NEW DELHI: The operation was tricky but the “SkyLords”, the nickname of the C-17 Globemaster-III squadron in
IAF
, once again proved their mettle by evacuating almost 200 Indians in two aircraft from war-torn Kabul over the last couple of days.
The delicate operation saw the C-17 aircraft flying from the
Hindon
airbase near Delhi late on Sunday night, taking a circuitous route through Iranian airspace to avoid Pakistan, touching down at the
Ayni
airbase in Tajikistan for “parking” and closely coordinating with the US forces to land at the chaotic Kabul airport and then finally taking off for India.
There were several imponderables. The majority of people at the Indian embassy in Kabul, for instance, failed to reach the airport on Monday morning. Gun-toting
Taliban militia had imposed roadblocks on the way, even as the US forces tried to enforce order in the airport’s military section overrun by thousands of Afghans desperate to flee their country, said sources.
“It was a tricky situation, and Monday was especially tense, but the IAF pulled it off,” said a source, after the second C-17 finally landed in India on Tuesday with around 140 Indians, including diplomatic staff and ITBP security personnel. The first C-17 had returned to India on Monday morning with just about 50 people who managed to reach the Kabul airport in time.
The C-17s had to divert earlier to Tajikistan because of the ongoing turmoil on the ground at the Kabul airport. Moreover, the US forces, controlling the air traffic control and other facilities there, also said there were limited parking slots due to the huge rush by several countries to evacuate their personnel, said the sources.
The Indian armed forces, of course, are well-acquainted with the Ayni airbase in Tajikistan, a country which shares a 1,400-km border with Afghanistan and is also in close proximity to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.
In the 1990s, India had run a famous field hospital at Farkor on the Tajik-Afghan border to treat wounded fighters from the then Northern Alliance which was battling the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
Over the years, as part of the “strategic partnership” with Tajikistan, Indian military personnel have been stationed at the Ayni airbase to assist in its upgrade with extension of the runway and construction of aircraft hangars, air-control tower and perimeter fencing.
The four-engine C-17s of the SkyLords have earlier flown “special overseas airlift missions’’ to Tajikistan, among other countries. India has inducted 11 C-17s from the US over the last decade at a cost of around $4.5 billion. Designed to swiftly airlift a 70-tonne cargo or 180-190 combat-ready troops across 4,200-km, the rugged C-17 can even land at makeshift airstrips inforward areas.
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