 "Over 4,000 Indians evacuated from Iran and Israel under Operation Sindhu: MEA")
India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday provided a detailed update on Operation Sindhu, launched on June 19 to evacuate Indian nationals from conflict-hit regions in West Asia, particularly Iran and Israel.
Addressing the media, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that the evacuation effort has successfully brought home thousands of Indian citizens stranded in the region amid escalating tensions.
“We have around 10,000 people from the Indian community in Iran, around 40,000 people in Israel who are Indian nationals.” From Iran, we have so far evacuated 3,426 Indian nationals, 11 OCI cardholders, 9 Nepalese nationals and some Sri Lankan nationals as well. I’ll give you the exact figure. Plus one Iranian national who happens to be the spouse of an Indian national. In all, we mounted 14 flights to bring back Indian nationals from Iran. These flights, they flew from Mashhad, as well as from Yerevan in Armenia, and Ashgabat, Turkmenistan," he added.
#WATCH | Delhi | On Operation Sidhu to evacuate Indians from Iran and Israel, MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal says, "... We launched Operation Sindhu on June 18. We have around 10,000 Indians in Iran and 40,000 in Israel. From Iran, 3426 Indians and 11 OCI cardholders, nine from… pic.twitter.com/L5mZ5RSLWo
— ANI (@ANI) June 26, 2025
Further, Jaiswal confirmed that, “one more flight is to come from or is on its way from Armenia and it will land later this evening. With that, we would have completed all the people who wish to be evacuated from Iran and they would be back home.
“In Israel, 818 Indian nationals were evacuated in four flights. Due to Israel’s closed airspace, Indians were taken to Jordan and Egypt, from where special flights were operated to bring them back home. The MEA expressed gratitude to the governments of Egypt, Jordan, and Israel for their support.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“As far as Israel is concerned, we have so far evacuated 818 Indian nationals in four flights. As you are aware, the airspace in Israel was closed, so we had to take our people to bordering countries, that is Jordan and Egypt, and from both these countries they were put on special flights and they came back home. We are thankful to the governments of Egypt, Jordan for this support,” he said.
“Our embassies in Israel, in Jordan, in Egypt, collaborated very closely with the ministry headquarters here in mounting this operation. Once again, we’d like to thank the governments of Israel, Jordan, and Egypt for the support in Operation Sindhu,” he added.Jaiswal also thanked the governments of Iran for opening their airspace for evacuation.
“We made a request and they hope to open the airspace for us to evacuate our nationals. We are grateful to the government of Iran for this special gesture. We are also thankful to the government of Turkmenistan and Armenia for helping us evacuate our people,” he said.
With inputs from agencies
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
