KABUL: Outside the main iron gate of the Indian embassy in Kabul, a group of Taliban fighters waited — armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
Inside the compound were 150 Indian diplomats and nationals — growing increasingly nervous as they watched news of the Taliban tightening their grip on the capital, which they took a day earlier without a fight.
Their position was a precarious one.
Pakistan has long been a Taliban supporter, and has been accused of using the country for so-called strategic depth in never-ending battles — real and diplomatic — with arch-rival India. Islamabad denies the charge. India has also strongly backed the government that took over when the Taliban were ousted in 2001, earning them hatred and enmity from the hard-line group.
But the Taliban fighters outside the Indian embassy weren’t there to extract revenge, but rather to escort them to Kabul airport, where a military aircraft was on standby to evacuate them after New Delhi decided to shut its mission.
As the first of nearly two dozen vehicles drove out of the embassy late on Monday, some of the fighters waved and smiled at the passengers — an AFP correspondent among them.
One guided them toward the street leading out of the city’s green zone and on the main road to the airport.
The embassy’s decision to ask the Taliban to shepherd the Indians out was made when the fighters closed access to the once heavily fortified neighborhood after capturing Kabul the previous day.
A quarter of the 200 or so people who had gathered at the foreign mission had already been flown out of Afghanistan before the country’s new leaders took full control of the city.
“When we were evacuating the second group... we faced the Taliban, who refused to allow us to exit the green zone,” said an official who left with Monday’s group.
“We then decided to contact the Taliban and ask them to escort our convoy out.”
Two separate pledges of an escort failed to materialize during the day, unnerving the large group bunkered down at the embassy, with one diplomat likening the experience to “house arrest.”
It had been dark for several hours when the cars finally left the compound and embarked on the five-kilometer (three-mile) journey to the airport.
The snail-paced journey took five hours, with passengers passing each minute in constant fear of a potential attack.
- ‘I immediately knew it was time to leave’ -
Unfamiliar checkpoints had been set up and thousands of people displaced by the war were along the road.
At intervals, the Taliban fighters accompanying the Indian convoy jumped out of their own vehicles and aimed their guns at the crowds, forcing them to step back.
One man who appeared to be commanding the troops fired a few rounds in the air to scare back a large group gathered around one intersection.
The escort departed once the convoy reached the airport, where American soldiers had taken up positions and were coordinating flights.
After a wait of another two hours, the group boarded a C-17 Indian military transport plane that took off at dawn, landing at an air force base in the west Indian state of Gujarat later that morning.
“I’m so happy to be back,” Shirin Pathare, an Air India employee flown out of Kabul, told AFP as he stepped off the aircraft. “India is paradise.”
Another Indian citizen, cradling his two-year-old daughter, recalled the chaos and anxiety of his hasty departure from his office and the city.
“They were polite but when they went, they took two of our vehicles.
“I immediately knew it was time for me and my family to leave,” he added.
Escorted by Taliban: India’s midnight evacuation from Afghanistan
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Escorted by Taliban: India’s midnight evacuation from Afghanistan
- Taliban fighters outside the Indian embassy weren’t there to extract revenge, but rather to escort Indians to
- Embassy decision to ask for Taliban help was made when fighters closed access to the once heavily fortified neighborhood
Myanmar military limiting aid in earthquake areas, UN says
- The humanitarian situation in earthquake areas, especially those out of the military’s control, was catastrophic
- UN human rights office: The need for aid was particularly urgent in Myanmar’s Sagaing region
On Friday, the office was made aware of a further eight attacks which it was looking into, it said.
A spokesperson for Myanmar’s ruling junta did not respond to calls from Reuters seeking comment.
The humanitarian situation in earthquake areas, especially those out of the military’s control, was catastrophic, UN rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.
The 7.7 magnitude quake, one of the strongest to hit Myanmar in a century, jolted areas home to 28 million people, toppling buildings, flattening communities and leaving many without food, water and shelter. Myanmar’s junta says the death toll has risen to more than 3,100.
“Limitations of aid is part of a strategy to prevent aid getting to the populations it sees as not supporting its seizure of power back in 2021,” said James Rodehaver, head of OHCHR’s Myanmar team, speaking via video link from Bangkok.
The need for aid was particularly urgent in Myanmar’s Sagaing region, and time was working against humanitarian agencies to help those in need, he added.
“Air strikes are alarming, shocking and need to stop straight away – the focus needs to be on humanitarian recovery,” Shamdasani said.
The government on state-run MRTV late on Wednesday announced a 20-day unilateral ceasefire effective immediately to support post-quake rehabilitation, but warned it would “respond accordingly” if rebels launched attacks.
Millions of people have been affected by Myanmar’s widening civil war, triggered by the coup that ousted the government of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
It has decimated the mainly agrarian economy, driven more than 3.5 million people from their homes and crippled essential services such as health care.
