‘Operation Sindhu’: When 180 Indian students home returning remained stuck in the sky for 36 hours

Imagine, you are trapped in an unknown country among violent riots. As soon as you reach the airport after saving your life, you expect to come back home. But then it is known that the only air route to go home is closed. A similar scary experience occurred to 180 Kashmiri students trapped in Kyrgyzstan, whose homecoming could be a very stressful কূটনৈতিক مشن.

Those moments of fear and helplessness

Sudden riots against foreigners were erupted in Kyrgyzstan. Kashmiri students were scared and wanted to leave from there somehow. With the help of the Government of India and Kashmiri activist Nasir Khuhami, a special flight was arranged for him, but the real challenge now came to light. The aircraft had to pass through the airspace in Iran to come to India. At the same time, the President of Iran died in a helicopter crash and Iran shut down its entire aircraft.

Now the students were trapped at the airport, in a situation where the well was ate and behind. His expectations were being broken.

‘Operation Sindhu’ started behind the curtain

As soon as this news reached Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs got into action. It was a major examination watch for the Indian Embassy in Tehran (Iran). Ambassador Rudra Gaurav Shrestha and his team named this mission as “Operation Sindhu” and immediately started talking to Iranian officials. This was not a common conversation. On the one hand, Iran was in national mourning and was not allowing any aircraft for security reasons, on the other hand the security of 180 Indian citizens was at stake.

The next 36 hours of phone bells continued to ring continuously. Indian diplomats tried to convince Iranian officials on humanitarian grounds and, citing strong relations between India and Iran, how important it was to remove these students.

Finally achieved success

Eventually, Indian diplomacy won after 36 hours of continuous stress and tireless efforts. Iran agreed to give only a small “special window” (for some time) to one Indian aircraft to pass through its aircraft. As soon as the green signal was received, the SpiceJet aircraft flew away with the students and got safe in Delhi in a few hours.

The relief and happiness on the faces of the students as soon as he got off the aircraft tells the biggest story of this successful operation. This mission is an example of the courage of the Indian Embassy and the victory of the heroes working quietly behind the curtain.