
NEW DELHI: Holding miniature Indian flags with pride, a group of 110 medical students from Iran arrived at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport around 4.45 am on Thursday.
They were part of the first evacuation flight under Operation Sindhu, launched by the Indian government to bring citizens back safely following the rising tensions in the Iran-Israel conflict.
The students had been on a long and tiring journey for nearly 51 hours. They traveled over 600 kilometers from their university in Urmiya, Iran, to Armenia on June 17. From there, they boarded a special IndiGo flight from Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, at 2.55 pm (local time) on June 18.
After a stopover in Doha, they switched to another special flight before finally reaching Delhi. The evacuation was organized by the Ministry of External Affairs with support from Indian missions in Tehran and Armenia, and all costs were covered by the government.
“A total of 110 students, all pursuing their MBBS degrees from the Urmiya University of Medical Sciences, have reached Delhi. Of them 94, including 54 women students, hail from Kashmir. The remaining 16 students hail from Delhi, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal,” said an official involved in the repatriation process.
At the airport, even before the students could meet their families, they were surrounded by media personnel eager to speak to them about their experience.
Aman Nazar, a fourth-year MBBS student, said, “I had one thing at the back of my mind that India would come and take us back like they did with students in Ukraine. The situation (in Iran) was not devastating but it was not normal. There were drones and there were people injured and we could hear the sounds of missiles. We are truly grateful to be in India and we are thankful to the Indian government to bring us safely.”
Yasir Jafer added, “Once we reached Armenia, we felt safe. We were a bit scared in Iran due to many sounds around and the missile attacks.”
Mariam Roz’s mother, who was waiting eagerly at the airport, said, “My daughter had no plans to come. I convinced her a lot and finally she agreed to come at the last minute. I told her that the Embassy will not keep on arranging such evacuation flights and she needs to use this opportunity.”
Mariam said, “The Embassy took care of everything for us. I am just very tired after travelling for three days.” Speaking about the situation in Iran, she said, “When we were departing from Umriya, we could see missiles shooting off through our window. I only remember one incident which occurred at 3 am one day when a missile went above our dorm and the window got terribly shaken.”
Another student, Ghazal Rashid, said, “We are very happy to have reached India today. The Indian Embassy has brought us back safely and in a very nice way. We are very thankful to them. The situation was very bad in Teheran, the Capital City. But not much happened where we were staying as compared to Teheran.”
Many students expressed their hope to return to Iran once the situation improves so they can complete their medical studies.