Ensure safe evacuation of every Indian: PM at CCS meet

Asks officials to extend help to Afghans looking to India for assistance

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 17

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday chaired the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security and directed top officials to ensure safe evacuation of every Indian national from Afghanistan.

The PM said every member of the Sikh and Hindu minority community living in Afghanistan and wishing to come to India must be provided refuge.

Top government sources said the PM also said every possible help should be extended to the Afghan citizens looking towards India for assistance and help.

The PM chaired the CCS meeting amid a raging crisis triggered by the Taliban recapture of Afghanistan and an unfolding humanitarian crisis.

The meeting of the CCS, the highest decision-making body with respect to India’s security and strategic interests, was called to discuss the evolving situation and assess the events and their potential impact on India’s security.

The meeting was attended by CCS members — Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman — along with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Principal Secretary to the PM PK Mishra, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and India’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Rudrendra Tandon, who returned to New Delhi today after India ordered the evacuation of its embassy in Kabul.

The CCS is learnt to have taken stock of Indian assets in Afghanistan besides fine tuning plans to evacuate every single Indian safely out of the crisis-hit nation.