ITBP personnel at Kabul embassy brought back to India too
Darpan News Desk IANS, 17 Aug, 2021 11:11 AM
New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS) The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) on Tuesday said all its security personnel deployed for guarding the Indian Embassy at Kabul have returned back to India along with the embassy officials.
Amidst the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, the Indian government decided to recall all embassy personnel from Kabul and they were evacuated by an Indian Air Force C-17 aircraft on Tuesday. The IAF aircraft brought back 120 Indian officials, including the last batch of the Indian embassy staff and ITBP personnel, from the Kabul airport.
They also said that ITBP troopers were staying there as Ambassador Rudrendra Tandon, along with some embassy staff, was there and the Indian Embassy in Kabul was functioning with reduced staff. However, after evaluating the critical situation in the war-torn country, the government decided to call them back.
The Kabul airport was closed on Monday evening but it was reopened for evacuation operations on Tuesday morning by the American agencies. Officials in the security set up said that for evacuating Indian officials and staffers from Afghanistan, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval spoke to his US counterpart Jake Sullivan as US troops are deployed at the airport.
The Indian government had already evacuated majority of the officials from there, anticipating the Taliban advance into Kabul, and also advised all Indian citizens to leave the country at the earliest. The families of the diplomats and embassy personnel have been evacuated last week and the Indian consulates have already been closed a fortnight ago.
After a pre-recorded audio and video message circulated on social media by Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, chief of the pro-Khalistan outfit Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), went viral, the Gurugram police on Thursday registered an FIR against Pannu and unknown others at the Cyber Crime police station here.
The final decision on withdrawal of troops from Patrolling Point (PP) 17A in Gogra would be taken up by the top brass of the military and diplomatic hierarchy.
The statement reads: "The opposition parties stand firm and united on their demand for a discussion on the Pegasus issue in both the Houses, replied to by the Home Minister, as this has national security dimensions."
Patra condemned the recent incident in which a nine-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly gang-raped, murdered and then cremated by her attackers in South West Delhi on Sunday evening.
Despite mobile phones are prohibited inside a meeting room where prisoners meet with the visitors, this incident has brought forth the lapses on the part of the jail administration.
In a bid to highlight the rising air pollution as well as the serious health hazards faced by the people, a group of organisations, think tanks and civil society groups have joined hands to form 'Clean Air Punjab'.
