The first phase of India’s Operation Sindhu was executed on Friday late night, a special flight carrying 290 Indian students stranded in Iran returned back safely home. It is expected that two more charters that have been sent to Turkmenistan and Ashgabat will return today to IGI airport by evening 4:30 PM and 11:30 PM respectively. As soon as the flight touched Delhi airport, chanting and slogans of hail India reverberated in the air.
Although Iran’s airspace is currently non-functional due to war, in a kind gesture to India, the Iranian government has opened the airspace with limited access for safe and peaceful evacuation of Indian students.
Mohammad Javad Hosseini, deputy chief of mission at the Iranian embassy in Delhi shared, “Iran’s airspace is currently closed, but we’re facilitating limited access for the safe evacuation of Indian nationals.” Hosseini noted that there are plans for additional flights in coming days and the embassy is working closely with the government on this.
Students who reached Delhi yesterday night shared their harrowing stories with the media and were in praise of Indian authorities for swift action. One of the students shared, “I am grateful to the Indian government for saving my life, I was living there with utmost difficulties, with little food and uncertainty of life.”
A Kashmiri student studying in Iran University of Medical Sciences named Sehrish Rafique shared that at first, they hadn’t realised that the situation in Iran would deteriorate to this extent that for us survival would be a big deal.”
Another student, Fatima, while in a discussion shared that the situation is bad over there but with the Indian government’s support we could come back easily.” Many evacuees expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the safe return to the motherland.
As per a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs, “Out of the 290 Indians who landed today, 190 are from Jammu and Kashmir.” The MEA further expressed happiness that Iran opened its airspace to facilitate this operation.
“It reflects the strong ties between India and Iran,” said Arun Kumar Chatterjee, Secretary (Consular, Passport and Visa), MEA.
Currently 10,000 Indians are stranded in Iran, mostly Indian students. The Indian government hasn’t sent any specific advisory for the Indian citizens but has urged them to be vigilant and stop unnecessary movement.
