INDIA'S DECADE OF RESCUING CITIZENS FROM FOREIGN SHORES

In the past decade, India has focused extensively and invested significant resources in rescuing its stranded citizens from abroad, especially those in conflict zones.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA NEW DELHI

These efforts have not only created a sense of assurance and confidence among its citizens that they will not be left behind in case of emergencies, but has also instilled a sense of obligation in foreign governments to ensure that Indian citizens are treated with the same care and concern as their own citizens.

Officials sources, while speaking to The Sunday Guardian said that the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government has employed a range of diplomatic and, at times, military measures to address the challenges of securing its people in hostile environments and regions marked by international tensions.

One of the most significant early cases of such rescue of an individual came in 2018. Hamid Ansari, a Mumbai-based Indian national, was imprisoned in Pakistan on charges of espionage after he inadvertently crossed the border. His detention had become a prolonged diplomatic issue between India and Pakistan with his distraught mother losing all hopes of seeing her son back.

While Ansari had crossed into Pakistan in 2012, it was only in December 2018, due to sustained back channel diplomatic efforts undertaken by the Modi government that he was successfully brought back to India.

In June 2014, the Indian government carried out one of its

earliest high-profile rescue operations when 46 Indian nurses were abducted by ISIS terrorists in Tikrit, Iraq. The nurses were working in a hospital when ISIS seized the city. After their 23 days in captivity, the Indian government successfully brought them back home. The operation marked the beginning of a series of successful rescue operations carried out by India in subsequent years. While the details of what and how this was done never came out, sources said that all relevant stakeholders, even those who were not a part of the government machinery, were involved in this operation.