IAF aircraft with 168 people from Kabul lands at Hindon airbase

168 passengers, including 107 Indian nationals, arrived at the Hindon airbase in Ghaziabad from Kabul, onboard Indian Air Force's C-17 aircraft.

Hyderabad: A C-17 aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) with 168 passengers, including 107 Indian nationals, arrived at the Hindon airbase in Ghaziabad from Kabul on Sunday. According to reports, passengers will first undergo the COVID-19 RT-PCR test.

The repatriation flight took off from Kabul earlier Sunday morning with 168 people onboard. "Evacuation continues. IAF special repatriation flight with 168 passengers onboard, including 107 Indian nationals, is on its way to Delhi from Kabul," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in a tweet at 7.40am on Sunday. Reports say a number of prominent Sikh leaders are on board the flight.

India has been allowed to operate two flights per day from Kabul to evacuate its nationals stranded in Afghanistan. The permission was granted by American and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces which have been controlling operations of the Hamid Karzai International Airport after the Afghan capital fell to the Taliban on August 15, news agency ANI quoted government sources as saying.

Another group of 87 Indians and two Nepalese nationals who were on Saturday taken to Tajikistan capital Dushanbe from Kabul on board a military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force were also brought back to Delhi in a special Air India flight on Sunday morning. Also, 135 Indians, who were evacuated from Kabul to Doha in the last few days, also returned home on Sunday.

Read: Evacuation from Afghanistan: Around 330 Indians being brought back home

The Government has been making all efforts to bring back Indians stranded in the war-torn country after the Taliban seized control of Kabul. India, with the support of US, had earlier evacuated 200 people including the Indian envoy and other staffers of its embassy in Kabul.

The Kabul airport was closed on August 16 for commercial operation but it was reopened for military aircraft deployed for evacuation operations the next day.