By IANS,
Bangalore: Amid reports about the increased security threat to Indians in Afghanistan after the Feb 26 terror strike, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Saturday said no Indian embassy staffer in Kabul wanted to return, but the government would consider any transfer requests that were received.
Asked about reports that some some embassy staff wanted to return to India due to fears of terror attacks, Krishna said if some wanted to come back due to family compulsions the government will consider it.
“Well, anyway, they are entitled to get transfers. So depending upon each application, depending upon each request, I think, a valued decision will be taken,” he told reporters.
Krishna, however, stressed that no one wanted to come back.
Recalling his visit to Afghanistan late last year after the second attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, Krishna said he had asked the embassy staff at that time if any of them wanted to return home. To his pleasant surprise, not a single employee wanted to come back to India, he said.
He quoted the staff as saying they would “live through it”, and stressed that it showed the “resolve and determination” of Indian diplomats serving overseas.
Krishna said the security of the Indian embassy staff in Kabul was being enhanced in the aftermath of the Feb 26 terror attack that killed seven Indians.
Suicide bombers struck at a hotel and a guest house Feb 26 in central Kabul, killing seven Indians in a “26/11-like operation”.