Four buses with Indian students depart from Iran, one reaches Armenia late night

The first batch of students will reach Mumbai airport on March 14 while the majority of students will reach Delhi on March 15.

The students had been pleading to be brought back to India since Feb 28 (Photo | Special Arrangement)

NEW DELHI: Despair gave way to much relief on Thursday morning among Indian medical students stuck in Qom and Urmia cities in Iran after they received messages from FlyDubai confirming their scheduled flight tickets to India via Dubai. Many had received messages a day earlier that their tickets were cancelled, upsetting them and their parents back in India enormously. The students had been pleading to be brought back to India since Feb 28

Accompanied by Indian Embassy officials,  three buses packed with students from these two cities departed to Armenia while a fourth bus with students from Shiraz University is on its way to Azerbaijan via Qom.

"Students from Urmia University of Medical Sciences have reached Armenia on Thursday night. They are in hotels there now," Mohammad Momin Khan, National Representative of the All India Medical Students Association told this reporter .

A good number of students from Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and Iran University of Medical Sciences in Teheran,who were staying at hotels in Qom, are near the border of Iran and Armenia. "They are awaiting clearance from immigration" he said .

Out of  86 Indian medical students studying at Shiraz University, 48 students have departed towards Azerbaijan via Qom. "These students will stay in Qom for a few days before proceeding to the Azerbaijan border," Dr Khan said.

The first batch of students will reach Mumbai airport on March 14 while the majority of students will reach Delhi on March 15. The latter will go by bus to Jammu & KashmirStudents who left Iran today figured among the 1,000-plus students who were stuck in Iran after th US-Israel strikes on the country began due to their university exams which were cancelled later.

Khan added, "On 11 March, many students received distressing messages stating that their flights from Armenia had been cancelled, creating panic among those preparing to leave. However, they got information early on Thursday that the flights will take off as scheduled. At present, only the flights scheduled for 17 March is still showing as cancelled."