JOIN USChopper that India gifted Afghanistan falls in hand of advancing Taliban
An MI-24V attack helicopter gifted by India to the Afghan Air Force has now fallen into the hands of the Taliban as its fighters have taken over the airport in Kunduz in northern Afghanistan.
The helicopter is one of the four India had gifted to the Afghan Air Force in 2019. A video shot after the Sunni Muslim militants took over the airport in Kunduz on Wednesday showed the helicopter on the tarmac, with its rotors and engine removed. The video was posted on Twitter by Joseph Dempsey of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think-tank with offices in London and Washington D.C.
India on Wednesday brought back home about 50 of its officials and citizens living in and around Mazar-e-Sharif amid fierce fighting between the Afghan National Defence and Security Force (ANDSF) and the rapidly advancing Taliban near the capital of the Balkh province in northern Afghanistan.
The Taliban took over the airport in Kunduz on Wednesday – three days after overrunning the key provincial capital in northern Afghanistan. The airport had within its premises the headquarters of the 217th corps of the Afghan National Army (ANA), a wing of the ANDSF. The ANA soldiers had retreated to the base after losing the city centre and much of the province to the Taliban. But the ANA’s last bastion in the province too fell to the militants by Wednesday.
The Taliban’s spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid claimed that the hundreds of soldiers of the ANA surrendered to it and left the airport. He also confirmed in a tweet that the ‘mujahideens’ had ‘seized’ not only the helicopter New Delhi provided to the Afghan Air Force, but also weapons, ammunitions and other military hardware after the ANA soldiers had left the base and the airport. He tweeted videos that showed the unarmed ANA soldiers being allowed to return home after surrendering to the militants and some of the military gears the militants had ‘seized’.
New Delhi had covered all expenses for procurement of the four MI-24V helicopters for the Afghan Air Force from Belarus in May and October 2019. They had in fact replaced four other choppers India had gifted Afghanistan in 2015 and 2016. India had also provided three ‘cheetal’ military utility helicopters to Afghanistan in 2018.
A source in New Delhi said that the helicopter that had fallen in the hands of the Taliban in Kunduz might not be of any use to the militants as they would need specially trained pilots to fly it and use it against the ANA soldiers.
The Taliban had on July 31 last alleged that an aircraft provided by India to Afghanistan had been used to bomb a hospital in Helmand Province of the country.
Meanwhile, a special aircraft landed in Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi early on Wednesday, bringing home the officials posted at the Consulate General of India in Mazar-e-Sharif and the security personnel deployed to guard it as well as the civilians living in and around the city.
As the Taliban overran several major cities in northern Afghanistan over the past few days and continuing its blitzkrieg, the Embassy of India in Kabul on Tuesday “strongly advised” Indians living across the war torn country to immediately take flights back home before commercial air services get discontinued.
India had on July 10 evacuated its officials posted at its consulate in Kandahar in the southern part of Afghanistan.