By Sarmad Dev
SRINAGAR: As the situation in Afghanistan continues to be tense after the Taliban takeover, three Kashmiris are reported stranded in Kabul. They are part of 200 people awaiting evacuation even as India closed its embassy and flew more than 120 diplomatic staff home.
Worried families of three Kashmiris have requested the Ministry of External Affairs to evacuate them as early as possible.
Reports from Afghanistan by global media, however, said people outside the US-managed Hamdi Karzai airport are not facing any serious threat.
Mohammad Asif Shah and Aadil Rasool who are professors at Bakhtar University and teach economics are among the stranded alongside another resident from Kashmir, Syed Abid Hussain. In a tweet in which, Hussain raised an SOS, he said that “We are four Indians teaching in one university in Afghanistan. We have tried several times to coordinate embassy person could get the reply. Kindly rescue us please,” he tweeted.
Another stranded Professor, Mohammad Asif Shah, said that they are presently safe as they are within University premises. “We are safe till now, there are more than 30 Indians here and three Kashmiris and the Indian Government isn’t helping us,” he said.
In Kashmir, as the families of the stranded continue to be worried, Syed Sabina Qadri, wife of Professor Asif Shah, said that she communicated with her husband and he is safe. She said that with the help J&K Student Association, she was able to reach her husband and they also helped her in communicating with government officials.
“I hope everyone stranded there gets back home safe,” she added.
Lately, in a tweet, Lt Governor of J&K Manoj Sinha, assured help to the stranded people of the UT. “I assure the families of Prof Asif Ahmed and Prof Adil Rasool that they are safe and will be home soon.
J&K Student Association, which is at the forefront in helping stranded Indians establish contact with the Ministry of External Affairs, said that we received a random call yesterday pleading for help and that is when we came to know that at least three Kashmiris are also stuck in Afghanistan.
Its spokesperson, Nasir Khuehami, simultaneously communicated to the Lt Governor of J&K who assured timely help in the evacuation of Kashmiris.
After the matter was brought to the notice of Lieutenant Governor of Jammu & Kashmir, Manoj Sinha, he promptly communicated with the Minister of State for External Affairs & Parliamentary Affairs, V Muraleedharan, who assured that the government, is committed to bringing back every citizen safely as soon as possible.
Dr Bilal Mohi-ud-din Bhat, DC Kulgam, said that “the families are in touch and they are doing their best to bring back the families.”
With tectonic shifts in the power balance in Afghanistan, the viral images flooding television screens and social media showed desperate people trying to flee the country created a scare across the world.
