Children of martyrs belonging to the Afghan Nationals Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF) have been conferred scholarships by India. The scholarships for 125 children were initiated from the academic year 2018-19 with the students being admitted to graduate and postgraduate courses in various Indian institutions. Additionally two Mi-24V helicopters were handed over to Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Modi during his visit to Afghanistan on December 25, 2016, had announced 500 scholarships for the children of the martyrs of Afghan Security Forces.
Meanwhile, New Delhi has given the replacements for all four Mi-24V helicopters that it had given to Afghanistan in 2015-2016. While two helicopters were given earlier this year, two more were handed over to ANDSF on Tuesday by the Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan, Vinay Kumar, at a ceremony in the presence of Afghanistan's Defence Minister Asadullah Khalid.
At the event, the Indian envoy "commended the ANDSF on their stellar effort to provide an umbrella of security to achieve these shared and common values, against cross border terrorism and internal threats" and congratulated "the Afghan Air Force on the new induction, that would ensure that the ANDSF maintains an agile and robust counter-terrorism capability".
During Narendra Modi's visit to Afghanistan, New Delhi had gifted four Mi-25 helicopters to the Afghan Air Force. It was during this visit that PM Modi inaugurated the Afghan Parliament, which was built by India.
The Afghan mission in a tweet said, "We express our gratitude to the Indian govt for handing over the 2nd pair of Mi-24V helicopters to Afghan Minister of Defence Asadullah Khalid."
The helicopters are also a symbol of trilateral cooperation with Belarus as the third country, which made these available for use by ANDSF.
India is currently providing assistance to Afghan National Defence and Security forces (ANDSF) by training the personnel and in the past has trained Afghan pilots as well.
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