Dehradun: A total of 43 Afghan cadets will be present in the Indian Military Academy batch of 377 cadets set to pass out this year. The passing out parade will take place on June 11, after which the Indian Army will be receiving 288 new officers, while eight friendly countries will get 89 officers from the batch. The current batch of Afghan cadets will be the last. According to sources, no new cadets from Afghanistan have joined the IMA ever since the Taliban came to power on August 15, 2021.
While 40 passed out from the academy in December 2021, the current batch of 43 is the last Afghans to exit the academy for the time being. The Afghan National Army has ceased to exist since the hostile takeover of power by the Taliban. Earlier this year, in February, the Ministry of Defence had allowed around 80 Afghan cadets from various Indian military training institutes to stay in India for extended periods amid reports that the Taliban had taken hostage and killed personnel of the Afghan National Defense Security Forces.
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After the radical group came to power, many Afghan cadets refused to return to their country, seeking asylum in countries such as India and the United States. The Indian Military Academy (IMA), established on October 1, 1932, has given 63,768 young officers to both the Indian Army and military forces of friendly countries. Lieutenant General Amardeep Singh Bhinder will be the reviewing officer in the passing out parade of the IMA this year on June 11.
