Indian flights to Afghanistan are unlikely to resume shortly as the government is apprehensive about proper safety and security of the crew and passengers, top government sources told CNN-News18.
Flights may evacuate Indian Nationals or persons of interest from Afghanistan, but these would only go to Kabul once safety and Air Traffic Control (ATC) check has been conducted by a third country officially, the sources said.
Sending flights to other stations for evacuations, as well, is out of the question, they said. Reports yesterday said Taliban cadre are taking money from flights before their release from Mazar-E-Sharif.
While most countries have completed their evacuation operations from the war-ravaged country, taken over by the Taliban in mid-August, reports say many have been left behind.
India on Thursday had said ensuring evacuation of citizens willing to leave Afghanistan was its top priority but that there had been no development on the front as the Kabul Airport is currently not operational. “We have been prioritising evacuation. Currently, Kabul Airport is not functional. We can revisit this question when the airport is functional,” Arindam Bagchi, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson had said.
The External Affairs Ministry has in the past reiterated that it’s in touch with representatives of the Afghan Sikh and Hindu communities in the country and would facilitate the repatriation of those who wish to leave.
Bagchi, in a press conference on August 27, had informed that India had evacuated more than 550 people on six flights through Kabul or via Dushanbe, which included 260 Indians (including embassy and other personnel), and the rest being Afghans and other officials.
Asked about the people left to evacuate from Afghanistan, Bagchi had said the vast majority of Indians who had sought to come back had, adding that those who remained would be brought back soon; a number that kept changing with requests coming in.
On being asked whether Afghan nationals being evacuated to India would be given a ‘refugee’ status, the MEA spokesperson had said they were being kept on an emergency visa basis for now, which was valid for six months. He said the situation would be assessed after the period ended due to its evolving nature.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported Monday that about 1,000 people, including Americans, have been stuck in Afghanistan for days awaiting clearance for their charter flights to leave, quoting an organizer who blamed the delay on the US State Department. Exasperated by the delays, the organizer said the State Department had failed to tell the Taliban of its approval for flight departures from the international airport in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif or validate a landing site.
“They need to be held accountable for putting these people’s lives in danger,” said the organizer, who sought anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
‘Need Humanitarian Aid Corridors at Airports’: Qatar
Qatar had earlier said it hopes to see the establishment of humanitarian aid corridors at Afghan airports within 48 hours, according to Doha’s special envoy to Afghanistan. The Gulf nation has worked with the Taliban to quickly reopen Kabul’s airport, whose closure since the departure of US troops threatens major strategic and humanitarian challenges.
The country sent a plane carrying food and medical goods to Kabul on Monday, part of an effort to provide badly needed supplies to Afghanistan as the country faces a halt in most Western aid, the Associated Press reported. Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said the plane had landed at Kabul airport on Sunday with 26 tons of medical and food aid, the second such shipment in as many days. The tiny Gulf state of Qatar has taken an outsized role in evacuation efforts and is also expected to play an important political role in what comes next for Afghanistan.
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