At least 168 passengers including some eminent Afghan leaders from Hindu and Sikh communities arrived at Hindon air base in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday morning.
The passengers arrived in an Indian Air Force (IAF) C-17 aircraft from crisis-torn Afghanistan capital Kabul. As per reports, at least 107 Indians have been evacuated from Afghanistan through this IAF transport aircraft today.
According to sources, the entire plan of evacuation was kept a secret till the flight took off from Afghanistan to avoid Taliban militia from preventing the Afghan public representatives take over the IAF flight. Moreover, the IAF aircraft was waiting for the clearance at the Kabul airport due to the huge rush as many countries have sent their military planes to evacuate their citizens.
This was the second evacuation made by the Indian authorities in bringing back the stranded Indian and Afghan nationals who wanted to come to India after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021.
The first air rescue operation was initiated on August 17, when an IAF C-17 aircraft brought back 120 Indians, including Indian Ambassador Rudrendra Tandon, the last batch of the Indian embassy staff and ITBP personnel from the Kabul airport.