Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) and instructed all concerned officials to undertake all necessary measures to ensure safe evacuation of Indian nationals from Afghanistan in the coming days. PM Modi in the meeting Modi told officials to ensure safe evacuation of all Indian nationals, provide refuge to Sikh and Hindu minorities wanting to come to India and provide all possible help to Afghanistan citizens looking for assistance from India.
Among those part of the meeting were Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Ambassador Rudrendra Tandon were also part of the CCS meeting. The External Affairs Minister is out of the country and hence did not attend the meeting. The meeting was also attended by senior officials including Principal Secretary to PM PK Mishra and Cabinet Secretary Rajeev Gauba. The Ministers, who had been keeping a close track on the situation unfolding in the war-torn country, in the meeting, as per sources, are deciding on the stand India will be taking if and when the Taliban government comes up. Taliban, which took over the South-Asian country by finally breaching the capital city – Kabul, is presently deciding on the points of the ‘peaceful transfer’ of power from the council, as President Ashraf Ghani and his aides flee the country in a bid to ‘avoid bloodshed’.
