Samba (Jammu and Kashmir), June 19 : Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday said that evacuating Indian nationals, including hundreds of students from Jammu and Kashmir, from conflict-affected regions of Iran is a collective responsibility, and he has spoken to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar about the same.
Speaking to reporters in Samba, Abdullah revealed that he had initiated discussions with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar days ago to devise a strategy.
"It is our responsibility. Our children had gone there to get education. Now the situation has worsened and their parents would definitely be worried. If I were in their place, I would also be worried and the children would also want to be evacuated from there. So, a few days ago, I spoke to Minister Jaishankar and we prepared a plan," he said.
"Under that plan, now these children are being brought back. Today around 400 students are being evacuated. According to our information, there are about 1300 children from Jammu and Kashmir in Iran, in total, there are about 6000-8000 from our country," he added.
Earlier in the day, Omar Abdullah's office informed that he had taken note of the request of the students evacuated from Iran regarding the quality of buses arranged to transport them from Delhi to J-K.
"The Chief Minister has taken note of the request of the students evacuated from Iran regarding the quality of buses arranged to transport them from Delhi to J&K. The Resident Commissioner has been tasked with coordinating with the JKRTC to ensure proper deluxe buses are arranged," the chief minister's office said in a post on X.
Students who have been evacuated under Operation Sindhu from conflict-affected Iran raised issues about the buses that the J&K government is providing for them to travel to their home state.
"The buses that have been provided are in such bad condition that even animals will not travel in them. We can't go in such buses, and our safety could have been compromised. We are here (in Delhi) and for that we are thankful to the central government as they have evacuated us smoothly, we faced no problem till here, but we are having a problem here now," a student told ANI.
The Indian government has launched Operation Sindhu to evacuate Indian nationals from Iran, given the deteriorating situation as a result of the ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel.
An Indian student, Sheikh Afsa, on board the flight carrying 110 nationals under Operation Sindhu, praised the government's efforts to ensure a safe evacuation upon returning to Delhi, saying that the government evacuated them 'from their dormitory'.
"We are happy to return here, but we are also worried about our studies. The situation there (Iran) is bad, and people are scared. We even received calls from people in Iran, who said the situation in Iran is very critical. The (Indian) government evacuated us from our dormitory, from our doors; we didn't even expect this much. They helped us at every step; no one faced any problem, and we are grateful to the central government for the role they played in evacuating us," she told ANI.