NEW DELHI: The Indian government shut its consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, the biggest city in the north and evacuated its citizens as fighting raged between Afghan security forces and the advancing Taliban.
Taliban fighters have overrun six provincial capitals in recent days in the north, west, and south of Afghanistan. According to officials, India sent a military plane to northern Afghanistan on Tuesday to pull out its citizens.
India, which has invested millions of dollars in development projects across Afghanistan, has now closed all its consulates, leaving only the embassy in Kabul operational, a government official said.
India’s main opposition Congress party urged the government also to help evacuate Afghanistan’s tiny Sikh and Hindu communities, to protect them from any attack by the Taliban.
Congress official Jaiveer Shergill estimated that there were around 750 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus in the country.
Last month, India had temporarily brought back officials from its consulate in Kandahar. “Due to the intense fighting near Kandahar city, India-based personnel have been brought back for the time being,” Arindam Bagchi, chief spokesperson at India’s foreign ministry, had said in a statement.
Bagchi had said, “India is closely monitoring the evolving security situation in Afghanistan,” adding that the country’s consulate in Kandahar was being run by local staff temporarily.
Our response to media queries on the Indian Consulate in Kandahar:
https://t.co/aQ0YPgl6Vf pic.twitter.com/DAPT3kYdM4— Arindam Bagchi (@MEAIndia) July 11, 2021
