An Air India plane evacuated 129 stranded Indians in Kabul amid the Afghanistan-Taliban crisis on Sunday. The flight AI244 left Kabul a couple of hours ago from Kabul and has landed in New Delhi.
The Indian government is keeping a close watch as the situation in Kabul is unfolding in the blink of an eye. This comes as the Taliban have seized almost full control in Kabul, awaiting transfer of power from President Ashraf Ghani, who sources say has left the country for Tajikistan.
As per reports, Indians from the nearby cities of Kabul came in contact with the Indian embassy to leave the country while the Taliban was making advances in the Afghanistan capital.
Meanwhile, people in Kabul have been fleeing the capital as news of the Taliban advance emerges.
Long queues of cars have formed as people try to find a way out of the city. Banks have also been busy as residents try to withdraw their savings, BBC reported.
Afghan MP Farzana Kochai describe the scene, "I'm in my house and looking at the people who are just trying to run."
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She continues, "I don't know where they're trying to go, even in the streets and from their houses, their bags they are carrying... and all these things. It's heartbreaking, you know."
Pakistan closes Torkham border
Earlier, Pakistan said it was closing the Torkham border crossing with Afghanistan after the militants seized the Afghan side of the border, according to reports. This leaves Kabul International Airport as the only way out of the country.
Afghan radio reports said that the road to Kabul's international airport is clogged with thousands of people who are rushing to leave the country.
Thousands of others stand in long queues, stretching for kilometres, outside the capital's only passport office, desperately trying to secure travel documents.
A US Chinook helicopter flies over the city of Kabul, Afghanistan. Taliban fighters entered the outskirts of the Afghan capital on Sunday, further tightening their grip on the country as panicked workers fled government offices and helicopters landed at the U.S. Embassy.
Others frantically rush around downtown Kabul, a city of some 5 million people, running last-minute errands before fleeing their homes.
The fear and panic gripping Kabul is palpable as the Taliban militant group marches on the capital following a devastating, months-long military offensive during which it has seized large swaths of the war-torn country.
"It's a feeling of shock and sadness compounded by brutal uncertainty," says Timor Sharan, a former civil servant and the director of the Afghanistan Policy Lab, a Kabul-based think tank.
"Shopping in the city today, I felt people were gripped by a sense of being stuck; stuck in an uncertain future and never able to dream, aspire, think, and believe anymore."
Meanwhile, the price of some food staples like flour has surged by 30 percent, while gas prices have almost doubled in recent weeks, even as poverty spreads and a humanitarian crisis worsens.
ALSO READ | Taliban enters Kabul, awaits ‘peaceful transfer’ of power
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