Centre to brief leaders of parties on Afghanistan developments

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will on Thursday brief the leaders of all political parties on the situation in Afghanistan.

“In view of developments in Afghanistan, PM @narendramodi has instructed that the MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) brief Floor Leaders of political parties,” Jaishankar posted on Twitter. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi later said that the briefing would take place at the Parliament House Annex on Thursday.

India continued to evacuate its citizens as well as Afghan Sikhs and Hindus from Afghanistan, where the Taliban militants entered the national capital on August 15, after occupying a large number of provincial capitals in a swift blitz across the country taking advantage of the withdrawal of troops by the United States and its NATO allies.

A group of Afghan Sikhs carrying the holy scripture Guru Granth Sahib from a Gurdwara in Afghanistan were flown out of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Monday. They are likely to arrive in New Delhi soon.

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An Air India aircraft on Sunday brought to New Delhi 87 evacuees, who were earlier flown to Dushanbe by an Indian Air Force aircraft from Kabul. Another Air India Aircraft brought home 146 evacuees, who had earlier flown from Kabul to Doha by a military aircraft. An Indian Air Force aircraft on Sunday brought to Hindon Air Base 107 Indians and some Afghan Hindus and Sikhs, including two members of the National Assembly of Afghanistan.

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Though New Delhi evacuated its envoy Rudrendra Tandon and other diplomats from Kabul on August 17, it has not formally announced the closure of the Embassy of India in the capital of Afghanistan, as it would have meant severance of diplomatic relations between the two nations – a decision Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has not yet taken.