Amid the very fast developments in Afghanistan, as US troops are expected to expedite the process of withdrawal from the country, while on the other hand, the non-state-actors are once again using the power vacuum in the country to increase their hold on the country, rumors on social media indicate that the Indian government is evacuating their personnel from Afghanistan.
It is worth mentioning that all US and NATO troops have left the Bagram airbase, the biggest and most significant airbase in Afghanistan, a US defense official told AFP on Friday, signaling the complete withdrawal of foreign forces from the country after two decades of war was imminent.
According to a social media handle named “Pak Intel Monitor”, an Indian Airforce C17 had to fly 6 hours to reach India from Hindon Air Force Station in Afghanistan. This increased time was allegedly due to Pakistan denying access to the aircraft the use of Pakistani airspace. The tweet added the route taken by the C17 aircraft.
Indian Air Force C17 outbound from Hindon AFS inbound #Afghanistan via #Iran. Returned to #India after 6 hours.#IAF denied access via #Pakistan.
Multiple other Air Forces including #USAF, #NATO & #Italian used Pakistani airspace to gain access to Afg on the same day.
200621 pic.twitter.com/GXg6nWTsWw
— PAK Intel Monitor (@MonitorPak) July 1, 2021
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There were social media rumors that the Indian airforce is airlifting its intelligence and diplomatic personnel. A/I Board PSF, another Pakistani account supported the above tweet by saying that India forced to take a much longer route to Afghanistan after Pakistan denies it use of airspace for military aircraft. India is evacuating some of its personnel from Afghanistan.
Read More: US troops hurriedly, completely leaving Afghanistan as Taliban eye Kabul
https://twitter.com/AIBoardPSF/status/1410847820035375105?s=20
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However, this was rejected by an Indian account named The Wolfpack, who termed this “Fake News”. According to this account, India is not evacuating any personnel from Afghanistan. In fact, the account added that these flights are for deliveries and not at all personnel-related.
It is worth mentioning that these are non-official chatters on the internet, and nothing is confirmed by official sources.
However, Indian interference in Afghanistan cannot be ignored.
Known Indian interference in the Country
There has been news circulating in the international and local media that India has been conducting talks with the Taliban as it sees that the situation is getting worse in Afghanistan.
This news was broken by Indian Publication “The Hindu”, which quoted a senior Qatari official as confirming that Indian officials made a “quiet visit” to Doha to meet the Taliban’s political leadership based there.
Dr. Moeed Yusuf has addressed this issue saying that it is “shameless” of India to engage the Afghan Taliban in Qatar after having supported operations against the insurgent group for a long time.
Dawn reported that Yusuf emphasized that the Taliban whom the Indians had met were also “not stupid”, saying he was not concerned by the contacts between India and the insurgent group amid the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“You should also ask what response the [Indians] got from the [Taliban],” he added.
Read More: US interests in post-exit Afghanistan can have serious implications!
When pressed for the reply received by India, Yusuf only said: “Ask them and they will be ashamed more [by what has been conveyed to them].”