Stranded Afghan students protest in front of Indian Embassy in Kabul, demand visa to continue studies 

Afghan students studying in Indian universities and who are now stranded in the war-torn nation as they await their Indian student visas, protested in front of the Indian Embassy in Kabul on Wednesday, September 28, to grant them the same. Meena Nazami, who is a former Afghan student of Delhi University, recalled that classes and exams resumed in the physical mode in India in February 2022. However, no Afghan student has received their visa. “More than 2,000 students enrolled in Indian universities missed their classes and were forced to skip their exams, eventually resulting in dropping a semester,” she had earlier informed EdexLive.

Students gathered near the Indian Embassy in Kabul on September 28, holding banners appealing to the Indian government to grant them visas. They earlier said that while they were told to apply for the emergency e-visa, they haven’t received any positive response from officials in both countries. This e-Emergency X-Misc Visa is an electronic visa available only for Afghan citizens and valid for only six months, owing to the emergency in the country.

Students have taken to social media platforms such as Twitter with the hashtag #IssueVisaToAfghanStudentsIndia and tagged ministers in India and Afghanistan. Ambassador M Ashraf Haidari, who is the Ambassador of Afghanistan to Sri Lanka, responded to one of the students’ tweets stating that, “As an act of regional leadership, India can help secure the future of these Afghan students studying in Indian universities but stuck under oppressive Taliban to return to their studies. They need a visa to do so.”