ITBP commandos back from Afghanistan

New Delhi, August 17

A contingent of 99 ITBP commandos, along with three sniffer dogs, landed at the Hindon IAF base onboard a military evacuation flight from Afghanistan on Tuesday.

The commandos also brought back their personal weapons and belongings and will now undergo a week-long Covid-19 quarantine at an Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) facility in Delhi, officials said.

“With this, our complete contingent deployed for securing the Embassy in Kabul, its four consulates in Afghanistan and diplomats have returned. The commandos came along with Embassy staffers and other Indian nationals,” ITBP spokesperson Vivek Kumar Pandey said.

After landing at Hindon, ITBP contingent commander Ravi Kant Gautam said, “It was a challenging operation as we were evacuating our people from a country where there was no reinforcement. The government of India coordinated the efforts very well and my commandos carried it out nicely on the ground.” The commandos were taken away from the Hindon airbase to the quarantine facility in ITBP buses. — PTI