As many as 150 Indian citizens who got picked up by the Taliban this morning have now been released and are inside Kabul airport, said sources. Also, they will be airlifted out of war-torn Afghanistan soon.
A Home Ministry official said, “Indian citizens waiting outside Kabul airport for evacuation flights were taken to a nearby police station for investigation and checking of travel documents, said a top government source, amid worrying reports from local media that they had been abducted.”
A few news outlets in Kabul stated that the Taliban had abducted over 150 people, including Indians, which Taliban refused to accept, a tweet by a Kabul-based reporter, Sharif Hassan, for The New York Times, quoted a spokesperson for the group.
Also read: https://www.dnpindia.in/world/taliban-enters-kabul-ali-ahamd-jalali-to-be-interim-head-say-reports/
“The Taliban’s picking up of Indian citizens comes hours after an Air Force transport aircraft managed to evacuate around 85 Indians from Kabul; the plane managed safe landing in Tajikistan,” said the sources, adding that a second aircraft is on standby in India.
“The government is trying to bring as many Indians as possible into the airport at Kabul to keep them safe while it works out the evacuation logistics.”
“India evacuated all embassy staff but an estimated 1,000 citizens remain in several cities in the war-torn country, and ascertaining their location and condition is proving to be a challenge,” sources added.
