New Delhi, March 11
Three flights carrying 674 people, mostly students, evacuated from the conflict-ridden city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine landed here on Friday, with the returnees recounting the horror they went through and how they survived the war for two weeks.
Two aircraft with 461 people—one of Air India and the other of IndiGo—arrived at the Indira Gandhi International Airport at 5.45 am and 12.20 pm while the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) C-17 carrying 213 passengers landed at the Hindon air base at 12.15 pm.
Although there was no official word from the government about the completion of the evacuation process from Ukraine, these three flights from Poland’s Rzeszow were considered among the last ones.
Emotions ran high as the students came out of the Delhi airport and hugged their parents, who had been waiting there for five-six hours to see their children.
With tears in their eyes, many parents and family members distributed sweets and garlanded their children while others welcomed them with bouquets and hugs after their arrival at gate number 4 and 5 of the IGI airport.
Slogans of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and “Modi hai to Mumkin Hai” were also raised by some family members.
“Even now that I’m back in India, the situation that I have gone through will continue to haunt me for days. Life in Sumy was terrible during the war. I never thought that I’ll make it to India alive,” Dhruv Pandita said as he hugged his mother soon after alighting from a relief flight.
Narrating his tale, Pandita claimed that he was held hostage along with some other students in Sumy.
“We were confined in a bunker and had no water and food. We had to melt ice to get drinking water. We were not allowed to move from there,” Pandita told.
A similar tale of woe was narrated by students who reached Hindon Air Base through an Indian Air Force flight at 12.30 pm.
Viradha Lakshmi, a native from Trichur in Kerala reached the air base along with her three-year-old white cat.
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