Over 200 Indians stuck in Kabul, Punjab CM Amarinder Singh urges MEA to arrange evacuation

Taliban militants waving a Taliban flag on the back of a pickup truck drive past a crowded street at Pashtunistan Square area in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. (Image: AP)

More than 200 Indians including Foreign Ministry staff and paramilitary soldiers tasked for their protection are yet to be evacuated from Afghanistan's capital Kabul, reported NDTV.

All commercial flights from Kabul have been cancelled following the closure of Afghanistan airspace.

An Air India aircraft tasked to fly to Afghanistan to bring out people will no longer be able to go, after visuals showed chaotic scenes at the Kabul airport as thousands were looking for a way out.

Earlier in the day, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh urged the External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar to immediately evacuate Indians including 200 Sikhs stuck in Afghanistan's Gurudwara amid the Taliban takeover.

Urge @DrSJaishankar, MEA, GoI, to arrange for immediate evacuation of all Indians, including around 200 Sikhs, stuck in a Gurudwara in Afghanistan after the #Taliban takeover. My govt is willing to extend any help needed to ensure their safe evacuation. @MEAIndia

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— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) August 16, 2021

At least five people were killed in chaos at Kabul airport on August 16 witnesses said, as US troops guarded the evacuation of embassy staff a day after the Taliban seized the Afghan capital and declared the war was over and peace prevailed.

It was not immediately clear how the victims died.

A US official said troops had fired in the air to deter people trying to force their way onto a military flight that was set to take U.S diplomats and embassy staff out of the fallen city, reported Reuters.

Meanwhile on August 15, Afghanistan’s embattled president Ashraf GHani left the country joining his fellow citizens and foreigners in a stampede fleeing the advancing Taliban and signaling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking Afghanistan.