Malappuram/New Delhi: A Malayali student was among the batch of Indians who returned safely to India on Saturday under 'Operation Sindhu', the evacuation mission launched by the Indian government to bring back citizens from Iran amid the ongoing conflict.

Fadila Kachakaran, a native of Mudikode in Malappuram, is a second-semester MBBS student at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Tehran. She arrived on a special evacuation flight in Delhi around 5 pm on Saturday. She is scheduled to reach Kochi airport on an IndiGo flight around 11.45 pm, according to NORKA sources.

Fadila had travelled to Iran in September 2024 to pursue MBBS.

The evacuation efforts are being coordinated by a special task force formed on the instructions of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The team is led by Additional Resident Commissioner Chetan Kumar Meena to facilitate the safe return of Malayalis from conflict-affected regions.

Key officials involved in the operation include NORKA Development Officer J Shajimon, Liaison Officer Rahul K Jaiswar, Protocol Officer R Rajikumar, Executive Engineer B Baiju, Resident Engineer Dennis Rajan, Assistant Engineers C Munawar Juman and N Sreegesh, along with NORKA Assistant Bijo Jose and other liaison officers and staff.

Special evacuation flights carrying Indian nationals landed in Delhi late Friday night and Saturday as part of the operation. The first evacuation flight from Mashhad, Iran, arrived in New Delhi at 11.30 pm on Friday with 290 passengers onboard, followed by another flight from Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, which landed at 3 am on Saturday. A third flight from Mashhad, Iran, carrying 310 Indian nationals, landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi at 5 pm. With this, the total number of Indians evacuated from conflict-hit Iran has risen to 827.