According to reports, an Indian Air Force C-17 transport plane is on standby to fly to Kabul and bring home Indian people who have been stranded in the war-torn country since the Taliban took control, according to military officials. According to the sources, the IAF aircraft will fly to Kabul as soon as a sufficient number of Indian nationals are able to get to the airport in the Afghan capital.
According to sources, India is collaborating closely with the United States administration to assist the movement of IAF transport planes to Kabul. In this C-17, the government hopes to evacuate up to 250 Indians, but it is dependent on how many of them are able to get to the airport, as the Taliban controls the city and has tightened its grip on movement and checkpoints.
According to sources, operating an Air India flight to Kabul has proven challenging, and as a result, the Indian Air Force has been placed on alert. It is expected that over 400 Indians will need to be evacuated, though the precise number is unclear at this time.
According to government officials, the Home Ministry is also reviewing visa applications submitted by Afghan nationals.
On August 15, two Indian Air Force C-17 transport planes flew into Kabul to remove Indian embassy staff, including Indo-Tibetan Border Police officers entrusted with protecting them. The first aircraft took off under extremely difficult conditions, considering the turmoil that had erupted at Kabul International Airport, where thousands of desperate Afghans had gathered in the hope of catching a flight out of the country.
Another group of Indian mission members – over 120 in total – including Ambassador Rudrendra Tandon boarded the second Indian Air Force C-17 on Tuesday and safely exited Afghan airspace before landing in the Gujarati city of Jamnagar, from where they continued their journey to the Hindon IAF base in Delhi.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) today called on the Taliban to enable civilians who are being evacuated from Afghanistan to leave the country, and pledged that the allies will continue to work in “tight cooperation” as long as operations are ongoing in Afghanistan.
NATO’s 30 member countries issued the unified declaration following an emergency video conference of their foreign ministers to discuss evacuation efforts and the next steps to be taken, according to news agency AFP.
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However, despite the fact that thousands had been evacuated so far, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated at the outset of the videoconference that foreigners and Afghans were having difficulty getting to Kabul International Airport. According to AFP
