Vande Bharat Mission:Indians, including J&K medical students, to return from Bangladesh

Indians stranded in Bangladesh will be flown back on Friday by Air India flight under the 'Vande Bharat Mission'. The flight will ply from Bangladesh to Srinagar carrying 167 stranded passengers including all medical students from Jammu and Kashmir. The flight is expected to leave for India at around 11 am.

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The Indian students expressed gratitude towards the Central government and the Indian Embassy in Bangladesh for helping them reach their homes during the pandemic time.

Khadiya Rasheed, one of the students at a college in Bangladesh, said, "Thank you so much for our evacuation, we are happy to reach our homes, my college and the Indian Embassy both helped us, they were helping us continuously."

Another student said, "I would like to thanks the minister of external affairs, and the Indian Embassy here who are evacuating us in such difficult circumstances. I highly appreciate that they made the evacuation as soon as possible, our college administration and local friends too helped us."

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The stranded Indians had to register online and the embassy would then send the tickets through e-mail. The High Commission of India in Bangladesh took to Twitter and said," The First Batch of Indian Students have arrived at the airport for boarding Air India flight home to India. They are being assisted in completing the formalities by the embassy."

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About 'Vande Bharat Mission'

As coronavirus pandemic continues, the repatriation is being carried out under India's massive evacuation effort named 'Vande Bharat Mission', which began on Thursday. Air India plans to operate 64 flights till May 13 to bring back around 15,000 Indian nationals stranded abroad amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown. 

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(With inputs from agency)