India takes note of increasing violation of rights in Afghanistan, but refrains from calling out Taliban

India's Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, said stability in Afghanistan is linked to the peace and security of the region

Even as the Taliban seems set to return to power in Kabul, India on Tuesday said that it stood ready to help its friends from Afghanistan and hoped that an inclusive and broad-based dispensation with the representation of all sections of the society would take over in the war-torn country.

New Delhi noted that the security situation remained precarious, a grave humanitarian crisis was also unfolding in Afghanistan. “Everyone is concerned about the increasing violations of fundamental rights of Afghan citizens. Afghans are worried about whether their right to live with dignity would be respected,” Indramani Pandey, India’s envoy to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), said.

The UNHRC had a special session on the situation in Afghanistan, where the militants of the Taliban entered the capital city on August 15, after occupying vast swathes of territory in a swift blitz across the country – taking advantage of the withdrawal of troops by the United States and its NATO allies.

New Delhi noted that thousands of people, who had been internally displaced across Afghanistan, were facing an acute shortage of food, medical care and shelter. “The basic rights of civilians, children and women including freedom of speech and opinion, access to education and medical care have been drastically hampered due to the ongoing situation,” Pandey told the UNHRC, conveying India’s call to “all the parties concerned” in Afghanistan to allow unhindered access to international assistance for all those, who were in the need of it.

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India, however, continued to refrain from calling out the Taliban, which was infamous for its near-medieval rule over Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001 and failed to convince many with its promise to pursue a different policy after returning to power two decades later. Hundreds of Afghans thronged to the overcrowded Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul soon after the militants entered the national capital, desperate to leave the country. The reports came in about curbs on rights of women and reprisals by the Taliban against the Afghans, who worked for or with the now-collapsed government of the country and the US over the past 20 years.

The aircraft of the Indian Air Force and Air India evacuated several Afghan Sikhs and Hindus along with a large number of Indian citizens from Afghanistan over the past few days.

“Our millennia old friendship with Afghanistan rests on the strong pillars of people to people relationship. India has always stood for a peaceful, prosperous and progressive Afghanistan,” Pandey told the UNHRC session. “India stands ready to assist our friends from Afghanistan in fulfilling their aspirations. We hope that the situation stabilizes soon, and the parties concerned address the humanitarian and security issues.”

New Delhi also sent out a tacit message to the Taliban, underlining that the stability in Afghanistan is linked to the peace and security of the region. “We hope that the situation in Afghanistan does not pose a challenge to its neighbours and its territory is not used by terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), to threaten any other country.”

New Delhi evacuated its envoy and diplomats from Kabul on August 17, did not formally shut down the Embassy of India in the capital of Afghanistan, as it would have meant severance of diplomatic relations between the two nations.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government already signalled that it might recognize a new regime in Kabul with participation from the Taliban, if it was an “inclusive dispensation” with the representation of all communities of Afghanistan, respected the aspirations of the children and voices and rights of women and promised not to allow anyone to use the country to export terror to other countries in the region and beyond.

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