India reviews deteriorating situation in Afghanistan; Centre to prioritise evacuation of 200 Indians from Kabul

New Delhi: India’s defence top brass, the foreign policy establishment and senior intelligence officials are understood to have reviewed the fast-paced developments in Afghanistan on Monday, a day after the Taliban seized control of the country 20 years after it was ousted by a US-led military coalition. People familiar with the meetings said the immediate priority of the government is to evacuate nearly 200 Indians, including Indian embassy staffers and security personnel from Kabul as the situation in the Afghan capital was fast deteriorating after the Taliban captured it on Sunday night. Capping its month-long rapid advances, the Taliban took positions in Kabul hours after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani left the country on Sunday for an unknown destination, paving way for a bloodless takeover of the capital city but triggering fear, chaos and uncertainty among its residents. On Monday, thousands of desperate people converged at the Kabul international airport in hopes of getting on an evacuation flight and leave the country. The airport has already been shut for commercial flights and subsequently, the US military has taken control of the airport security to facilitate the evacuation of foreign diplomats and citizens. The chaos and panic at the Kabul airport was delaying a decision on sending evacuation flights to the Afghan capital though a number of heavy-lift C-17 Globemaster military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force is kept on standby for the last two days, people familiar with these deliberations said. According to unconfirmed reports, India sent a C-17 Globemaster aircraft to Afghanistan and it returned on Monday. There were also security concerns over bringing the Indians from the Indian embassy and other places to the airport in view of the deteriorating security situation in the capital city. The government is also looking at bringing back hundreds of Indian citizens and facilitate the evacuation of the members of the Hindu and Sikh minorities as well as Afghan nationals who have applied for visas from the Indian embassy, officials said. “The situation is evolving very fast and we are monitoring it closely,” said one of the persons involved in preparations for evacuating the stranded Indians in Kabul. India along with so many other countries were surprised at the lightning advances made by the Taliban aross Afghanistan in capturing power after the US began pulling out its troops on May 1 from the country, ahead of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. “Definitely, we did not expect Kabul to fall so soon,” said an official on condition of anonymity. India has been a key stakeholder in Afghanistan and it has invested nearly $3 billion in carrying out nearly 500 projects across Afghanistan. The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan is largely seen as a setback for India as the militant outfit has strongly been backed by Pakistan’s powerful military