'Afghan situation critical, Indians top priority': Govt at all-party meet

'The government is very strongly committed to ensuring full evacuation as soon as possible,' says EAM Jaishankar

The government is committed to "full evacuation" of Indians from Afghanistan, where the situation is "critical", External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Thursday after briefing the leaders during the all-party meet on the Afghan situation.

Asked about the government's approach towards Taliban, he told reporters that the situation in Afghanistan has not settled down. "You will have to keep patience: Let the situation settle down." Besides Jaishankar, Union minister and Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi were also present during the briefing on the latest situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban captured power there last week.

As per the evacuation data shared among the participants at the meet, the government has evacuated --175 Embassy Personnel, 263 other Indian Nationals, 112 Afghan Nationals including Hindus and Sikhs, 15 third country nationals and the total figure stood at 565.

The document also said the government also facilitated evacuation of Indians by other agencies.

NCP leader Sharad Pawar, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Congress party in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, DMK's T R Baalu, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, Apna Dal's Anupriya Patel are among those attending the meet.

Jaishankar said,"on this (Afghanistan) matter all political parties have similar views, we approached the issue with spirit of national unity."

"We briefed the Floor Leaders of all political parties today on the Afghanistan situation today. Our focus is on evacuation and the government is doing everything to evacuate people. Under Operation 'Devi Shakti' we've done 6 evacuation flights. We've brought back most of the Indians but not all of them as some of them couldn't make it for the flight yesterday. We'll definitely try and bring out everybody. We've also brought out some Afghan citizens. The government is very strongly committed to ensuring full evacuation as soon as possible, and also seeing that in terms of any international decisions which are made, any gatherings that are there, that our role is recognised. There will be many more meetings in coming days," said EAM Jaishankar after the all-party meeting.