TWO Afghan lawmakers and their families were part of 168 people, including 107 Indians, transferred from Kabul to Ghaziabad’s Hindon air base on an Indian Air Force C-17 military transport plane on Sunday morning .
The group reportedly had 24 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, including the two minority MPs, Narinder Singh Khalsa and Anarkali Kaur Honaryar.
Indian and Afghan citizens arriving from Kabul at Hindon air base in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday. (Express photo of Praveen Khanna)
“India is our second home. We have lived there for generations. We pray to God that Afghanistan is rebuilt and that we can re-attend our temples and gurdwaras and serve the people, ”Khalsa told PTI.
“I thank the Government of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Indian Air Force for withdrawing from Kabul and saving my life,” Honaryar said in a message. of video.
“All the successes of the last twenty years in Afghanistan have been lost. There is nothing left. Now it’s zero, “said Khalsa. “I want to cry. It’s all over. It is a very difficult and painful decision to leave the country. We have not seen this situation. Everything has been snatched away. It’s all over, “he said.
Bagchi posted details of the evacuation efforts of Air India and IndiGo flights. (Twitter / MEA)
Khalsa said almost all Afghan Indians and Sikhs took refuge in the gurdwaras of Kabul and elsewhere.
Evacuation efforts began Friday night, when 72 Sikhs and Afghan Hindus were transferred from a gurdwara to Kabul airport. But the Taliban were arrested on Saturday and sent back to the gurdwara. The group headed back to the airport on Saturday and some of them, including the two MPs, were finally allowed to board the IAF plane.
India returned about 400 people on Sunday, including 329 of its nationals, on three different flights as part of its efforts to evacuate its citizens from Kabul. (Express photo of Praveen Khanna)
“They (the Taliban) separated us from others while they were going to Kabul airport yesterday, as we are Afghan nationals … We fled because we have small children with us,” Khalsa said. “There were 5,000-6,000 people standing at each of the airport gates. Initially, we could not enter, “Khalsa said.” Then around eight in the evening, we entered the airport through a VIP entry point, “he said.
Until the early hours of Sunday morning, when the flight finally left Kabul, they remained uncertain about their destination. “We had been planning the evacuation for weeks. I wasn’t packing much and was waiting to leave Afghanistan … For a moment, we thought they would send us back and the Taliban would pick us up. We waited hours before officials granted approval and we were allowed to return home, ”said Ravi, 32, a flight attendant who worked for a logistics company in Kabul.
“There was a shortage of water and I had no food left. The Taliban would approach our homes and threaten us. I was scared. We tried to contact as many people as we could with the help of WhatsApp and Facebook, ”he said.
“I do not know what I will do here. I was working there for 10 years. I built a life there … it’s all over, ”said Rajiv Malik, a businessman.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reached an agreement with the US security forces to allow two daily flights for the evacuation of Indian citizens. We hope that the remaining Afghan Sikhs and Hindus will be evacuated soon. The only problem remains being access to Kabul airport due to the chaos there is, ”said Vikramjit Singh Sahney, president of the World Organization of Punjabi.
According to sources, the next batch of 185 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus is expected to be evacuated on Monday or Tuesday.
India returned about 400 people on Sunday, including 329 of its nationals, on three different flights as part of its efforts to evacuate its citizens from Kabul.
Another group of 87 Indians and two Nepalese nationals were returned on a special Air India flight from Dushanbe, a day after they were evacuated to the Tajik capital on an IAF plane, officials said.
Separately, 135 Indians evacuated from Kabul to Doha in recent days by U.S. and NATO planes returned to Delhi on a special flight, they said.– With PTI