As India evacuates the stranded Hindus and Sikhs from war-torn Afghanistan, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Sunday raked up the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and said the developments in the volatile neighbourhood were the reason why the enactment of such a law was necessary.
"Recent developments in our volatile neighbourhood and the way Sikhs and Hindus are going through a harrowing time are precisely why it was necessary to enact the Citizenship Amendment Act,ā Puri tweeted.
The CAA allows persecuted minorities belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi, and Christian communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan to seek citizenship in India.
People belonging to these communities who arrived in India till December 31, 2014, due to religious persecution in these three countries will not be treated as illegal migrants but will be provided with Indian citizenship.
India on Sunday brought back 392 people, including two Afghan lawmakers, in three different flightsin the backdrop of increasing hostilities by the Taliban and deteriorating security situation in the city after it fell to the militant outfit a week back.
A total of 168 people, including 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. Another group of 87 Indians and two Nepalese nationals were brought back in a special Air India flight from Dushanbe, a day after they were evacuated to the Tajikistan capital in an IAF 130J transport aircraft, officials said.
Separately, 135 Indians, who were earlier evacuated from Kabul to Doha in the last few days by the US and NATO aircraft, were flown back from the Qatari capital city to Delhi on a special flight, they said.
With PTI inputs