https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics ... rt-airport
How I left Afghanistan, with a Taliban escort to the airport
Sonia Sarkar, 18 Aug, 2021
New Delhi-based journalist Sonia Sarkar arrived in Kabul last week intending to report on the implications of the conflict between Afghan forces and the Taliban on the back of the US troop withdrawal. After the Taliban entered Kabul on Sunday, sparking a mass evacuation of diplomats and civilians by the United States and its allies, she got in touch with the Indian mission in Kabul, which helped her return home. Here is her first-person account of leaving Afghanistan
As chaos broke out at the Kabul airport on Monday fuelled by Afghans fearful of living under a Taliban regime, my local contacts advised me to stay put and not leave my hotel. One of them, who had been out and about in the Taliban-controlled areas of other provinces, texted me to say: “Pull your curtains shut, they are out on the streets”. But I wanted to return home. By then, I had learnt that commercial flights would be suspended and the seats I had secured on two flights leaving Kabul for India would not be able to take off as scheduled on Tuesday.
What made me more worried was local women contacts who asked if I had left the country. The Taliban had started looking for female Afghan journalists, they said. Would they do the same to foreign women journalists, I asked? “But you are Indian,” came the reply, reflecting what I had heard during my short time in Kabul, that “Afghans love Indians but the Taliban hates Indians”.
New Delhi has strongly backed the Kabul government and opposed the Taliban, with no direct channels of communication between them.
As I contemplated my next move, the Indian embassy got in touch with me and a fellow female Indian journalist. They told us to reach the embassy quarters in the next two hours as they planned to leave Kabul in an Indian air force aircraft late at night. My suitcase was already packed.
I hurriedly called a reliable local taxi driver who said he would take some time to reach me. I later found out that he had to battle through a maze of traffic as he was coming from Arzan Qimat, a neighbourhood in far eastern Kabul, near the Pul-e-Charkhi prison. Hundreds of inmates had walked free soon after the Taliban took power on Sunday, while residents were rushing out to draw money and get supplies.
When I gingerly stepped out of the hotel the street outside was deserted but I could see men dressed in shalwar kameez, the traditional clothing of Afghanistan, patrolling neighbouring streets. Some had set up checkpoints and were stopping vehicles. They were carrying what looked like Russian-made Kalashnikov rifles. After picking up my fellow journalist, we headed for Wazir Akbar Khan, the diplomatic enclave in Kabul.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/worl ... visas.html
India says it will prioritize Hindus and Sikhs in issuing ‘emergency visas’ to Afghans.
Karan Deep Singh and Suhasini Raj, Aug. 17, 2021
India’s government said on Tuesday that it would prioritize taking in Hindus and Sikhs from Afghanistan — a move that drew comparisons to a contentious 2019 citizenship law, enacted under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that discriminates against Muslims.
The country’s home ministry said it would introduce “emergency visas” to allow Afghans to stay in India for six months. It did not say whether Muslims, who make up the majority of those seeking to leave Afghanistan as the Taliban take over, would also be considered.
“We are in constant touch with the Sikh and Hindu community leaders in Kabul,” S. Jaishankar, India’s external affairs minister, said on Twitter. “Their welfare will get our priority attention.”
That distinction prompted condemnation from some corners. “Ashamed that the government of India response now is to look at desperate Afghan refugees not as humans fleeing persecution and sure death, but from the view of whether or not they’re Muslim,” Kavita Krishnan, an opposition politician said on Twitter.
India also drew criticism after numerous seats were left empty on an Air Force flight on Tuesday that evacuated Indian citizens and officials from the country’s embassy in Kabul.
Officials in New Delhi have indicated that the country will “stand by” the Afghans who worked closely with the Indian government and its mission in Afghanistan. It is not clear whether their religious status would be a factor in that process. A spokesman for the ministry of external affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment. India has previously granted visas of a longer duration to Afghans fleeing persecution, irrespective of their religion. Many Afghans migrated to India when the Taliban took over about two decades ago. Some have settled in New Delhi, where a shopping district popularly named “Little Kabul” comes alive every evening with stalls selling traditional food.
U.S. and Afghan officials say that India’s archrival, Pakistan, has permitted free movement to Taliban leaders, and that the country continues to serve as a haven where fighters and their families can receive medical care. But experts say that India is cautiously navigating its relationship with Afghanistan’s new leaders. Indian diplomats recently made efforts to engage with the Taliban as part of the U.S.-led talks in Doha, Qatar. Some in India have urged their government to engage directly with the Taliban. Vivek Katju, a former Indian ambassador to Afghanistan, told The Wire news outlet last week that the country had become a “bystander” in Afghanistan and that India’s leaders did not know “which way to turn” anymore. “Engagement with the Taliban should happen,” Mr. Katju said in a telephone interview with The New York Times on Tuesday. “The mechanics of the engagement should be such that it should be open and direct.”
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Gautam
