NEW DELHI: With evacuations from Kabul picking up pace, the Centre on Monday called a meeting of floor leaders of all political parties in Parliament to brief them on the prevailing situation in Afghanistan and the ongoing relief measures.
Union Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar will do the briefing on Thursday in Parliament Annexe.
The initiative is in line with the practice of evolving political convergence on all important matters. The government does not expect any confrontation during the briefing.
The situation in Afghanistan continues to be volatile with Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen warning the US and its NATO allies of consequences if the try to extend their August 31 deadline for full drawdown of troops.
Calling it a red line, he said any extension would imply an extended occupation of the country.
The warning came ahead of an emergency G7 meeting on Tuesday, which is expected to push the US to seek an extension of the August 31 deadline, as time is running out to evacuate all foreign nationals.
Amid the ongoing chaos at the Kabul airport, there were reports of gunfire killing an Afghan soldier.
But outgoing flights continued to operate, with an IAF aircraft airlifting over 70 people, including its citizens and a group of Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, to Dushanbe in Tajikistan.
A similar batch of people is expected to be flown out to Dushanbe soon.
Separately, India brought back 146 nationals to Delhi in four commercial flights from Doha.
India has been receiving requests from other countries, too, including Nepal and Sri Lanka, for evacuating its nationals.
On Sunday, a Lebanese citizen was part of an airlifted batch by India from Kabul. Officials, however, said priority will be given to Indian nationals for repatriation.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and discussed the security situation in Afghanistan.
As expected, China hinted at stepping up financial assistance to the Taliban, saying it will play a positive role in helping Afghanistan.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the US cannot leave without doing anything for the war-ravaged nation’s reconstruction.
US evacuates around 10,400 in a day from Afghanistan
Twenty-eight US military flights ferried about 10,400 people out of Afghanistan over the 24 hours that ended early Monday morning, a White House official said, making it the nation’s biggest day of airlifts.