Two Afghan senators were among 24 Sikhs who landed in India this morning, repatriated from the war-torn country now under Taliban control. One of them, Senator Narender Singh Khalsa, was in tears. Asked about the situation in Afghanistan, he collapsed.
“I feel like crying… Everything built in the past 20 years is now finished. It’s zero now,” he told reporters at Hindon Air Base near Delhi.
Their evacuation comes almost a week after the last group of Indians – Indian embassy personnel in Kabul, including their Indo Tibetan border troops who were there for security – reached Gujarat’s Jamnagar.
Today’s evacuees have landed at Hindon Air Base near Delhi. They will then be moved to the Bangla Sahib Gurdwara.
Many of the evacuees come from a Gurdwara in Kabul, where they have been staying for days.
“We had to come to the airport repeatedly. The Taliban are cruel, barbaric people. We endured many hardships. Even at the airport, the Taliban were urging and saying, ‘Don’t leave, why are you leaving?’ We thank the Modi government for bringing us to safety,” added another Sikh passenger.