Afghanistan: India pulls out diplomats, security staff

INDIA has pulled out around 50 diplomats and security personnel from its consulate in Kandahar in Afghanistan in view of the deteriorating security situation and the Taliban gaining control of new areas around the southern Afghan city, informed sources said on Sunday (11).

A day before, a special aircraft of the Indian Air Force was sent to Afghanistan to bring back Indian diplomats, officials and other staff members, including a group pf Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel, the sources added.

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New Delhi’s decision to shut the consulate in Kandahar temporarily came in the wake of the extremist group quickly seizing control of a number of key areas in the region as well as western Afghanistan which has triggered massive security concerns. The Taliban have shown a revival in Afghanistan following the United States’ decision to pull out from the country by the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which is on September 11.

Earlier this week, the Indian embassy in Kabul said there was no plan to shut the embassy and the consulates in Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan’s fourth-largest city and the capital of its northern Balkh province. A few days ago, India’s ministry of external affairs (MEA) said New Delhi was carefully monitoring the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and its implications on the safety of Indian nations.

“Our response will be calibrated accordingly,” MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a media briefing on Thursday.

Afghanistan has witnessed a series of terror strikes in the last few weeks that coincided with America’s withdrawal under president Joe Biden. There were reports that at least two foreign missions in Mazar-e-Sharif shut their operation in view of the rising violence in the region.

Afghan Ambassador to India Farid Mamundzay briefed India’s foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on the situation in Afghanistan on Tuesday (5). A few days later, he conceded that the situation in Afghanistan is difficult but there was no immediate threat to the Indian consulates to shut down.

India has been a major stakeholder in the peace and stability of Afghanistan and already has invested nearly $3 billion in aid and reconstruction activities in the country.