Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Friday lauded the efforts of the national carrier Air India and Indian Air Force (IAF) in bringing back the Indian citizens from Afghanistan's capital city Kabul after the Taliban took over.
"We operated flights to Kabul every day but after Afghanistan airspace's closure, Indian Air Force's C130 Hercules Globemaster aircraft flew to Kabul to bring back our citizens to the country. These flights are operating to bring back our people safely. Every day we are getting 130-150 Indians safely back to the country," he said during the virtual inauguration of IndiGo flight from Jabalpur to New Delhi.
In an effort to safely evacuate Indian citizens from Afghanistan, after the Taliban attempted to take control and seized the presidential palace, Indian Air Force C-17 aircraft which was carrying 120 people, including the Indian ambassador and embassy staff, from Afghanistan had landed in Gujarat's Jamnagar on Tuesday.
Two IAF transport aircraft later landed at Hindan airbase in Ghaziabad with people who were evacuated from Kabul to Jamnagar. IAF had sent additional C-130J Super Hercules aircraft to Jamnagar to bring passengers to Delhi.
Throwing light to that evacuation, the Union Minister said, "Every day such flights are operating to bring back our citizens. It is our aim that every citizen is able to benefit from this facility."
Scindia further informed that as many as 71 lakh Indians have been brought back to the country under the Vande Bharat Mission and 55 lakh people have been sent back their respective countries who were stuck in India amid COVID-19.
On Thursday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) urged Indian nationals who need assistance in Afghanistan to contact Special Afghanistan Cell which has been set up by the Indian government to coordinate repatriation and other requests from the war-ravaged country.
A day after the Taliban terrorists entered the Kabul and Afghan government led by President Ashraf Ghani collapsed, the MEA said it is in constant touch with the representatives of Afghan Sikh and Hindu communities and will facilitate their repatriation to India who wishes to leave Afghanistan.
( With inputs from ANI )
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