Days after the Indian embassy exhorted Indian nationals in Afghanistan to return to India, three Indian engineers on Thursday, 12 August, were air-lifted from a dam site in an Afghanistan region dominated by the Taliban.
The embassy in Kabul, which related the emergency rescue incident in its latest security advisory, urged the Indian nationals in the war-torn nation to follow its safety guidelines
"All Indian nationals in Afghanistan are once again requested to strictly adhere to the measures advocated."Indian Embassy in Kabul
What Does the Security Advisory Say?
Advising all Indians in Afghanistan to practise caution, the embassy release emphasised on the need "to fully adhere to the steps in the security advisories provided from time to time".
The embassy also observed that Indian media persons in Afghanistan are at greater risk, alluding to the recent tragic killing of Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui by the Taliban. "It is therefore advised that members of the Indian media should take additional security measures for their stay and movements inside Afghanistan," the advisory stated.
The advisory comes two days after the Indian Embassy in Kabul on Tuesday, 10 August, called for Indian nationals in Afghanistan to "make immediate travel arrangements to return to India before commercial air services are discontinued to their place of visit/stay."
The alert stated that in view of escalating violence in Afghanistan, commercial air services are at the risk of being disrupted and discontinued.
What is Happening in Afghanistan?
Almost 20 years after the US's invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 to overthrow the Taliban from power in the nation, the US is now looking to withdraw its troops from the South-Asian country by the end of August.
Ahead of the US withdrawal, the Taliban, which was already exercising dominance over large portions of the Afghan countryside, has now begun to challenge the government forces in the provincial capitals.
The Taliban has seized five provincial capitals in August, with northern Afghanistan’s Kunduz province being the latest to be captured on 8 August, news agency AFP reported. Several families from Kunduz, Takhar and Badakhshan provinces have fled their homes and sought refuge in the capital city of Kabul.
The Taliban had recently declared that it is coming to take over Mazar-e-Sharif, the fourth largest city of Afghanistan, AFP had reported.
The clashes in the city are expected to lead to violence as President Ashraf Ghani-led government forces are expected to put up a fight against the militant organisation.
(With inputs from AFP)
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