IAF awaits US nod for Kabul flights, 2 consulates ‘raided’

Efforts on to coordinate with Indians stranded in Afghan

India continues to await the necessary landing slots from the American forces who are currently controlling Kabul airport to operate special IAF C17 evacuation flights to the Afghan capital to evacuate Indian citizens still stranded in the strifetorn nation, as well as some Afghan Hindus and Sikhs who want to travel to India. The government is now hoping that the clearances come through by Friday night or Saturday morning, sources said. New Delhi, which was hoping to operate the evacuation flights from Friday itself, is in touch with Washington regularly as the Americans control Kabul airport and its Air Traffic Control.

External affairs minister S. Jaishankar spoke to US secretary of state Antony J. Blinken Thursday evening, with New Delhi giving top priority for evacuating all

Indian citizens out of the strife-torn nation which has fallen to the Taliban.

Unconfirmed reports said, meanwhile, that some Taliban fighters had ransacked the closed Indian consulates in Kandahar and Herat and did a search in their closets for papers and documents. They had also seized some cars and other vehicles belonging to the Indian government which were parked in their compounds. These reports in the media

could not, however, be officially confirmed.

Sources said the major logistics problem now facing India was how to ensure that the Indian nationals are able to reach the airport when the landing slots are given as the time slots will be quite narrow. This is because coordination to ensure Indian nationals awaiting evacuation reach Kabul airport at a certain time is an acutely complicated task. Sources said while New Delhi had not got any input about any specific targeting of Indian nationals by the Taliban at its checkpoints leading to the airport, but given the prevailing uncertainty in the Afghan capital, India was trying to ensure that the Indian citizens to be evacuated coordinate among themselves to form groups that can reach the airport together or else stay at a point close to the airport so that they can reach the airport whenever the special flight is scheduled to land.

“We urge all Indian nationals in Afghanistan requiring assistance to contact our Special Afghanistan Cell immediately, if they haven’t done so already,” MEA spokesman Arindam Bagchi tweeted late Thursday night. The MEA had recently set up the Special Afghanistan Cell and earlier asked Indian nationals still stranded there or their employers “to urgently share the relevant details”. Some of these include Indians who are in the employment of third countries and some Indian academics teaching in Kabul.

The US state department said on Friday: “Secretary of state Antony J. Blinken spoke today with Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar. Secretary Blinken and Minister Jaishankar discussed Afghanistan and agreed to continued coordination.”