A C-130J military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force brought to Jeddah 392 Indians from Port Sudan in three flights on Wednesday, a day after an Indian Navy ship rescued 278 citizens from that country.
On Wednesday night the first group of evacuees arrived in New Delhi from Jeddah in an commercial aircraft. India has set up a transit facility at Jeddah and Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan is overseeing the evacuation mission from the Saudi Arabian city.
The first batch of 278 Indians were evacuated from Port Sudan by the Indian Navy's frontline ship INS Sumedha on Tuesday. According to Jaishankar, the first C-130J aircraft brought to Jeddah 121 passengers while the second plane evacuated 135.
India stepped up its efforts to evacuate the Indians from Sudan as a 72-hour truce was agreed to between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) following intense negotiations.
"It was like we were on a deathbed," recalled a relieved Sukhvinder Singh from Haryana as he arrived at the Delhi airport from Saudi Arabia on after being evacuated from strife-torn Sudan. In his mid-40s, the engineer was among the first batch of 360 Indian nationals who returned home Wednesday night under India's 'Operation Kaveri' evacuation mission. Singh, a native of Faridabad in Haryana, recalled his ordeal in Sudan and said he was "still very scared".
Chhotu, a factory worker who hails from Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh, was in a state of disbelief and exclaimed, "'Marke wapas aa gaya (have returned after almost dying)'." "Now, I will never return to Sudan. I will do anything in this country but won't go back," he told PTI shortly after landing at the Indira Gandhi International Airport's Terminal 3.
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