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India has not abandoned people of Afghanistan: Ambassador Rudrendra Tandon

The Indian envoy said that the welfare of Afghans and 'our relationship with them is very much in our mind'
Last Updated 17 August 2021, 14:36 IST

Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan Rudrendra Tandon after landing at Jamnagar Indian Air Force station with over 120 evacuees on Tuesday said that it is wrong to say that "India has abandoned the people of Afghanistan".

He said that India will try to continue interaction with the neighbouring country, now under the control of Taliban, keeping in mind the welfare and relationship between the two countries.

Tandon said this during a brief interaction with the media at Jamnagar where he landed with evacuees in Indian Air Force's C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft from Kabul. "I don't know what to say. You can't imagine how great it is to be back home. After two weeks of very intense work... in a very complicated situation... and in conditions which were very unusual... I am very happy and I think the whole mission is very happy that it is finally over... that we are back home safely and securely without any accidents or harm to any of our people," a visibly happy Tandon told reporters.

"We are a mission of 192 personnel that were evacuated from Afghanistan within a period of three days in two phases in orderly fashion. In addition to our mission personnel, there are also people who work for public sector companies, for example people from Air India who also had to be evacuated because the conditions in Kabul city had become very complicated. Then, there are a lot of Indian citizens who found themselves in distress because of the fast changing situation. So, our policy was that anyone who reached the embassy was taken into the embassy. I know that this whole evacuation programme was being monitored at the highest level, that is how the whole operation was conducted." he said.

"It's not that we have abandoned the people of Afghanistan, that their welfare and our old relationship with them is very much in our mind. We will be going forward to try and continue our interaction with them. Of course, I can't say exactly in what form and manner- because the situation there is changing so much. We are also continually monitoring the situation - there are still some Indian citizens who are there. That's why Air India will continue to run its commercial services to Kabul as long as the airport functions," he said.

He also added, "There are many others who continue to work in Kabul city, despite the changing situation and have changed their mind subsequently and will be brought back when the commercial services begin." When asked about the exact number of Indians stuck in the turmoil, he said that the figure could be between 40 and 50. He said that many Indian citizens had not registered with the embassy, therefore it was difficult to contact all of them.

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(Published 17 August 2021, 08:12 IST)

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