New Delhi: The evacuation mission to bring back stranded Indians from the war-torn country Afghanistan continues on Sunday. According to latest updates by the Ministery of External Affairs, around 300 Indian nationals are expected to be brought back home from Afghanistan today in view of the deteriorating security situation in the Afghan capital Kabul, a PTO report said.
Eighty-seven Indians were taken to Tajikistan capital Dushanbe from Kabul on Saturday by a military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force have been brought back to Delhi in a special Air India flight.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted that two Nepalese citizens are also coming to India on board the Air India flight.
"Bringing Indians home from Afghanistan! AI 1956 carrying 87 Indians departs from Tajikistan for New Delhi. Two Nepalese nationals also evacuated.
Assisted and supported by our Embassy @IndEmbDushanbe. More evacuation flights to follow," Bagchi tweeted at 1:20 am on Sunday.
"AI 1956 carrying 87 Indians departs from Tajikistan for New Delhi. Two Nepalese nationals also evacuated. Assisted and supported by our Embassy @IndEmbDushanbe. More evacuation flights to follow," Bagchi tweeted.
He said the passengers were earlier evacuated from Kabul by an IAF aircraft.
The people cited above said on condition of anonymity that close to 100 Indians are likely to be brought back to India from Kabul in an Indian Air Force heavy-lift aircraft by Sunday, said PTI.
Arindam Bagchi further informed that a special repatriation flight by the Indian Air Force - carrying 168 passengers, including 107 Indians - is on its way to Delhi from Kabul.
India has been allowed to operate two flights per day from Kabul to evacuate its nationals stranded in Afghanistan, news agency ANI reported quoting government sources.
The permission was granted by American and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces which have been controlling operations of the Hamid Karzai International Airport after the Afghan capital fell to the Taliban on August 15.
Separately, another group of over 90 Indians, most of whom are employees of a number of foreign companies that were operating in Afghanistan, were flown in to Doha by US and NATO aircraft.
These people are also set to be brought back home on Sunday, the people said.
The total number of Indians to be evacuated on Sunday is around 300, they said.
India's evacuation mission
- India has already evacuated 200 people including the Indian envoy and other staffers of its embassy in Kabul in two C-17 heavy-lift transport aircraft of the IAF.
- The first evacuation flight brought back over 40 people, mostly staffers at the Indian embassy, on Monday.
- The second C-17 aircraft evacuated around 150 people including Indian diplomats, officials, security personnel, and some stranded Indians from Kabul on Tuesday.
The MEA has said that their complete focus is currently on the evacuation of Indian nationals from Kabul after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan on 15th August.
As per a rough estimate earlier, the number of Indians stranded in Afghanistan could be around 400 and India has been looking at ways to evacuate them including by coordinating with the US and other friendly countries.