Flight carrying 110 Indian students, evacuated to Armenia from war-torn Iran, lands in Delhi
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.
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