New Delhi: India evacuated 110 Indian students from war-hit Iran on Wednesday. The plane carrying them landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Thursday morning. Of the 110 students brought back from the Middle Eastern nation, 90 are from Jammu and Kashmir.
India’s Operation Sindhu
This is the first batch of students to be evacuated from Iran. All of them are students of the Urmia Medical University. They were transited via Armenia and Doha and boarded the flight to Delhi, late on Wednesday night. Their flight landed nearly 3 hours late in Delhi.
The Indian students were evacuated from Iran under India’s rescue mission, ‘Operation Sindhu’. This operation has been launched in wake of the ongoing war between Iran and Israel and is aimed at rescuing Indian nationals.
The Ministry of External Affairs released a statement confirming the rescue operation. It said, “Indian students in Tehran have been moved out of the city for safety regions through arrangements made by the Indian Embassy.” The Indian students left the Zvartnots International Airport in Yerevan via a special flight at 14:55 IST on June 18, according to the Ministry.
MEA spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal in a post on ‘X’ said, “Operation Sindhu begins. India launched Operation Sindhu to evacuate Indian nationals from Iran. India evacuated 110 students from northern Iran who crossed into Armenia under the supervision of our Missions in Iran and Armenia on 17th June. They departed from Yerevan on a special flight and will arrive in New Delhi in the early hours of 19th June 2025. India accords the highest priority to the safety and security of her nationals abroad.”
Following the successful evacuation of students from the war-hit nation, the Jammu and Kashmir Students’ Association thanked PM Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for the timely intervention and safe evacuation of students. They said that they hoped that other Indians stuck in the country would also be brought back soon.
Iran-Israel war
Iran and Israel are involved in a dangerous conflict over the nuclear facilities of the former. Israel launched “Operation Rising Lion” against Iran’s nuclear facilities. In response Tehran launched a barrage of missiles and drones over Israeli territory.
More than 20 people were killed in Israel and several others were left injured. Later Israel claimed to have hit a nuclear site, while Iran said that it fired hypersonic missiles.
