 "Afghanistan evacuation")
A day after devastating bombings outside the Kabul airport killed over 100 people, India on Friday said its primary focus is to bring back the remaining Indians from the Afghan capital even as it indicated adopting a cautious approach in recognising any new regime in Afghanistan in view of "lack of clarity" on government formation.
Around 20 Indians and over 100 Afghan nationals could not reach the Kabul airport on Wednesday to board an evacuation flight to India reportedly because of the precarious security scenario and multiple check-posts put up by the Taliban.
Bagchi said India is in touch with "various parties" to mount more evacuation flights to bring back Indians.
When specifically asked whether India will recognise a Taliban regime, Bagchi replied: "I think we are jumping the gun."
"The situation on the ground is uncertain. The prime concern at present is the security and safety of the people. Currently, there is a lack of clarity or no clarity about any entity forming a government in Kabul. So, I think we are jumping the gun here regarding the recognition," Bagchi said.
"We, of course, continue to monitor the situation very carefully. This is an evolving situation. For the moment, that's all I have to say about this element," he added.
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The deadly attack outside the Kabul airport came as the US and a number of other countries were scrambling to evacuate their citizens and Afghan partners ahead of the August 31 deadline for withdrawal of American troops.
Asked whether India was having any back-channel negotiations with the Taliban, Bagchi said India had contacts with all the stakeholders and it remained in touch with its partner countries on the latest developments in Afghanistan.
"Our overall assessment is that the vast majority of Indians who wished to return have been evacuated. Some more Indians are likely to be in Afghanistan. I do not have an exact number for that," Bagchi said.
"You are aware of the very difficult situation on the ground right now; we are in touch with various parties regarding when we can mount such evacuation flights," he said.
On the terror attack, he said it is a matter of concern and India will be in close touch with all its partners.
To a question, Bagchi said there were reports that some Afghan nationals, including a number of Afghan Sikhs, could not reach Kabul airport for the Indian evacuation flight on August 25.
"Certainly some Indians, I would say around 20, but again I do not have a number, were also trying to reach. As you have seen the kind of chaos at the airport. They could not reach. So our flight had to come without these Indian nationals," he said.
He said the last evacuation flight had brought back around 40 people.
The MEA spokesperson said India's primary focus will remain on the evacuation of Indian nationals, but, at the same time, it will also stand by Afghans who stood by India.
Asked about the status of the Afghans who were evacuated by India, Bagchi referred to the rolling out of the e-Visa scheme by the Union Home Ministry and said they are currently under a six-month visa regime, adding "We will take it from there."
Making a long-term plan is not the best of ideas, he said.
When asked about the deportation of Afghan MP Rangina Kargar, Bagchi suggested that a number of issues could have led to the incident.
"Once the security situation deteriorated immediately after August 15, there were reports of groups of people who raided one of our outsourcing agencies (in Kabul) where Afghan passports with Indian visas were there," he said.
Bagchi said following the incident, Indian authorities were in a state of high alert.
"We were moving to the e-Emergency visa system. It appears that all this could have led to some confusion which in turn led to the unfortunate incident of denial of entry to a particular Afghan national. Since then many Afghan citizens were evacuated to India," he added.
The MEA spokesperson said India evacuated more than 550 people in separate flights, either directly from Kabul or through Dushanbe.
Of these, more than 260 were Indian nationals. However, the figure does not include Indian embassy personnel who have also been repatriated. Separately, India also facilitated the evacuation of Indian nationals through other agencies.
Bagchi said India has been pitching for a peaceful, prosperous, and democratic Afghanistan.
Asked why the name of India's evacuation mission was given "Operation Devi Shakti", he said like all other operations, a name was suitably given to it.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
