As per a report by the AFP, around 150 Indians were escorted by the Taliban at midnight.
After India decided to shut its embassy at Kabul, the Taliban went to the Indian embassy in order to escort them to Kabul airport, where a military aircraft was on standby to evacuate them.
Although, the AFP reported that inside the compound, 150 Indian diplomats and nationals were extremely nervous as Taliban took control of Kabul without fight.
The report says that late on Monday, as first of the nearly two dozen vehicles drove out of the embassy, some of the Taliban fighters waved and smiled at the passengers, said a correspondent among them.
Apparently, one of them guided them towards the street leading out of the city’s green zone and on the main road to the airport.
The embassy decided to ask the Taliban to escort the Indians out when the Taliban closed access to the once fortified neighborhood after they’d captured Kabul on the previous day.
It is reported that a quarter of the 200 people who had gathered at the foreign mission had already been escorted out of Afghanistan before the Taliban took control of Kabul.
One of the official who was among those escorted said, “When we were evacuating the second group, we faced the Taliban, who refused to allow us to exit the green zone.”
“We then decided to contact the Taliban and ask them to escort our convoy out.” Two attempts of an escort had failed during the day, leaving the group distressed at the embassy, with one diplomat likening the experience to “house arrest”.
The cars finally left the compound in the midnight and embarked on the five-kilometer (three-mile) journey to the airport. The journey took them five hours, and the passengers were fearing an attack at any moment.
There were various checkpoints at almost every corner, and thousands of people displaced by the war were seen along the road. From time to time, the Taliban fighters would jump out of their vehicles and would aim their guns at the crowds, asking them to step back.
At one intersection, one of the commanders also fired a few rounds in the air to scare back a large group. The escort left once the diplomats made it to the airport, where American soldiers were positioned and were coordinating flights.
After waiting for two hours, the group boarded a C-17 Indian military transport plane that took off at dawn, landing at an air force base in Gujarat later that morning.
An Air India employee, Shirin Pathare, who had been flown out of Kabul said, “I’m so happy to be back.” She stepped out of the flight and exclaimed, “India is paradise.” Another Indian citizen, who asked for anonymity, was seen cradling his 2 year old daughter, recalled the chaos and anxiety of his hasty departure from his office and the city.
He said, “Just hours before I took the flight a group of Taliban visited my workplace. 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.