A Mahan Air evacuation flight carrying 256 Indian students, most of them from Kashmir, landed safely at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on Saturday, offering much-needed relief to anxious families after days of uncertainty.
The students had been stranded in Iran amid escalating tensions in the Middle East. Visibly tired but relieved, they disembarked after what many described as an emotionally exhausting ordeal.
This would not have been possible because of the timely coordination between the Government of India and Iranian authorities," the Jammu and Kashmir Students' Association said in a statement.
"We are still committed to making sure the remaining students are evacuated safely, particularly those from remote and vulnerable areas."
The group confirmed that there was another evacuation flight scheduled to land in the national capital at 11:30 p.m. Saturday.
This was the second flight in 24 hours to bring back Indian citizens from Iran under Operation Sindhu, an operation initiated by India's Ministry of External Affairs to bring back citizens impacted by the escalating war between Israel and Iran.
Late on Friday evening, a flight from Mashhad, Iran, landed in Delhi with 290 Indian students, again predominately from Jammu and Kashmir. Students had been flown from Tehran to Mashhad by officials before boarding, Iran opening its airspace as a gesture of goodwill to facilitate the evacuation process.
Together, nearly 1,000 Indian citizens are due to come home through a series of special repatriation flights. Two additional flights — one from Turkmen capital Ashgabat, due to arrive in Delhi at about 3 a.m. on Sunday — are part of this ongoing initiative.
"Grateful thanks to the Government of India, Ministry of External Affairs, and the concerned authorities for their prompt action and intervention," the students' association stated, reporting the wave of emotional relief sweeping across families in Jammu and Kashmir.
Operation Sindhu was initiated due to the massive dislocation of air travel in the region following the Israel-Iran conflict. Another 110 Indian students were evacuated from the region on Thursday through Armenia and Doha as part of the same operation.
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