Kabul: At least seven people, including three Afghan nationals who clung to a US Air Force plane to escape Taliban rule, died on Monday in a melee at the Kabul airport, as hundreds of people scrambled to board flights in a desperate bid to get out of Afghanistan, following the toppling of the government led by President Ashraf Ghani.
India, on Monday, said it will take all steps to ensure the safety and security of its nationals and facilitate the repatriation of Sikhs and Hindus who wish to leave Afghanistan as the Taliban takeover triggered fear and uncertainty and forced suspension of commercial flights after the Kabul airport authorities declared the Afghan airspace as "uncontrolled".
Also on Monday, India's defence top brass, the foreign policy establishment and senior intelligence officials were understood to have reviewed the fast-paced developments in the war-torn nation, a day after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan 20 years after it was ousted by a US-led military coalition.
People familiar with the meetings said the immediate priority of the government is to evacuate nearly 200 Indians, including Indian embassy staffers and security personnel from Kabul after the Taliban insurgents seized the Afghan capital following the collapse of the US-backed Afghan government on Sunday.
Noting that the security situation in Kabul has deteriorated significantly in the last few days, the External Affairs ministry said: "Commercial operations from Kabul airport have been suspended today. This has forced a pause in our repatriation efforts. We are awaiting the resumption of flights to restart the process."
It further said that the situation in Afghanistan was being monitored on a constant basis at high levels. "The Government will take all steps to ensure the safety and security of Indian nationals and our interests in Afghanistan."
Taliban insurgents swept Kabul on Sunday after the US-backed Afghan government collapsed and President Ghani fled the country, bringing an unprecedented end to a two-decade campaign in which the US and its allies had tried to transform the war-ravaged nation.
Three Afghan nationals fell to death from the sky as they failed in their bid to flee the Taliban rule in Afghanistan by clinging to a US Air Force plane, according to video clips posted by a local news agency.
Exclusive - A clear video of men falling from C-17. They were clinging to some parts of the plane that took off from Kabul airport today, the Afghan Asvaka news agency tweeted, posting the clip of the gory incident.
In another tweet, it said the bodies of three men clinging to the wheels of the plane that took off from Kabul airport fell to the ground near the Khairkahana area of Kabul.
Videos aired by TV channels and circulated on social media also showed humongous crowds of people at the entrance of the Kabul airport and also inside the airport attempting to board aircraft in chaotic scenes late on Sunday and Monday morning.
Quoting senior US military officials, American news agency Associated Press reported that the chaos left seven dead, including several who fell from the flight.
Though the officials did not divulge further specific details about the deaths, they said that thousands of Afghans rushed onto the tarmac of Kabul's international airport on Monday, so desperate to escape the Taliban capture of their country that they held onto an American military jet as it took off and plunged to death in the chaos that killed at least seven people.
According to TOLO news, some people were killed and wounded by gunfire in the Kabul international airport as hundreds crowded to board flights. Kabul airport was overwhelmed on Sunday night with over 2,000 people hoping to board commercial flights leaving the country, it said.
Quoting sources, the TOLO news report said some people were killed and wounded by gunfire at the airport on Monday morning as crowds continue to grow.
However, no further detail was available on the gunfire incident.
Meanwhile, all commercial flights have been suspended at the Hamid Karzai International Airport, the Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement. The statement also urged the public to not crowd the airport.
Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani allegedly fled the war-torn country aboard a helicopter stuffed with money but had to leave some cash on the airfield as it could not be squeezed into the chopper, according to Russian official media reports on Monday.
Quoting the Russian embassy in Kabul, Russian official news agency TASS reported that the 72-year-old President fled Afghanistan aboard a helicopter packed with money.
"As for the reasons for the collapse of the regime, they are characterised by how Ghani fled the country. Four cars were packed with money, and they tried to cram another bag of cash into the helicopter. Not all the cash managed to squeeze in, and some of the money was left lying on the airfield," a mission employee was quoted as saying by the report.
Though TASS did not name the mission employee, quoting Russian diplomatic mission spokesperson Nikita Ishenko, Russian wire service Sputnik reported that Ghani was escorted with cars filled with cash as he was fleeing Kabul.
"They tried to put part of the money into a helicopter, but everything did not fit. And some of the money was left on the runway," Ishenko said.
Media reports suggested that Ghani may have fled to the neighbouring Tajikistan or Uzbekistan, but there was no official confirmation of his whereabouts.
The exact location of Ghani is unknown, but he is said to have travelled to Oman to escape to the US, Mehr News reported.
An academic and economist, Ghani was the 14th President of Afghanistan. He was first elected on September 20, 2014 and was re-elected in the September 28, 2019 presidential election.
Ghani, the soft-spoken US-trained anthropologist also holds a doctorate from Columbia University and is a former World Bank employee.