Afghanistan Crisis : TMC to attend Thursday’s all-party meeting called by Centre to discuss Afghan situation; UK expands evacuation staff in Kabul...
Afghanistan Crisis : TMC to attend Thursday’s all-party meeting called by Centre to discuss Afghan situation; UK expands evacuation staff in Kabul...
Afghanistan Crisis Latest Update Live, Afghanistan latest news today August 23 new updates: What's happening in Afghanistan? A simple answer to this would be-chaos, utter, total chaos! A week after the swift and almost bullet-less takeover of Afghanistan's key cities along with capital Kabul, the Taliban are still working on the basic modalities of ruling the war-torn nation.
The Hamid Karzai International Airport, the only place that can guarantee safe passage from Afghanistan, remains a volatile flashpoint. In the last seven days, 20 people have lost their lives either in stampede or firing by US soldiers in and around the airport.
After the gut-wrenching scenes of people running along with the US Air Force's C-17 and people falling to their death on August 16, the situation is engulfed in a tense calm. The latest report by US officials suggests that there are over 20,000 people waiting outside the airport to leave Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, India has ramped up its rescue operation with multiple flights bringing more people from the strife-hit nation.
FE Online has learnt that 46 Hindus and Sikhs are being brought to India on the Indian Air Force plane. The sources say that three copies of the Guru Granth Sahib-the Holy Book in the Sikh religion-are also being flown out.
The main problem with India's evacuation operations is that the people are scattered all over Afghanistan. So to bring them safely to Kabul airport is a task in itself. An additional issue is of the presence of terrorists from Pakistan-based outfits such as Lashkar-e-Toiba etc. Though there was some scare of Indians being targeted after a group was 'taken away, so far, there has been no specific report that says that the Taliban fighters specifically targeting Indians.
This brings us to a recurring issue that we have discussed previously also. That is a lack of credible information from other provinces of Afghanistan. Over the weekend, Amnesty International reported about killings of around 10 men from the Hazara community. The Hazaras are Shia Muslims and the Talibans are known to have attacked them since their Afghan takeover in 1996 also.
There have been reports of the situation deteriorating in Herat also. Panjshir – the stronghold of the Northern Alliance-may see some new battles in the coming days.