'We Won't Forget It': Afghan Diplomat Slams India for Prioritising Evacuation of Its Citizens
05:40 GMT 23.08.2021 (Updated: 10:38 GMT 19.07.2022)
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Prior to the Taliban* takeover of Kabul, India had thrown its weight behind a "sovereign, democratic, and peaceful Afghanistan", also backing an "Afghan-led, Afghan-owned, and Afghan-controlled" peace process. The Taliban has accused India of supporting now-deposed President Ashraf Ghani and "interfering" in the intra-Afghan peace negotiations.
Afghanistan's Ambassador to Sri Lanka M. Ashraf Haidari has hit out at India for prioritising the evacuation of its citizens from Kabul, while leaving Afghans to their fate in the Taliban-controlled nation.
In a series of tweets, Haidari said that India must honour the "Strategic Partnership Agreement" signed between Delhi and the democratically-elected government in Kabul in 2011.
The pact calls for security cooperation between the two nations, with the terms mentioned in the agreement being enforceable under the "framework of the Partnership Council", a bilateral outfit headed by the foreign ministers of the two countries.
This is so pathetic, so senseless. Jubilation for what! For leaving Afghans behind? Remember the Strategic Partnership Agreement we signed with you. Utter disappointment. We won't forget it! https://t.co/aUkiYGV8AK
— Ambassador M. Ashraf Haidari (@MAshrafHaidari) August 22, 2021
The Afghan diplomat was reacting to a video of Indian evacuees chanting slogans like "Bharat Mata Ki Jai (Hail Mother India)" after being flown out of Kabul on an Indian Air Force (IAF) C-17 Globemaster on 22 August.
India has so far evacuated nearly 552 people from Afghanistan, a list that includes its citizens, Afghans of Hindu and Sikh background, as well as Indian officials since the capital Kabul fell to the Taliban on 15 August.
Besides directly airlifting India-bound passengers from Kabul, Delhi has also flown in several batches of Afghan evacuees from Doha and Dushanbe.
Delhi said on 16 August that it was "facilitating" the repatriation of Afghan Sikhs and Hindus wishing to leave Afghanistan owing to the "deteriorating security situation" in the nation.
"There are also a number of Afghans who have been our partners in the promotion of our mutual developmental, educational and people-to-people endeavours. We will stand by them", an Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.
India has additionally introduced a new visa category to "fast-track" applications from Afghanistan, as announced by the federal Home Ministry on 17 August.
Yet, the South Asian democracy has still faced flak for "prioritising" the repatriation of "Indian-origin" Afghans over their Muslim compatriots, who constitute nearly 99.7 percent of the nation's population.
Haidari, formerly Deputy Assistant National Security Adviser (NSA) in Kabul, also slammed other governments in Southern and Central Asia for not standing with the Afghan people in the wake of the Kabul takeover.
"Make no mistake: the peoples of South Asia and Central Asia have stood with Afghans, love and respect Afghans. We know and eternally thank them. But their governments have failed Afghanistan by either causing the suffering of the Afghan people or simply watching them suffer", Haidari said in another social media post.
Over the last week, the US has evacuated more than 20,000 people from Afghanistan, with more than 80 percent of those flown out of the Kabul Airport being Afghan citizens and their families facing the threat of reprisals from the Taliban. Aside from the US, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Germany, and Pakistan have evacuated more people than India since the Taliban's takeover of Kabul.
*The Taliban is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries.
