Flight carrying 110 Indian students land in Delhi from war-torn Iran

New Delhi: A first flight carrying 110 Indian students evacuated from war-torn Iran arrived in New Delhi from Armenia early on Thursday.

Amid escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, Indian students in Tehran were moved out of the city, 110 of them crossing the border into Armenia, through arrangements made by the Indian Embassy on Tuesday under 'Operation Sindhu'.

Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh said more people are being evacuated. "We have planes ready. We will be sending another plane today. We are evacuating some more people from Turkmenistan. Our missions have opened 24-hour lines for any request for evacuation. As the situation evolves, we will be sending more planes to evacuate Indian nationals," Singh, who is also the Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, told reporters. 

He thanked governments in Turkmenistan and Armenia for their support. 

Varta, a student from Kashmir, who was among those who landed here, said, "We were the first ones to be evacuated from Iran. The situation was quite critical. We were terrified. We thank Indian government and Indian embassy who worked very fast and swiftly to bring us here. Our neighbourhood was attacked. When the Indian government came to our doorstep it felt like home," she told PTI.

She said the Armenian authorities were also very helpful. 

Mir Khalif, an MBBS student who landed in Delhi, said it was a tense situation in Iran. "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 told reporters. 

Khalif thanked the Indian government for evacuating them first to Armenia and then bringing them back home. "There are students still stuck in Iran. They are being relocated to safer places. We hope they will also be airlifted to India soon," he added. 

Ali Akbar, another Indian student, said that while they were travelling in a bus, 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," the student from Delhi said. 

Parents of some students were seen anxiously waiting outside the airport for their children.

Haider Ali, father of 21-year-old Maaz Haider, an MBBS student in Iran, thanked the Indian government for the rescue efforts. "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 said, and urged the authorities to evacuate students still stranded in Tehran. 

The Jammu and Kashmir Students' Association thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for launching the evacuation effort. "We remain hopeful that all remaining students will be evacuated soon," the association said in a statement.