Still some Indians left in Kabul: Indian Ambassador Rudrendra Tandon after arriving in India
Jamnagar : Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan Rudrendra Tandon, who was flown back to India on Tuesday following the deteriorating situation in Kabul, said that there are still some Indians in Kabul and Air India would continue to run its commercial services to the Afghan capital as long as the airport there functions.
Speaking to the media after he along with the Indian embassy staff and other Indians were flown back to India, Tandon also thanked the Indian Air Force for flying them back “under conditions that are not normal”.
Asked how the evacuation was conducted, he said that the situation in Afghanistan was being monitored “at the highest level, on a day-to-day and on a minute-to-minute basis; and that is how the whole operation was conducted, involving from the junior-most person of the embassy to the highest person in the Government of India”.
To a question on the situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, he said “The situation is very complex as the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan no longer exists and the situation is quite fluid now”.
He said that Air India had to temporarily suspend its commercial services because of the conditions in Kabul airport. “However, we continue to ensure that anyone who is stuck there is somehow brought here for which the Ministry of External Affairs has opened a help desk that is operating already.”
He said there are Indians who continue to work in Kabul city, despite the changing situation. He said they would be brought back when the commercial services resume at Kabul airport.
Asked how many Indian nationals continue to remain in Afghanistan, Tandon said that Indian nationals “unfortunately do not register themselves”. He said the Government of India sends out advisories. “Especially in countries like Afghanistan where the political situation can change it is important that Indian citizens register themselves with the Indian embassies so that in times like this we can extract them whether or not they may be willing at that time,” he added.
He said that he personally knows of around five or six Indians “but the figures quoted to us, it could be 40-50, but that is not something I would stand by officially.. we don’t have it as a registered person on our data base”.
On the Indian embassy temporarily closing its operations, he said, “It’s not that we’ve abandoned the people of Afghanistan; their welfare and our old relationship with them is very much in our mind. We will, going forward, try and continue our interaction with them. I can’t exactly say in what form, as the situation is changing so much,” he added.
Earlier in the day, the MEA spokesperson tweeted that the Indian ambassador in Kabul and the staff in the Indian embassy were being flown back immediately in view of the prevailing circumstances.
On Sunday, the Taliban took over Kabul, which led to the fall of the Ashraf Ghani government there.
