The government on Thursday said the situation in Afghanistan is "critical" and it is trying to evacuate nationals as soon as possible. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar briefed opposition leaders on the latest situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban captured power in the country last week.

Union Minister and Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi were also present during the briefing in the Parliament House Annexe. Jaishankar asserted that evacuating Indian personnel was a "top priority".

"Under Operation 'Devi Shakti' we've done 6 evacuation flights. We've brought back most of the Indians but not all of them as some of them couldn't make it for the flight yesterday. We'll definitely try and bring out everybody. We've also brought out some Afghan citizens," Jaishankar said.

#WATCH "Govt strongly committed to ensuring full evacuation as soon as possible, doing everything to bring back our people from Afghanistan," says EAM Dr S Jaishankar after briefing all-party panel on the Afghanistan situation pic.twitter.com/GWkMZJUMOz

— ANI (@ANI) August 26, 2021

Sharing details of the evacuation, Jaishankar said 175 embassy personnel were evacuated, 263 other Indian Nationals, 112 Afghan Nationals including Hindus and Sikhs, 15 Third Country Nationals; 565 total people were evacuated. The government also facilitated the evacuation of Indians by other agencies, sources told ANI.

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The minister added that as part of immediate measures - the evacuation of Indian nationals, safety of diplomatic personnel, and 24X7 Special Afghanistan Cell has been established in the ministry.

The government added that the Taliban broke the promises made in the Doha agreement. Among other things, the Doha pact, inked between the Taliban leaders and the US in February 2020, envisaged religious freedom and democracy, with a government in Kabul that represented all sections of Afghan society.

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NCP leader Sharad Pawar, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Congress party in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, DMK's T R Baalu, former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, Apna Dal's Anupriya Patel were among those attending the all-party meet.

With inputs from PTI

First Published:Aug 26, 2021 3:29 PM IST