Given the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and the conquest of new areas around the southern Afghan city by the Taliban, India has withdrawn around 50 Indian diplomats and security officials to its consulate in Kandahar.
Sources said that 50 Indians were flown to New Delhi on an Indian Air Force plane on Saturday.
“Local staff are still on duty. But for practical reasons the consulate is temporarily closed,” the sources said.
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The decision comes a day after the State Department said the embassies are not closed, but the administration is carefully monitoring the situation and will take a phone call to do so.
In his weekly briefing on Thursday, MEA spokesman Arindam Bagchi said: “You would have seen the clarification from our embassy in Kabul earlier this week that our embassy in Kabul and the consulates in Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif are operational. However, we are closely monitoring the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and its impact on the security of Indian nationals in Afghanistan. Our answer will be calibrated accordingly. “
The Indian consulate in Kandahar consisted of Indian diplomats and auxiliary personnel as well as guards from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).
Bagchi, meanwhile, said the Indian consulate general in Kandahar has not closed. “However, due to the intense fighting near the city of Kandahar, personnel stationed in India have been brought back for the time being,” he said.
As reports surfaced of thousands of employees of the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba who had joined Taliban fighters in the violent clashes, mainly in southern Afghanistan, the Indian security establishment had to accept a call for the safety of Indian personnel.
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According to reports, there are at least two diplomatic missions in Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of northern Balkh province closed their operations Given the escalating violence in the region.
Amid growing concerns in India about the worsening situation in Afghanistan, Afghan Ambassador Farid Mamundzay briefed Foreign Minister Harsh Vardhan Shringla on the situation in Afghanistan on Tuesday.
The Indian Embassy last week urged all Indians visiting, staying and working in Afghanistan to exercise the utmost caution about their safety and to avoid all kinds of non-essential travel given the increasing incidents of violence in different parts of the country.
In an advisory report, the embassy said the security situation in Afghanistan remained “dangerous” and terrorist groups had carried out a range of complex attacks, including against civilians, adding that Indian nationals were also at “serious risk” of kidnapping.
(With entries from PTI)
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