Flight carrying 110 Indian students, evacuated to Armenia from Iran, lands in Delhi

“We remain hopeful that all remaining students will be evacuated soon,” the association said in a statement, reported PTI.

The first flight carrying over 100 students, who were evacuated to Armenia from war-torn Iran, landed in Delhi in the early hours on Thursday. (Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav)

According to Haider Ali, father of 21-year-old Maaz Haider, who is an MBBS student in Iran, “We are really happy. The students have been brought back home safely. We thank the Indian government for this. But we are sad that students, who are stuck in Tehran, have not been rescued,” he told PTI. Ali further urged the administration to evacuate other students still stranded in Iran.

India on Wednesday announced that it has launched ‘Operation Sindhu’ to evacuate Indian nationals stuck in Iran amid the fears of an all out war between Israel and Iran. As India started its evacuation, the Iranian embassy officials stated that some India students sustained injuries in the strike and that Iran’s foreign ministry was in communication with the Indian mission in Tehran.

Parvez Alam, a Bulandshahr resident and father of Sameer Alam, who was seen waiting for his son at the airport told PTI, “It has been two years since he has been studying in Urmia. Everything was fine but recently the situation deteriorated. We were under a lot of stress. But the Indian government evacuated students to Armenia where they were kept in good hotels. We are thankful to the Indian government.”

Indian students evacuated from Iran landed in Delhi in the early hours on Thursday. (Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav)

One of the 110 students who landed in Delhi in first evacuation flight, Mir Khalif, said the situation in Iran was tense. “We could see missiles. There was a war going on. Our neighbourhood was bombed. We were very afraid of the situation. I hope we will never see those days again,” he said.

Ali Akbar, another Indian student from Delhi, detailed while they were travelling in a bus towards Armenia, they saw a missile and a drone falling. “The situation that has been shown in the news is correct. It is extremely bad. Tehran has been destroyed,” he said, reported PTI.

(with inputs from PTI)