Woman found guilty in UK abortion free speech case monitored by US
- Livia Tossici-Bolt was prosecuted for breaching a ‘safe zone’ in the immediate area around the abortion clinic in Bournemouth on two days in March 2023
POOLE, England: An anti-abortion activist, whose case has attracted the attention of the United States over free speech concerns, was found guilty on Friday of breaching an order which banned protest outside a clinic in southern England.
Livia Tossici-Bolt, 64, the leader of a branch of US Christian group ‘40 days for Life’, was prosecuted for breaching a “safe zone” in the immediate area around the abortion clinic in Bournemouth on two days in March 2023. She was holding a sign that read “Here to talk, if you want.”
Following a trial last month, Tossici-Bolt was on Friday convicted of breaching the order at Poole Magistrates’ Court, on the grounds the impact on those using the clinic outweighed her right to free speech under human rights laws.
The case comes amid growing accusations in the US of infringements on free speech in Britain. US Vice President JD Vance confronted Prime Minister Keir Starmer face to face at the White House on the issue, and said in February he feared free speech in Britain was “in retreat.”
Tossici-Bolt was taken to court after refusing to pay a fixed fine for breaching a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO), brought in around the British Pregnancy Advisory Service clinic in 2022 in response to concerns that women who attended were being subjected to harassment and intimidation.
An intervention on Sunday by the Democracy, Human Rights, & Labor (DRL) department of the US State Department propelled the case to the front pages of UK newspapers, with suggestions it could have far-reaching diplomatic implications.
“We are monitoring her case. It is important that the UK respect and protect freedom of expression,” the DRL said on X.
Trump unveils first $5 million ‘gold card’ visa
- Republican president tells reporters that the special visa would probably be available ‘in less than two weeks’
- Trump said that sales of the new visa would bring in job creators and could be used to reduce the US deficit
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump unveiled the first “gold card,” a residency permit sold for $5 million each, aboard Air Force One on Thursday.
Holding a prototype that bore his face and an inscription “The Trump Card,” the Republican president told reporters that the special visa would probably be available “in less than two weeks.”
“I’m the first buyer,” he said. “Pretty exciting, huh?”
Trump previously said that sales of the new visa, a high-price version of the traditional green card, would bring in job creators and could be used to reduce the US national deficit.
The billionaire former real estate tycoon, who has made the deportation of millions of undocumented migrants a priority for his second term, said the new card would be a route to highly prized US citizenship.
He said in February that his administration hoped to sell “maybe a million” of the cards and did not rule out that Russian oligarchs may be eligible.
Trump is looking forward to Azerbaijan and Armenia signing a peace treaty, US diplomat says
- Armenia and Azerbaijan said last month that they had agreed the text of a peace agreement to end almost four decades of conflict
- Fighting over Karabakh, which is part of mostly Muslim Azerbaijan but had until 2023 a heavily Armenian Christian population, broke out in the late 1980s
BAKU: US President Donald Trump is looking forward to Azerbaijan and Armenia signing a long-awaited peace treaty, Eric Jacobs, a senior adviser of the State Bureau of Energy Resources of the US Department of State, said on Friday.
Speaking at an energy event in Baku, Jacobs said the peace treaty would usher in “a new era of security and prosperity” for the South Caucasus region.
Armenia and Azerbaijan said last month that they had agreed the text of a peace agreement to end almost four decades of conflict between the two countries over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Fighting over Karabakh, which is part of mostly Muslim Azerbaijan but had until 2023 a heavily Armenian Christian population, broke out in the late 1980s, when both countries were part of the collapsing Soviet Union.
The territory gained de facto independence from Azerbaijan with Armenian support through a series of wars, but was ultimately retaken by Azerbaijan in September 2023, in a military offensive that prompted almost all of its 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee.
Since then, the two countries have both said they want a peace deal, but talks have been fitful and progress slow until a sudden breakthrough last month.
The peace deal is still not expected to be signed quickly though as Azerbaijan is demanding that Armenia first change its constitution to remove what Baku says are references to Karabakh independence.
Since the draft deal was agreed, both Armenia and Azerbaijan have also accused each other of firing on positions along the two countries’ closed and heavily militarized border. No casualties have been reported in the incidents.
EU leaders hold their first summit with Central Asian states
- The EU strategy on Central Asia emphasizes Central Asia’s growing strategic importance and aims to foster a stronger partnership
The leaders of the European Union and five Central Asian countries held their first summit on Friday to discuss ways to boost trade and other ties.
The summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan is attended by European Council President António Costa, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Costa declared that “the European Union is eager to build a mutually beneficial partnership with Central Asia, one that goes beyond expectations.”
Von der Leyen said that the summit is set to “deepen trade ties and expand cooperation in transport, critical raw materials, digital connectivity, water and energy.”
The EU strategy on Central Asia emphasizes Central Asia’s growing strategic importance and aims to foster a stronger partnership with the countries of the region.
Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted that during the past seven years trade between Central Asian and EU countries has increased to 54 billion euros ($60 billion), adding that the summit “should become the starting point of a new stage in the development of multi-faceted relations.”
