Op Sindhu: Elderly couple thank PM Modi upon return to India amid tensions in West Asia

New Delhi [India], June 24 (ANI): As India continues to evacuate its nationals from Israel amid the ongoing tensions in West Asia, an elderly couple who were brought to India on Tuesday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The elderly couple is among the 161 passengers evacuated from Israel on Tuesday. The evacuation is part of India's ongoing 'Operation Sindhu' to ensure the safe return of Indian citizens.

Triambak Kole said that he and his wife had been in Israel for the last one and a half months to meet his son's newborn.

"It had been 1.5 months since I was in Israel. The situation escalated there suddenly. We could hear explosions at any time of the day. We were scared. We have come back now. We are very thankful to PM Modi. We had gone there to meet the newborn. They will remain there (in Israel). They won't come back. We had come back though," Kole said outside Delhi airport after reaching here.

His wife said, "We saw bombs (missiles) in the sky. Six of them went about our heads. We were in hiding when we saw this. We are very thankful to PM Modi (for the evacuation)."

Earlier in the day, amid the conflict between Iran and Israel, a total of 292 Indian nationals were evacuated from Iran on a special flight that arrived in New Delhi from Mashhad.

In a post on X, the Official Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Randhir Jaiswal, said, "292 Indian nationals were evacuated from Iran on a special flight that arrived in New Delhi from Mashhad at 0330 hrs on 24th June."

The conflict began on June 13 when Israel launched a massive airstrike on Iranian military and nuclear sites, code-named "Operation Rising Lion". In retaliation, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) initiated a large-scale drone and missile campaign called 'Operation True Promise 3', targeting Israeli fighter jet fuel production facilities and energy supply centres.

Tensions escalated further after the US conducted precision airstrikes early Sunday morning on three key Iranian nuclear facilities under "Operation Midnight Hammer".

Iran retaliated by launching multiple missiles at US military installations in Qatar and Iraq, including the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest US military base in the region, CNN reported. (ANI)

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)