After Taliban fighters seized key areas around the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, India evacuated 50 diplomats and security personnel in an Indian Air Force aircraft on Sunday, according to people familiar with the situation.
The evacuation took place on Saturday, just four days after India announced that its mission in Kabul and consulates in Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif would not be closed anytime soon. Officials said, however, that India was closely monitoring the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and that all necessary precautions would be taken to ensure that Indian officials and nationals were not put in danger.
According to the people cited above, the Indian consulate in Kandahar has been temporarily closed after diplomats, support staff, and guards from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) were flown out to New Delhi.
The presence of a large number of terrorists from Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Taiba in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand is thought to have influenced India’s decision to withdraw diplomats and security personnel. More than 7,000 LeT fighters are believed to be fighting alongside the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, according to a recent estimate by Afghan security agencies.
Since last week, fighting between the Taliban and Afghan security forces has increased in Kandahar, with some reports claiming that the militants entered the city on Friday after capturing key districts in the surrounding area. Last weekend, the Taliban took control of the strategic district of Panjwai in Kandahar province, just days after US forces abandoned the Bagram airbase near Kabul.
On Friday, Taliban fighters seized houses in Kandahar’s seventh police district, sparking fierce clashes that lasted until Saturday. Around 70 Taliban fighters were killed in fighting in the seventh police district and the neighbouring Dand district, according to the Afghan military.
Approximately 2,000 families from Kandahar’s seventh police district have been displaced and forced to seek refuge in other parts of the city.
Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second largest city and the capital of the same-named province, has long been a strategic and commercial hub. It was the Taliban’s headquarters from the mid-1990s until the US invasion in 2001, when the group was ousted from power.
In light of what officials have described as a “fluid and dynamic” situation in Afghanistan due to intense fighting, New Delhi has been working on plans to ensure the safety of diplomats and some 3,000 Indian nationals. As it considers its options, India is keeping a close eye on steps taken by key countries such as the United States to ensure the safety of diplomats.
India closed its consulates in Herat and Jalalabad in April of last year, ostensibly due to the spread of Covid-19, though some reports suggested security was a factor in the decision.
