New Delhi: India has placed a contingency plan to evacuate hundreds of officials and citizens from Kabul who have been gripped by fear and panic following reports of Taliban fighters entering the suburb of the Afghan capital on Sunday.
People who are familiar with these developments say the government will not put the lives of its staff at the Indian Embassy and Indians in Kabul with risk and plans have been resolved if they need emergency evacuation.
“The government is very monitoring rapid development in Afghanistan.
We will not put our staff lives at the Indian Embassy in Kabul at any risk,” said one of the people quoted above.
Asked specifically when the staff and Indians in Kabul would be evacuated, they said the decision would depend on the land situation.
Checked that the Globemaster C-17 military transport aircraft from the Indian Air Force continued to standby to carry out the evacuation mission.
According to reports from Kabul, Taliban fighters have entered the suburbs, triggering panic and fear between residents.
In the past few days, Taliban fighters have swept most of the part of Afghanistan, seize control of around 25 of 34 provincial capital, including cities such as Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif and Jalalabad.
The Afghan Presidential Palace said on Twitter that the situation was controlled in Kabul and had not been attacked, even though there were several examples of sporadic shots.
It was said that Afghan security forces worked with their international partners to ensure Kabul’s security.
“Kabul has not been attacked.
State security forces and defense work with international partners to ensure city security and the situation is controlled,” said a statement in Pashto.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has a telephone conversation with security officials regarding the security of residents in Kabul, he said.
The BBC reported from Kabul, quoting the country’s interior minister acting, that the transfer of peaceful power to the transition government was being prepared.
When the situation deteriorated in Kabul, the United States and the embassies of several other countries began to evacuate their staff from the city of Afghanistan.