CCEA, Cabinet Meeting to be held on Wednesday

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) and instructed all concerned officials to undertake all necessary measures to ensure safe evacuation of Indian nationals from Afghanistan in the coming days.

According to a senior official privy to the proceedings, the Prime Minister said, “India must not only protect our citizens, but we must also provide refuge to those Sikh and Hindu minorities who want to come to India, and we must also provide all possible help to our Afghan brothers and sisters who are looking towards India for assistance”.

PM Modi has been in constant touch with the officials over the situation concerning the evacuation of Indians from Afghanistan and was taking stock of the situation till late at night on Monday, as per reports.

He was updated when the flight took off to Afghanistan and brought Indian 120 people, including the Indian ambassador and embassy staff to Jamnagar airbase in Gujarat.

PM Modi also instructed that adequate arrangements be made to ensure food for all those who came to Jamnagar.

The meeting was attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The External Affairs Minister is out of the country and hence did not attend the meeting.

The meeting was also attended by senior officials including Principal Secretary to PM PK Mishra, NSA Ajit Doval and Cabinet Secretary Rajeev Gauba.

Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and India’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Rudrendra Tandon were also present at the meeting. Ambassador Tandon was on the evacuation flight from Kabul that landed in Jamnagar earlier today.

According to senior government sources, the Cabinet Committee on Security was briefed in detail on the current and evolving security and political situation in Afghanistan.

The CCS was also briefed on the recent evacuations of Indian Embassy officials and some members of the Indian community, as well as some members of Indian media.

Taliban entered Kabul on Sunday and took control of the presidential palace.

The government has been closely monitoring all developments in Afghanistan. It has also been issuing periodic advisories for the safety and security of Indian nationals in Afghanistan including calling for their immediate return to India.

India is also exploring options to hire charter planes to evacuate more Indians from Afghanistan.

The Indian Embassy in Kabul is not closed and local staff is providing consular services.

Over 1,650 people have applied for their return to India, the reports said.

Earlier in July, the CCEA chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the implementation of a special livestock sector package of ₹54,618 crore.

The package has been designed by revising and realigning various components of the Government of India’s schemes for the next five years starting from 2021-22 in order to boost growth in the livestock sector and thereby making animal husbandry more remunerative.

With agency inputs