Relieved, happy to have reached India

Amid Israel-Iran conflict, Op Sindhu's first evacuation flight with 110 medical students, mostly from Kashmir, arrives

- S LALITHA @ New Delhi

PROUDLY flaunting miniature tricolour flags, the first set of students stepped out of Gate 5 of Terminal 3 of Indira Gandhi International Airport by 4.45 am on Thursday. They figured among the 110 medical students from Iran brought back in the first evacuation flight of Operation Sindhu, launched by the government to bring back Indians safely in light of the escalation in the Iran-Israel conflict.

The students who reached India 51 hours after their journey began looked completely hassled. They had travelled a distance of over 600 km from their university in Urmiya to the neighbouring country Armenia on June 17. The next day (June 18), they boarded an Indigo special flight at Yerevan, Armenia's capital, at 2:55 pm (local time). At a stopover in Doha, they had to switch to another Indigo special flight before reaching Delhi. The Ministry of External Affairs and its missions in Tehran and Armenia facilitated the process, with all expenses borne by the government.