JOIN USTaliban search closed Indian consulates in Kandahar, Herat
The Taliban militants have carried out searches at India’s consulates at Herat and Kandahar in Afghanistan, according to reports reaching New Delhi.
The militants entered the premises of the consulates and searched for documents although no official of the Government of India was present. New Delhi had repatriated all officials of the Government of India from its consulates in Herat over the past few weeks.
A source said that not only the missions of India, but the militants had also searched consulates of some other nations in Kandahar and Herat too.
No such search or raid was conducted at the Embassy of India in Kabul though.
Another source in New Delhi said that the militants had taken away the cars parked at the consulates of Kandahar and Herat.
New Delhi evacuated its envoy and diplomats from posted at the Embassy of India Kabul on Tuesday – less than 48 hours after the Taliban militants entered the capital city after occupying many provincial capitals across Afghanistan and President Ashraf Ghani escaped from the country marking the collapse of his Government.
India, however, did not formally shut down its embassy in the capital of Afghanistan, as it would have meant severance of diplomatic relations between the two nations.
New Delhi had shut down the Embassy of India in Kabul when the Taliban had taken over power in Afghanistan in 1996. India’s then acting envoy to Afghanistan, Azad Singh Toor, and other officials had left Kabul by a special aircraft of Ariana Airlines on September 26, 1996 – just before the Taliban had entered the capital city and taken over.
The Taliban militants had not found any Indian when they had raided and ransacked the Embassy of India in Kabul after executing the former Afghan President Mohammad Nazibullah and hanging his body from a traffic light pole.
India’s diplomatic and consular missions in Afghanistan came under repeated attacks from terrorist organisations based in Pakistan over the past 20 years.