'Everything is finished': Sikh-Afghan MP breaks down after reaching India
Narender Singh Khalsa and another Afghan-Sikh senator were among 168 passengers who landed at Hindon Air Force base, near Delhi, on Sunday
A Sikh-Afghan MP broke down after reaching India on an Indian Air Force rescue flight on Sunday.
Narender Singh Khalsa and another Afghan-Sikh senator were among 168 passengers (107 Indians) who landed at Hindon Air Force base near Delhi.
Asked about the situation in Afghanistan, Khalsa broke down. “I feel like crying… Everything that was built in the last 20 years is now finished. It’s zero now,” he told reporters.
The C-17 Boeing C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft was one of four planes to arrive with stranded passenger on Sunday. Air India, IndiGo and Vistara flights also landed in Delhi from Dushanbe, Tajikistan, and Doha, Qatar, earlier in the day.
India has been allowed to operate two flights per day from Kabul to evacuate its nationals stranded in Afghanistan. Sunday’s operation came almost a week after staff at the Indian Embassy in Kabul, including Indo-Tibetan Border Force personnel who were there for security – reached Jamnagar, Gujarat.
#WATCH | An infant was among the 168 people evacuated from Afghanistan’s Kabul to Ghaziabad on an Indian Air Force’s C-17 aircraft pic.twitter.com/DoR6ppHi4h
— ANI (@ANI) August 22, 2021
Many of those who came on the C-17 jet on Sunday were from a gurdwara in Kabul, where they had been staying for days. They will be moved to Delhi’s Bangla Sahib Gurdwara next.
“We came repeatedly to the airport. The Taliban are cruel, barbarian people. We had to go through many hardships. Even at the airport the Taliban were insistent, saying ‘Don’t leave. Why are you leaving?,’” said another Sikh passenger.
“The situation in Afghanistan was deteriorating, so I came here with my daughter and two grandchildren. Our Indian brothers and sisters came to our rescue. They [the Taliban] burnt down my house. I thank India for helping us,” said another Afghan national.
India has said it will extend help to Hindus and Sikhs, as well as its friends in Afghanistan who need help.
“India must not only protect our citizens, but also provide refuge to Sikh and Hindu minorities who want to come to India. We must also provide all possible help to our Afghan brothers and sisters who are looking towards India for assistance,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi was quoted as saying at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee of Security last week.