'India's immediate concern evacuation'

New Delhi: Asserting that the government is committed to "full evacuation" of Indians from Afghanistan, where the situation is "critical", External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said India's "immediate concern and task is evacuation and long term interest is the friendship for the Afghan people".

Briefing an all-party meeting on the situation in Afghanistan, Jaishankar said the government has adopted a "wait and watch" approach in dealing with the Taliban, depending on the evolving situation, and later told reporters in an answer to a similar question that let the situation settle down there.

"Let the situation settle...You will have to keep patience on the question of our future policy," he said when asked about the government's approach towards the Taliban.

Besides Jaishankar, Union minister and Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi were also present during the nearly three and a half hour briefing on the latest situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban captured power there last week.

Senior officials of the external affairs ministry, including Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla also participated in the meeting.

As per the evacuation data shared among the participants at the meet, the government has evacuated --175 Embassy Personnel, 263 other Indian Nationals, 112 Afghan Nationals including Hindus and Sikhs, 15 third country nationals and the total figure stood at 565.

The document further said the government also facilitated the evacuation of Indians by other agencies.

NCP leader Sharad Pawar, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Congress party in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, DMK's T R Baalu, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, Apna Dal's Anupriya Patel were among those who attended the meet.

"We have a strong national position on Afghanistan. The friendship with the Afghan people is something which matters to all of us. So we (all parties) approached this situation very much in a spirit of national unity," he told reporters.

Under Operation 'Devi Shakti', the government has undertaken six flights and brought back most of the Indians but not all of them, he said, noting that a few Indians are still there.

"Some of them could not make the flight yesterday. But definitely we will try and bring everybody. We have also brought out some Afghan citizens who wanted to come to India at this point of time. We have tried to address many of the other issues by instituting an E-visa policy. So the overall sense was that the government is very very strongly committed to ensuring the full evacuation as soon as possible," he said.

With the situation in Afghanistan fluid, he said there will be a lot of activity on this front but at the moment India's "focus is on evacuation and the government is doing everything to ensure that we bring back our people".

On the all-party meet, he tweeted "briefed the floor leaders of all political parties today on Afghanistan and 37 leaders from 31 parties attended. Thank them all."

He said India's strong friendship with the people of Afghanistan is reflected in the more than 500 projects it has there and that the friendship will continue to guide New Delhi.

Jaishankar said India's footprint and activities naturally keep in mind the ongoing change.

"We have undertaken evacuation operations in extremely difficult conditions especially at the airport. Our immediate concern and task is evacuation and long term interest is the friendship for the Afghan people," the minister tweeted after the meeting.

Sources said Jaishankar apprised the floor leaders about the pre-emptive measures taken by India including the temporary withdrawal of Indian personnel from its consulates in Herat and Jalalabad in April last year, scaling down of the strength of the embassy in Kabul in June this year.

Last year in February, Taliban leaders and the US inked a pact in Doha in February 2020 which envisaged religious freedom and democracy, with a government in Kabul that represented all sections of Afghan society after the withdrawal of American troops.

Jaishankar also cited the evacuation of Indian staff from the Indian consulates in Kandahar on July 10-11 and from Mazar-e-Sharif on August 10-11, besides mentioning a series of security advisories issued between June 29 and August 12, urging Indian nationals to leave the country immediately.

The external affairs minister said India's priorities following the recent developments included the evacuation of Indian nationals, ensuring the safety of its diplomatic staff, extending assistance to Afghan nationals in distress and providing some leadership as part of the 'Neighbourhood-First' policy, the sources said.

It is learnt that Shringla also briefed the leaders and referred to preemptive measures undertaken by India.

Referring to attacks on Indian diplomatic premises in Afghanistan, Shringla specifically mentioned attacks on the Indian embassy in Kabul in 2008, 2009 and 2010 as well as the massive blast near it in 2017.

Shringla said the Indian Consulates in Herat, Jalalabad, Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif have been attacked from time to time.

About the evacuation mission, the foreign secretary is believed to have said that a multi-agency team of the government of India personnel at the Kabul Airport coordinated with NATO and the US for landing permissions and access to the airport.

Jaishankar said India's other priorities in view of the situation in Afghanistan included international coordination and humanitarian efforts.