Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka Mohammed Ashraf Haidari has slammed India for prioritising the evacuation of Indian nationals from Kabul while leaving the Afghans to their fate, reported Sputnik International on Monday.
Haidari, while reacting to a video of Indian nationals chanting “Hail Mother India” as they were flown out of Kabul, stated that India has to honour the “Strategic Partnership Agreement” signed between the two countries in 2011.
Under the agreement, the two nations arranged a security cooperation, that was enforced under the “framework of the Partnership Council”, a bilateral partnership headed by the foreign ministers of India and Afghanistan.
Before the takeover of Kabul by the Taliban, India had fully supported the idea of a “sovereign, democratic, and peaceful Afghanistan”. It had also backed the “Afghan-led, Afghan-owned, and Afghan-controlled” peace process.
The Taliban have accused India of supporting the now-deposed President Ashraf Ghani.
So far, India has evacuated 552 people from Afghanistan, including Indian officials, Indian citizens, and Afghans of Hindu and Sikh backgrounds.
Further, India has also transported several batches of Afghan refugees from Doha to Dushanbe.
On August 16, it was announced that India was “facilitating” the return of Afghan Sikhs and Hindus wishing to leave because of the deteriorating security conditions.
The country also introduced a “fast-track” visa category for applications from Afghanistan on August 17.
India, however, has been criticised for only “prioritising” the evacuation of Indian-Afghans and not paying any heed to Muslim Afghans which are much larger in numbers.
Haidari has also criticised other governments in Southern and Central Asia for not standing with the Afghan people.
Following the Taliban takeover, the US has evacuated more than 20,000 people from Afghanistan, with 80% of those people being Afghan nationals.
In addition to the US, the UK, Turkey, Pakistan, and Germany have also evacuated thousands of people from Afghanistan.
