150 Indian diplomats and nationals midnight evacuation from Afghanistan; escorted by Taliban

A group of Taliban fighters waited outside the main iron gate of the Indian embassy in Afghanistan’s Kabul, armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. But they were not there to extact revenge, rather to escort them to Kabul airport, where a military aircraft was on standby to evacuate them after New Delhi decided to shut its mission.

Growing increasingly nervous, watching news of the Taliban tightening their grip on the capital, there were 150 Indian diplomats and nationals inside the compound. Their position was a precarious one.

On Monday night, nearly two dozen vehicles drove out of the embassy, while some of the fighters even waved and smiled at the Indian passengers, an AFP correspondent among them told.

One guided them towards the street leading out of the city’s green zone and on the main road to the airport.

The embassy’s decision to ask the fighters to guard the Indians was made when the Taliban closed access to the once heavily fortified neighbourhood after taking over the capital, the previous day.

Since a long time, Pakistan has been the Taliban’s biggest supporter, using the country for so-called “strategic depth” in never-ending battles, real and diplomatic, with archrival India.

However, India had strongly backed the Afghan government that took over when the Taliban was removed, earning them hatred and enmity from the hardline group.

About 200 or so people, gathered at the foreign mission had already been flown out of the war-torn nation before Afghan’s new leaders took full control of the city.

After a long wait, the diplomats boarded a C-17 Indian military transport plane that took off at dawn, landing at an air force base in Gujarat later that morning.

“I’m so happy to be back,” an Air India employee Shirin Pathare, who was flown out of Kabul, told the AFP news agency as he stepped off the aircraft. “India is paradise.”

Recalling the chaos and anxiety of his hasty departure from his officein Kabul, another Indian citizen, cradling his two-year-old daughter, said, “Just hours before I took the flight a group of Taliban visited my workplace.”

They were polite but when they went, they took two of our vehicles, said the man, declining to give AFP his name, adding, “I immediately knew it was time for me and my family to leave.”

(Inputs from agencies)

Latest Indian news

Popular Stories

Latest Video