Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday requested the Centre to take urgent steps to repatriate Malayalis stranded in Kabul in view of the Taliban capturing power in Afghanistan.
As many as 41 people, including women and children, who got stranded in Kabul, have so far contacted NORKA seeking help, they said.
As directed by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, K Elangovan, Principal Secretary to the state government and Harikrishnan Namboothiri K, the CEO of the NORKA, sent separate letters to the Ministry detailing the plight of the stranded Keralites there.
"An estimated 41 Malayalis including women and children working in various companies have requested the government to arrange for their safe evacuation immediately to India," Elangovan said in the letter.
Harikrishnan Namboothiri K, the CEO of the agency, contacted the Malayalis, among the stranded, the other day, they said adding that steps were on to trace whether more Keralites were trapped in the Afghanistan capital.
The NORKA has already passed the information they received to the External Affairs Ministry, sources added.
Indian envoy back home
The central government on Tuesday brought back home the Indian ambassador and its staff at the embassy in Kabul in a heavy-lift military transport aircraft in view of the deteriorating security situation in the Afghan capital, two days after its take over by the Taliban.
The C-17 aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) landed at Jamnagar in Gujarat at around 11:15 am en route to the Hindon airbase near the national capital, the officials said.
It was the second evacuation flight. On Monday, another C-17 aircraft had evacuated around 40 people including a number of Indian embassy staff from Kabul before the operations at the airport in the city were suspended.
The two military aircraft flew into Kabul using the Iranian airspace while avoiding the route through the Pakistani airspace, the officials said.
Hours after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled Afghanistan on Sunday, the Taliban took control of Kabul, capturing power nearly 20 years after a US-led military invasion ousted it in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
'Closely monitoring situation in Kabul'
Meanwhile, in a series of tweets, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that India is monitoring the situation in Kabul continuously.
"Monitoring the situation in Kabul continuously. Understand the anxiety of those seeking to return to India. Airport operations are the main challenge. Discussions on with partners in that regard," he tweeted.
In another tweet, he said the government is in constant touch with the Sikh and Hindu community leaders in Kabul, adding their welfare will get its priority attention.
"Given the Kabul situation, important we have accurate information about Indians there. Urge that this be provided by all concerned to the MEA Special Afghanistan Cell," he said.
The contact details of the Cell are phone number: +919717785379, Email: MEAHelpdeskIndia@gmail.com, he said.
(With PTI inputs)
