As the Taliban take-over of Aghanistan has shaken up the entire world, it has left several Indian nationals in a life-or-death situation. The Jammu and Kashmir Students' Association (JKSA) has set up a toll-free helpline number for Kashmiri students stuck in Afghanistan to facilitate their return home safely. The helpline number (1800 891 9650) is also open for people from other Indian states and the association has already received a distress call from the family of a Noida-based businessman who was visiting Afghanistan with his mother, for work.
There are around 25 students from Jammu and Kashmir, spread across India, who attend to the distress call on the toll-free number. The number was launched two months ago for Kashmiri students in need. The national spokesperson of JKSA, Nasir Khuehami, said, "Even though our domain is Kashmiri students, we are helping other people as well as it is a big crisis and humanity has no religion, caste and creed."
Khuehami said, "We are coordinating with the government to rescue and evacuate them. We shared their number with relevant authorities. The ministry will likely get in touch with them today." Confirming that the JKSA had indeed helped, the businessman's brother said, "The Ministry of External Affairs contacted us but there has been no concrete help as of now. It is our sources on the ground who are trying to help them."
The family has requested anonymity and is hopeful that things get better soon. "Two aircraft with a proper flight crew are on standby for the Kabul evacuation. The government is monitoring the situation very closely," a government official told ANI.
Khuehami said that the businessman was "visibly" in a lot of distress and that he was fearful about what the situation in the coming days would be like. He added that the person is in a safe location with adequate food supplies. "I had spoken to him last night. I will be getting in touch with him again. The last we spoke, he said he is all right and doing fine now," he said. Khuehami had received a call from the person's sister and then got in touch with him in Afghanistan. The sister had also tweeted a distress call tagging various authorities from the Ministry of External Affairs, and Home Minister Amit Shah.