Amongst all the horrid visuals that have arisen from Afghanistan lately, a little girl was spotted kissing an infant on board the C-17 transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) that took off from war-torn Kabul and landed in India’s Hindon airbase on Sunday.
The baby was among countless newborns that traveled to a foreign land, fleeing their native country without a passport with a hope to be saved.
“An infant has also landed in a special IAF flight to India without a passport,” news agency ANI quoted an evacuation coordinating official as saying.
There were many children among the evacuees, some of them with backpacks and some others clutching onto their parents’ hands. A total of 168 people were flown from Kabul to the Hindon airbase in Ghaziabad in a C-17 heavy-lift military transport aircraft of IAF.
The video of the infant on its mother’s lap receiving a kiss from a little girl has since gone viral on social media.
#WATCH | An infant was among the 168 people evacuated from Afghanistan’s Kabul to Ghaziabad on an Indian Air Force’s C-17 aircraft pic.twitter.com/DoR6ppHi4h
— ANI (@ANI) August 22, 2021
Twitter users were pretty much moved by the scene and had a lot to say.
Salute to @narendramodi @DrSJaishankar & entire MEA team for working day & night to evacuate our people & having emergency visa for all innocents#VasudhaivaKutumbakam 🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/iVDjGNK39r
— Vikas pratap singh (@VPSGBN) August 22, 2021
This differentiates India from other countries. It necessitates India’s rise as superpower which truly works for welfare of whole world.
— Ashutosh Raj🇮🇳 (@rajashu022) August 22, 2021
About 107 Indians and 23 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, were flown from Kabul to Hindon airbase near Delhi in a C-17 heavy-lift military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force. India on Sunday brought back 392 people, including two Afghan lawmakers, in three different flights as part of the mission to evacuate its nationals and Afghan partners from Kabul in the backdrop of increasing hostilities by the Taliban and deteriorating security situation in the city.
“India is our second home. Even if we are Afghans and live in that country, people often call us Hindustanis. I thank India for extending its helping hand,”
Khalsa told reporters at the Hindon airbase near Delhi.
The group of 168 people, who were evacuated from Kabul, included Afghan lawmakers Anarkali Honaryar and Narender Singh Khalsa and their families.
“The avoidable suffering of Afghanistan is man-made and at a scale beyond all civilized contemplation. Afghanistan is going through a difficult time, and only good leadership, compassionate attitude, and international support to the Afghan people would somewhat bring an end to these miseries,” tweeted Farid Mamundzay, Afghanistan’s ambassador to India.
God save Afghanistan.