Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said India is evacuating its citizens from war-torn Afghanistan and will continue to do so despite several obstacles.
‘Today, anywhere in the world, if any Indian is in trouble, then India stands up to help with all its might. Be it the challenges of the Corona period or the crisis of Afghanistan, the world has experienced it continuously. Hundreds of comrades from Afghanistan are being brought to India under Operation Devi Shakti. There are many challenges and the situation is difficult,” PM Modi said, according to a report by ANI.
Earlier, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had said that India had evacuated more than 550 people on six flights through Kabul or via Dushanbe, which included 260 Indians (including embassy and other personnel), and the rest being Afghans and other officials.
According to the MEA spokesperson, the Government of India was also coordinating on evacuation with other agencies, and was in touch with various parties on the matter.
Asked about the people left to evacuate from Afghanistan, Bagchi said the vast majority of Indians who had sought to come back had, adding that those who remained would be brought back soon; a number that kept changing with requests coming in.
Meanwhile, PM Modi told the nation via video conference that no country should forget its history, and that whatever happened during and after the Partition can be observed in every corner of the country, particularly in Punjab.
Modi was inaugurating the renovated complex of the memorial site of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre that occurred in 1919.
Innumerable revolutionaries, including Sardar Udham Singh and Bhagat Singh, were inspired by Jallianwala Bagh to sacrifice their lives for the liberation of their country, he said.
‘My salute to the brave land of Punjab, to the holy soil of Jallianwala Bagh! Today, we are remembering those innocent boys and girls, those sisters, those brothers, whose dreams are still visible in the bullet marks on the walls of Jallianwala Bagh.
‘Salute also to those children of Mother Bharati, in whom all limits of inhumanity were crossed to extinguish the flame of freedom burning. Those innocent boys and girls, those sisters, those brothers, whose dreams are still visible in the bullet marks in the walls of Jallianwala Bagh, and in the ‘Shaheedi Kuan” (well of sacrifice), where the love of countless mothers and sisters was snatched away,” said PM Modi.
