Srinagar- After being caught up in the middle of air raids and barrages of missiles in Ukraine for five consecutive days, the first batch of 18 students from Kashmir region on Wednesday arrived in New Delhi in the Government of India’s “special evacuation” flight.
According to the officials, the J&K Administration has set up a help desk at Delhi Airport for the assistance of these students and has also arranged their accommodation at J&K House in New Delhi.
Notably, 13 of these students who were waiting at Budapest airport since Tuesday evening were brought back to Delhi in the IndiGo 6E aircraft that had reached Budapest from Delhi at 06.35 pm Tuesday under Government of India’s Operation Ganga. The five students were brought back to Delhi in another aircraft that had taken off from Delhi to Poland Tuesday night.
Talking to Kashmir Observer, National spokesman of Jammu and Kashmir Students Association (JKSA), Nasir Khuehami said that all these students have landed safely in Delhi and will be provided free accommodation by J&K Administration’s officials in Delhi.
“13 of these students were brought back to India today morning after GOI’s special flight took off from Delhi airport for Romania last evening. Five other students were evacuated from Poland in another special flight that landed in Delhi a few minutes ago.” Nasir told Kashmir Observer.
On Tuesday, Kashmir Observer had reported that 49 Kashmiri students who were staying in underground shelters in different regions—Kharkiv, Odessa, Kiev and Sumy—of Ukraine had managed to cross into Moldova and were on their way to Romanian capital, Budapest.
As per Nasir, J&K Administration has decided to provide free tickets to these 18 students who are currently putting up at J&K House. “All of these 18 students will leave for Srinagar tomorrow.” Nasir said.
Earlier, six students from Samba and 2 students from Udhampur district of J&K had landed at Jammu airport and headed for their homes.
It is pertinent to mention here that three more aircrafts including one C-17 Globemaster of the Indian Air Force under Operation Ganga are on their way to Poland, Hungary and Romania, respectively. Many Kashmiri students are expected to arrive at New Delhi airport in these special evacuation flights.
A Kashmiri student who has been able to get a ticket for a special flight from Romania to Delhi said that the situation in Ukraine is grim, particularly in the main cities and in neighboring countries including Romania there’s a sense of panic.
“War is destructive where one does not know what will happen next. But, at the same time we were confident enough to leave Ukraine, make it to Romania and leave for Kashmir at the earliest, to stay alive.” Shahid Habib told Kashmir Observer.
Pertinently, as per reports, in next two days all the Kashmiri students are expected to be evacuated by the Indian Government and flown back to Delhi from Poland, Hungary and Romania.
J&K Opens Help Desk At New Delhi Airport
Meanwhile the Jammu and Kashmir government has established a help desk at the New Delhi Airport to provide assistance to the evacuees from Ukraine.
The help desk established by the Resident Commission (RC) at the New Delhi Airport welcomed the students of J&K arriving in the capital from Ukraine, an official spokesperson said. The students, he said, were received by the officers of the Resident Commission.
The spokesperson said that the staff of Resident Commission J&K assisted them by all possible means on their arrival.
“Boarding and lodging arrangements have also been made for those staying over in New Delhi,” he said.
“Moreover, Air Tickets were provided to the evacuees as per their requirements for their onward journey to Jammu and Srinagar by the J&K Government,” he added.
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