NEW DELHI: A drama unfolded in Kabul on Saturday after the Taliban rounded up about 150 Indian nationals near the Hamid Karzai International Airport, prompting speculations that they had been abducted. The group was, however, released after questioning and checking of documents at a nearby police station, sources said.
There has been no official word from New Delhi on the development. According to sources, all Indian nationals ‘rounded up’ by the Taliban have reached Kabul airport and are facing no immediate danger to their lives.
They will be evacuated soon, the sources said, adding that a team of officials is in Kabul to facilitate their return.
A spokesperson of the Taliban also spoke to Afghan media and denied the reports of ‘abduction’. Afghan media reports, quoting a person who managed to jump out of the van with his wife, earlier said that the group was taken away in eight vans around 1 pm. The escapee said the Taliban had told them they would be entering the airport through another gate but he was not sure if that had happened.
The rounding-up of the group came hours after another batch of 85 Indians was evacuated and taken to Tajikistan on an Indian Air Force transport aircraft. Sources said another IAF aircraft is ready to begin evacuation once commercial operations begin at Kabul airport. A few hundred Indians are still stranded in Afghanistan.
Sources said the government is working to bring back as many Indians as possible and the special cell on Afghanistan in the Ministry of External Affairs is working round-the-clock on the logistics of the evacuation process. India had on Tuesday evacuated all its embassy staff and journalists even as the militia’s political leadership assured New Delhi of the safety of its diplomatic personnel. However, in a worrying turn of events, the Taliban had raided India’s consulates in Kandahar and Herat.
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