106 Afghan nationals left from Delhi to Kabul via Iran for first time after Taliban takeover
Oct 09, 2021
By Naveen Kapoor
New Delhi [India], October 9 : A batch of 106 Afghan nationals left Delhi for their country via Iran yesterday. Mahan Air recently resumed commercial flights to Kabul.
Afghan nationals took the connecting flight of the Iran based airline to Kabul.
This is the first set of Afghan nationals leaving for Afghanistan from Delhi since August 15, the day the Taliban took over Kabul.
India has not started direct flight operations to Kabul. The Taliban regime recently wrote to DGCA requesting for resumption of flights and India has not yet taken a call on resumption.
It is learnt that the Afghanistan Embassy and Ministry of External Affairs coordinated and played a key role in sending the first batch of Afghan citizens to their country.
A special flight of Mahan Air was arranged to Delhi for the evacuation of stranded citizens. Afghan nationals paid for their tickets. There is no regular Mahan Air flight from Delhi as there is not much traffic and this flight was arranged specially for evacuation.
Most among 106 afghan citizens are patients who were here for treatment before August 15 and got stuck since then. It is also learnt they were facing problems with some running out of money, a few had some legal and documentation issues back home and some others had siblings and relatives to look after.