PM Modi speaks to President Putin on safe passage of Indians
Darpan News Desk IANS, 02 Mar, 2022 06:08 PM
New Delhi, March 2 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke on phone on Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the situation in Ukraine, and sought safge passage for Indians in the country.
The two leaders reviewed the situation, especially in the city of Kharkiv where many Indian students are stuck, and discussed the safe evacuation of Indian nationals from the conflict areas, an MEA statement said.
This came as the Indian Embassy in Ukraine asked all Indians in Kharkiv to leave the city by any means, including on foot, by 6 p.m. (local time).
The MEA said that around 17,000 Indian nationals have left the war-torn country since the Indian Embassy in Ukraine issued its advisory.
MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that the Embassy in Kyiv has been asked to set up a temporary office in Lviv to facilitate border crossing into neighbouring European countries by Indian nationals.
He also said that a mechanism has been established for issuing emergency certificates to those who lost their Indian passports.
"A substantial segment of our embassy team is now at Lviv for this purpose. Location of the other segment of the embassy team is dynamic," he added.
"We are exploring options to reach eastern Ukraine to assist the evacuation of citizens who are stuck there. We are seeing if our teams can reach there, it's not easy because the route is not open all the time," the spokesperson said.
Fearing attacks on the Indian community working with private companies in Afghanistan, the intelligence agencies have sent out alerts to them to be ready to be transported back to the country.
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.
