Team News Riveting
New Delhi, September 1
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday chaired a high-level meeting to take stock of the situation in Afghanistan post American withdrawal and Taliban taking over the country.
Besides Union Home Minister Amit Shah, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval attended the meeting.
Besides the present situation in Afghanistan, the three-hour-long meeting also discussed India’s future course of action in the Taliban regime.
Earlier on Tuesday, India held first official talks with Taliban. Indian Ambassador to Qatar Deepak Mittal met senior Taliban leader Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai and conveyed India’s concerns that Afghanistan’s soil should not be used for anti-Indian activities and terrorism.
The discussions also focused on the safety, security and early return of Indian nationals stranded in Afghanistan and the travel of Afghan nationals, especially members of minority communities to India. The meeting took place at the Indian embassy in Doha at the request of the Taliban side and came two weeks after the outfit seized control of Kabul.
The MEA said the Taliban representative assured the ambassador that “these issues” would be positively addressed.
The meeting between Mittal and Stanekzai took place hours after the US completed the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan, ending its 20-year-long military campaign in the country.
The last American aircraft left the Kabul airport just a minute before August 31, the deadline set by American President Joe Biden for withdrawal.
