140 Indians fly home as govt. closes embassy in Kabul for now

Embassy staff, Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel and four mediapersons took off from the Kabul airport on board a special military flight on Tuesday morning.

In all, 140 Indians, including the last of the Indian embassy staff, Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel and four mediapersons took off from the Kabul airport on board a special military flight on Tuesday morning. The flight, a C-17 Globemaster, was one of the two military aircraft operated by the Indian Air Force for the purpose of bringing home all Indian personnel from the embassy. On Monday, another C-17 flight had brought back about 40 diplomats and other personnel, after the others were turned back from driving to the airport by Taliban guards in Kabul city. A tense day followed, as Indian diplomats, led by Ambassador Rudrendra Tandon, coordinated with the new militia now in control of the capital and other diplomatic missions to ensure that the convoy of 140 reached Kabul airport on Monday night. After spending the night at the airport, all Indians were boarded around 6 a.m. According to the tracker data, both flights took a long and circuitous route avoiding Pakistani airspace and minimising travel through Afghan airspace, to fly over Iran and returned to India over the Arabian sea, and back over Gujarat. The return of all diplomatic staff means that the Indian diplomatic mission in Afghanistan is at least, temporarily, closed. Prior to this India had closed missions in Jalalabad and Herat last year and consulates in Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif in the last month. The government will now have to decide on the nature of relations with the Taliban government in Kabul, once it is formally announced.