Afghan students who won Indian scholarships said that their visas to India have been canceled.

They said that although more than a year has passed since their studies, the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs still refused to let them go to India.

Information technology student Habibullah said that he is unable to continue his education in India since he does not have an Indian visa. He stated that the university had given him a month to show up to his classes.

"The universities have given us the final warning, and they informed us that all of our admissions will be canceled if our applications are not submitted to the universities in less than a month. We ask the interior and foreign ministries of Afghanistan and India to provide us visas, said student Habibullah Qurieshi.

"We made numerous attempts to obtain visas and access our scholarships; we spoke with representatives from the India embassy and the scholarships, and the university, but unfortunately we were unsuccessful. We tried a lot. No responses were given to us. We are left in Afghanistan with no future, and the Taliban government also doesn't care about us,” said Shukria, another student.

According to information provided by these students, almost 2,500 Afghan students who are recipients of Indian scholarships currently do not have visas to enter India.

"Their words show that the students might pose a threat to the nation's security. While the majority of these students spent many years studying in the Republic of India," a student named Nasir Ahmad said.

However, the Indian Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar said that the ministry has decided to cancel the student visas for Afghan students due to the inactivity of the Indian Embassy in Kabul.

“You know what happened in Afghanistan last August, and the problems that it has created. We had a situation where we had to pull out our embassy, we did not even have a presence on the ground to verify what is what. At that time there was a lot of uncertainty about whose passport was whose, whose visa was whose…these are real issues out there. So, I know it is a very difficult task but at the end of the day, you know every country has to have systems ... and we have to wait for a good level of trust and efficiency to come,” Indian Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar said.

According to The Hindu newspaper, Afghanistan’s Ambassador to India, Farid Mamundzay, said that he has raised the issue on several occasions with officials in the Ministry of External Affairs.

“We have not received any convincing reason so far for why the visas to Afghan students, who were pursuing studies in India, have not been given,” Mamundzay told members of the South Asian Women in Media (SAWM) group in Delhi.

Currently, about 1,400 Afghan students are pursuing masters and doctoral degrees at 73 Indian universities.