PM Modi Chairs High-Level Meeting With Top Officials Amid Afghan Crisis
Amid fear and uncertainty gripping Afghanistan after its take over by the Taliban, a high-level meeting is reportedly underway at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official residence in New Delhi, to discuss the situation in the war-ravaged country. The meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) includes PM Modi, Union Defence Minister, Union Home Minister, Union Finance Minister, and the Minister of External Affairs.
The CCS is the apex government body that deals with the issues of national security. Reports said those present in the meeting also included National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, as also India’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Rudrendra Tandon, who returned to India on Tuesday itself. According to reports, PM Modi has been constantly in touch with officials regarding the situation in Afghanistan. The PM was taking stock of the situation till late at night yesterday and was updated when the flight took off from Kabul.
The Prime Minister has instructed that adequate arrangements be made to ensure food for all those who returned at Jamnagar in Gurajat. India today rushed back home its ambassador and staff from the embassy in Kabul in a military transport aircraft in the wake of escalating tension in the Afghan capital. The C-17 Globemaster aircraft of the Indian Air Force carrying around 150 people, including diplomats, officials, security personnel, and some stranded Indians, landed at the Hindon airbase near Delhi at around 5 pm after a brief halt at Gujarat’s Jamnagar.
Meanwhile, EAM S Jaishankar has said that the movement of the Indian Ambassador and the Embassy staff from war-torn Afghanistan to India was a “difficult and complicated exercise” as he thanked those who cooperated and facilitated the efforts. “Movement of the Indian Ambassador and the Embassy staff from Kabul to India was a difficult and complicated exercise. Thank all those whose cooperation and facilitation made it possible,” he said in a tweet.
It is the second evacuation flight as another C-17 aircraft brought back around 40 people from the Hamid Karzai International (HKI) Airport in Kabul on Monday as part of India’s emergency evacuation mission that was carried out following coordination with relevant authorities including US officials handling security at the airport in the Afghan capital. It is the second time that India evacuated all its staff from the embassy in Kabul after a similar exercise was carried out in 1996 when the Taliban first captured power.
