NEW DELHI: For the first time, 18 students from the southern states figured in the repatriation flights which brought back Indians from war-torn Iran.
Sunday witnessed two flights arriving from Mashhad City in North Eastern Iran via Mahan Air with the highest number of 596 students reaching New Delhi. This brings the number of Indians evacuated from Iran to 1713, which includes 184 pilgrims.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is facilitating the evacuation operations under 'Operation Sindhu' launched on June 19. Iran’s private airline, Mahan Air, has been bringing the students to New Delhi after Iran opened up its airspace for these flights on Friday (June 20).
An official said, “For the first time on Sunday, we had students from the Southern States reaching Delhi. In the first flight with 311 students which reached Indira Gandhi International Airport at 4 pm, we had 8 students from Karnataka and one from Kerala. In the second flight which will land by 11.30 pm, two students from Telangana and four from Karnataka are arriving.”
A majority of the students are from Jammu & Kashmir.
“All the students are pursuing their MBBS degree and are drawn from different universities spread across Iran,” he said.
The first batch of students evacuated from Iran via Armenia reached New Delhi on June 19, days after Israel launched an unprovoked attack on Iran triggering the ongoing conflict.
According to the official, 223 students were evacuated on June 20 while 600 were brought home on June 21 and 596 on June 22.
“On June 21 alone, 184 pilgrims were brought to Delhi by an early morning flight,” he added.
The flights are expected to continue for a couple more days with two expected to arrive each day.