Dikhyaa Mohanty 
The relatives of Afghan Sikhs and Indian nationals had to wait for long hours at the IGI airport to receive them before the Union Health Ministry announced that all the evacuees will have to undergo mandatory quarantine for 14 days at the ITBP camp in Chhawla in Najafgarh.
According to the official reports, many Sikh families were waiting at the airport for their relatives, who returned from Afghanistan on a special Air India flight. However, they couldn’t meet their near and dear ones as they were shunted for the mandatory 14-day quarantine at the ITBP facility.
With the government making efforts to airlift Indian as well as Afghan nationals from war-torn Afghanistan, 14-day quarantine has been made mandatory for all the evacuees landing at the IGI Airport here. The decision turned the hopes and excitement of the relatives into sorrow and disappointment.
All the evacuees from Afghanistan will have to go for quarantine irrespective of their Covid reports. RT-PCR tests were conducted on 78 Indian and Afghan nationals returning from Afghanistan on Tuesday. None of the reports has returned positive so far. Yet, all will need to undergo the 14-day mandatory quarantine period.
