- Monday, February 24, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN prime minister Narendra Modi held his second high-level Cabinet meeting on the situation in Afghanistan on Wednesday (18) morning in New Delhi. During the meeting, he asked officials to ensure timely evacuation of all Indians stranded in the war-torn nation where the Taliban have returned to power. According to sources, the prime minister spoke with the civil aviation minister over the phone for about 40 minutes about the evacuation efforts.
Wednesday’s meeting was also attended by Union home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh and national security adviser Ajit Doval, Republic Media Network reported.
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Modi held his first cabinet committee meeting on the situation in Afghanistan on Tuesday (17) night where he asked officials concerned to undertake measures to ensure safe evacuation of Indian nationals who are stuck in that country and assist people from the minority community and Afghan nationals who are seeking shelter in India.
Meanwhile, the French Embassy in India tweeted on Tuesday saying the first French evacuation flight from Kabul included 21 Indians.
The Indian ministry of external affairs has said that it is closely monitoring the situation in Afghanistan which fell to the Taliban in no time. The extremist group took control of the capital city on Sunday (15), hours after West-backed president Ashraf Ghani fled.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar, who is currently in the US to attend some high-level meetings at the United Nations Security Council, spoke to US secretary of state Antony Blinken and stressed on the need to restore operations at the Kabul airport.
The ministry said that in an attempt to assist citizens from Afghanistan entering India, a fast category of electronic visas called ‘e-Emergency X-Misc Visa’ has been reviewed.
On Monday (16), external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, “The security situation in Kabul has deteriorated significantly in the last few days. It is changing rapidly even as we speak. The Government of India has been closely monitoring all developments in Afghanistan. We had circulated emergency contact numbers and had also been extending assistance to community members. We are aware that there are still some Indian nationals in Afghanistan who wish to return and we are in touch with them.”
India has been briskly carrying out evacuations from Afghanistan with two military aircraft bringing back diplomats, officials and others home.
