Dehradun: Last batch of 43 Afghan cadets pass out of IMA

There were 83 Afghan Gentlemen Cadets in the IMA when the Taliban captured power in Afghanistan. Out of them, 40 graduated from the IMA in December last year and the remaining passed out today. Officials associated with the IMA say that since the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, no new cadets came to the IMA for training.

Dehradun: The last batch of 43 cadets from Afghanistan passed out from the Indian Military Academy (IMA) on Saturday along with their Indian batchmates. As many as 377 cadets passed out of the IMA, out of which 89 were foreign cadets including the 43 from Afghanistan. The Afghan National Army ceased to exist since the Taliban captured power in the country in August last year.

There were 83 Afghan Gentlemen Cadets in the IMA when the Taliban captured power in Afghanistan. Out of them, 40 graduated from the IMA in December last year and the remaining passed out today. Officials associated with the IMA say that since the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, no new cadets came to the IMA for training.

Earlier in February, the Defense Ministry allowed around 80 Afghan cadets from various Indian military training institutes to stay in India for longer periods amid reports of the Taliban taking hostage and killing personnel of the Afghan National Defense Security Forces, because of which the Afghan cadets refused to return to their country. Some of them had sought a place in India as well as in the United States and other western countries.

However, IMA officials said that, so far they have not received any information from the Government of India regarding their stay in India. "The final decision will be taken by the Centre hence we have no information about it at the moment," they added.