• External affairs minister S Jaishankar called the evacuation process as ‘Operation Devi Shakti’ while saluting the efforts of Indian Air Force and Air India.
• This announcement was made after 78 people, including 25 Indian nationals, were brought to India from Dushanbe (Tajikistan) in a special Air India flight. They were brought out of Taliban-controlled Kabul to Dushanbe in aircraft of Indian Air Force (IAF).
• Apart from them, three copies (swaroop) of the Guru Granth Sahib were also brought back.
• On August 23, India evacuated 75 Sikhs from Afghanistan.

India has been carrying out the evacuation missions in coordination with the US and other countries. India has evacuated more than 800 people so far ever since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan. About 200 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus are still stranded in the war-torn country and have taken shelter at the Karte Parwan gurdwara in Kabul.

The Taliban and its allied militant groups started a widespread offensive on May 1, 2021, after the withdrawal of most U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Taliban took over the country after capital city of Kabul fell to Taliban resulting into collapse of Afghan government.

It is an unrecognized Islamic state that was first established in September 1996 by the Taliban. Taliban is a Deobandi Islamist militant organization that started its governance of Afghanistan after fall of Kabul in 1996 and stayed in power until 2001. In 2001, it was toppled by United States-led military coalition. The Taliban has again returned to power and re-established the Islamic Emirate in 2021 and has since had de facto control over most of the Afghanistan.

By: Brijesh Kumar