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.
In the wake of the Taliban taking full control in Afghanistan, experts have cautioned the Indian security agencies to increase vigil on the international border with Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir.
Fairly widespread to widespread rainfall activity is also very likely over Gangetic West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Vidarbha during the next five days.
Almost a year after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered a case in connection with the blast at a Kabul gurdwara in which 27 people, including an Indian Sikh was killed, a team of anti-terror probe agency was yet to visit the country, and now with the Taliban takeover, this has been "delayed indefinitely".
Rahul Gandhi on Friday released a video statement slamming Twitter for blocking his account and alleged that Twitter was taking sides in the politics of the country.
Aside from India where the Delta variant was first detected, the Philippines also banned travellers from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.
There will be a gradual increase in rainfall activity over the Northeast, peninsular and adjoining east central India from August 15 while there will be subdued rainfall very likely over the rest of the country during the next five days, IMD said in a release.
