikhs could not reach the airport on August 25. Several Indians, around 20, could not reach the airport,” Bagchi said.
Bagchi also informed that over 550 people — including more than 260 Indian nationals — have been evacuated through six direct flights.
Asked whether India will recognise a Taliban dispensation in Afghanistan, Arindam Bagchi said there was currently a lack of clarity or no clarity about any entity forming a government in Kabul.
“Situation on the ground has evolved a lot. We have been seeking a peaceful, prosperous, and democratic Afghanistan. We have been monitoring developments on the ground. The current focus is on the security situation and evacuation. We are all waiting and watching,” Bagchi added.
“Currently there is no clarity of any entity forming a government in Afghanistan. There have been a lot of stories going on as to who will represent the government, whether it will be inclusive, whether other elements of the Afghan polity will find representation. We do not want to speculate. Let’s wait for how it develops. We are aware of the ground situation,” Bagchi stated.
Bagchi said India is in touch with various parties regarding operating evacuation flights from Afghanistan.
On the queries of a young Afghan MP being deported from Delhi a few hours after she arrived the same morning, Bagchi said India was moving to the e-emergency visa system after the situation in Afghanistan deteriorated from August 15 and this possibly led to some confusion and, subsequently, denial of entry to the Afghan national.
Rangina Kargar, a member of the Wolesi Jirga where she represents the Faryab province of Afghanistan, had said she was not allowed to enter the country despite holding a diplomatic passport which she had used many times in the past to travel to India.
She had travelled to Delhi from Istanbul on August 20 for medical reasons but was not allowed out of the airport even though she was not travelling to India seeking refuge.
“Once the security situation there deteriorated immediately after August 15, there were reports of groups of people who raided one of our outsourcing agencies who had Afghan passports with Indian visas. In light of the loss of Afghan passports containing Indian visas, our security agencies were in a state of high alert. We were moving to an e-emergency visa system. All this could have led to confusion and denial of entry to a particular Afghan national,” Bagchi said.
(Manas Dasgupta)