India sends medicines for children in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan

New Delhi sent the medicines 'in view of the challenging humanitarian situation in Afghanistan', according to a press release issued by the MEA

India on Saturday sent medicines to Afghanistan in the first tranche of humanitarian assistance to the war-ravaged country after the return of the Taliban to power on August 15 last.

A consignment of 1.6 MT of medicines was sent from New Delhi to Kabul on an aircraft, which the Government of India chartered from the Kam Air of Afghanistan. The medicines will be handed over to the representatives of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and will be administered to children undergoing medical care at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health – a hospital, which was set up in Kabul in 1972.

New Delhi has not yet recognised the interim government set up by the Taliban in Kabul. But it sent the medicines “in view of the challenging humanitarian situation in Afghanistan”, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

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A spokesperson of the Taliban, however, thanked the Government of India for the medicines. He said that medical equipment would be imported from India to Afghanistan in the coming days.

The aircraft chartered by the Government of India arrived in New Delhi on Friday, with 10 Indian and 94 Afghan citizens, including members of the minority communities of the war-torn nation. The Afghan Sikh evacuees carried with them two copies of the holy book Guru Granth Sahib and some ancient manuscripts of the Hindus. The aircraft returned with over 200 Afghans, mostly the students and others, who had come for medical care in India.

Just days after the Taliban took over Kabul, India evacuated its ambassador to Afghanistan, Rudrendra Tandon, and other diplomats and consular officials. It had earlier evacuated officials posted in its four consulates in Afghanistan. But neither any of the consulates in Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif and Jalalabad, nor the embassy in Kabul was officially shut down.

India also evacuated 669 people from Afghanistan after August 15, including 448 Indians and 206 Afghans, which included the Afghan Hindus and Sikhs. Besides, 565 people including 438 Indians had been evacuated from Afghanistan earlier in the month of August.

India may soon send 50,000 MT of wheat and another consignment of medicines to Afghanistan through Pakistan. Pakistan has recently agreed to allow trucks of Afghanistan to carry humanitarian aid from India through its territory.

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