More than 800 Indian nationals have returned home from Iran under Operation Sindhu. They were Evacuated due to intensifying Iran-Israel conflict, groups including students arrived in Delhi from Friday evening to Saturday morning, the MEA announced
Indian students, evacuated from Iran under OperationSindhu, arrive safely at Delhi Airport after their arduous journey home. File Pic.
Over 800 Indian nationals have so far returned home from Iran under Operation Sindhu, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated on Saturday.
The MEA shared the update on the status of the evacuation operations in Iran through a series of posts on its X account.
Further groups of Indian nationals, including students, arrived in Delhi late on Friday evening and during the early hours of Saturday. Their evacuation from Iran became necessary as its military confrontation with Israel intensified. Following this escalation in the Iran-Israel conflict, the Indian government had officially announced the launch of Operation Sindhu on Wednesday, specifically to evacuate its citizens from Iran, news agency PTI reported.
"#OperationSindhu flight brings citizens home. India evacuated 290 Indian nationals from Iran, including students and religious pilgrims by a charter flight. The flight arrived in New Delhi at 2330 hrs on 20 June and was received by Secretary (CPV& OIA) Arun Chatterjee," MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated on X, as reported by PTI. "The Government of India is grateful to the Government of Iran for the facilitation of the evacuation process," he added.
In a separate post, Jaiswal also shared details of another evacuation flight that had arrived from Turkmenistan. "#OperationSindhu continues. A special evacuation flight from Ashgabat, Turkmenistan landed in New Delhi at 0300 hrs on 21st June, bringing Indians from Iran home. With this, so far 517 Indian nationals from Iran have returned home under Operation Sindhu," he noted.
According to PTI, the first batch of 110 Indian nationals evacuated from Iran had arrived in India on Thursday. Many of these evacuees shared first-hand accounts of the frightening situation they had witnessed before being moved to safer locations. The Minister of State for External Affairs, Kirti Vardhan Singh, personally welcomed them upon their arrival at the Delhi airport after their arduous journey.
In another post later in the evening, Jaiswal provided an update on the arrival of a further evacuation flight. "#OperationSindhu Another evacuation flight from Mashhad landed in New Delhi at 1630 hrs on 21 June with 310 Indian nationals from Iran. With this, a total of 827 Indians have been evacuated," he confirmed, PTI reported.
Additionally, the Indian embassy in Iran, in a post on X, stated: "On request of the Governments of Nepal and Sri Lanka, the Indian Embassy's evacuation efforts in Iran will also cover citizens of Nepal and Sri Lanka."
(With inputs from PTI)
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