T.S. Chandrashekar
Indian employees at project sites can be victims; Kidnapping, mass murder, ransoms, threats, forced conversion or public execution can take place.
India is linked to the world for ages in Trade and Commerce. Millions of Indians have gone overseas to work and live. Some went as Professionals like Doctors, Engineers, CEO’s, Managerial, Business Man as Laborers, workers and few did difficult and dangerous jobs. India was the world's top receiver of remittances, claiming over 12% of the world's remittances in 2015. Remittances to India stood at US$68.968 billion in 2017, and remittances from India to other countries totalled US$5.710 billion, for a net inflow of US$63.258 billion in 2017. As per the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA), remittance is received from the approximately 35 million members of the Indian diaspora.
Only a few years back, globalization and liberalization had made the world a village. Trade, Exports Imports was order of the day people moved from cities to cities, country to country and continent to continent for markets, jobs and relations. The world saw the rapid growth of the economy, international peace and healthy competition was seen. We saw technological burst with 4G then 5G Research, Artificial Intelligence, Robots, Space Travels, Health Research and more. Suddenly world saw Covid-19 lockdowns, bandhs, fall of the World Economy and trade. Then we got one more grave challenge to the world with the Taliban rise in Afghanistan. In and around the Taliban area, foreigners are targeted, kidnapped, killed (journalists killed), trade except for drugs, opium, arms ammunitions encouraged in this scenario world is seeing a disaster effect on Travel and Trade?
Travel Warning or travel alert, or travel advisory is an official warning statement issued by government agencies to provide information about the relative safety of travelling to or visiting one or more specific foreign countries or destinations. Travel advisories may relate to issues such as inclement weather, security matters, civil unrest or disease.
Why Travel Advice by India
“The Rise of extreme fundamentalism in Afghanistan with Taliban in the lead and the regrouping and coexistence of world dreaded Terrorist Organization Haqqani Group, Al Qaeda, Al Shabab, Boko Haram, ISIS, Harkat-ul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Harkat-ul Mujahideen, Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen (JUM), and Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami (HuJI) have come to name a few together and fighting with the Taliban to establish a sovereign state in Afghanistan. They are all directly supported with men's money, arms and ammunition from Pakistan Government's Secret Agency ISI, Pakistan Army and its Government. From Rawalpindi, Pakistan, the Terrorists are asked and given a map to attack the Indian Government Help to Civilian Afghan rule. India spent nearly $3 Billion on Afghanistan in the construction of Parliament, Dams, Highway Projects, Hospitals, Education, Training, and more. Pakistan targets these projects through non-state terror actors. They are hostile to Indian interests in Afghanistan Indian companies operating in Afghanistan; their Indian employees in project sites can be victims. Kidnapping, mass murder, ransoms, threats, forced conversion or public execution can take place. India’s benevolence in no part of Afghanistan was “untouched’ by the “400-plus projects that India has undertaken in all 34 provinces with $3 Billion Dollars.”
Previous Incidents affecting Indians in Afghanistan
2018 Six Indian staff members and one Afghan employee of KEC company responsible for installing an electricity substation were abducted by Taliban militants in Bagh-e-Shamal village of the Pul-e-Khumri City (District), the capital of Baghlan Province. January 15, 2018, a rocket landed on the premises of the Indian embassy in Kabul. June 6, 2017, insurgent groups again targeted Indian interests in Kabul, with a rocket landing on the tennis court of Indian envoy Manpreet Vohra's house. June 20, 2016, Two Indians were killed in a blast in Afghanistan capital city, Kabul. June 9, 2016, suspected militants abducted an Indian female aid worker, identified as Judith D' Souza, from Afghanistan's capital Kabul, Indian and Afghan officials said.
January 13, 2016, Three Afghan Policemen were killed, and two others were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up 200 meters away from the Indian consulate in Jalalabad. January 8, 2016: An explosives-laden vehicle was found near the Indian consulate in Herat, and one person was arrested.
On January 5, 2016, a huge blast was reported near the Indian consulate in Jalalabad city in Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan. January 3, 2016: Militants attempted to storm the Indian diplomatic mission in Mazar-i-Sharif. December 21, 2015: Afghanistan's intelligence service, the NDS prevented a suicide-bomb assault on India's consulate in Jalalabad, along the border with Pakistan. The strike was to have taken place as PM Narendra Modi visits Kabul on December 25, sources said. Indian intelligence sources said NDS had identified the attacker as Qari Nasir, a religious studies student from Tagab District in the province of Kapisa. In statements given to Afghan authorities, Nasir is alleged to have said he was trained in a camp across the border in Pakistan and received final instructions at a Taliban facility in Peshawar (Pakistan).
In 2013, An Indian author, Smt Susmita Banerjee, was killed by militants in September in Paktika Province, where she was residing with her Afghan husband. Recently, the 2021 killing of photojournalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Danish Siddique in Afghanistan hurt India a lot.
Finally, one can say that money and jobs abroad are very important for a living but also because of our acts nation should not get embarrassed if we fell victims to enemy design. From Syria, Sahel, Yemen, Tigray, Ethiopia or Pakistan, India Government Travel Advisory warnings should be taken seriously. As India issues warning to its citizens not to stay in Afghanistan, it is better to leave there than continue. "The security situation in Afghanistan remains dangerous in several provinces," the advisory issued by the Indian Embassy in Kabul said. India sent a military plane to northern Afghanistan to pull out its citizens. Indian government shut its consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, the biggest city in the north, and urged its diplomats and Indian citizens to take the special flight home. Commercial air travel services to many provinces and cities are getting discontinued. Special attention is once again drawn to the members of the Indian media arriving in Afghanistan. The US has already pulled back most of its forces and is looking to complete the drawdown by August 31. So it is for Indians who stay in the volatile region to stay safe and secure if they are kidnapped or killed or used for blackmailing the nation has to compromise, so let us prepare and follow the Government of India regulations and support our Nation.
The writer is a Political Analyst, Columnist, International Affairs & Korea Expert
