A flight on Monday returned home the fourth group of Indian pilgrims and nationals, amounting to 53 passengers, who had been stranded in Iran amid the deadly global outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar announced in a Monday tweet, “The fourth batch of 53 Indians - 52 students and a teacher - has arrived from Tehran and Shiraz, #Iran. With this, a total of 389 Indians have returned to India from Iran. Thank the efforts of the team @India_in_Iran and Iranian authorities.”
According to the reports previously announced, there are 1,200 Indian citizens, mostly students and pilgrims, in Iran.
Meanwhile, the last group of Iranian nationals who had been stranded in India amid the global outbreak of the novel coronavirus was returned home on a flight from New Delhi to Tehran on Sunday.
The return of the Iranian nationals was made possible through the efforts by the Iranian Foreign Ministry and embassy in New Delhi, as well as the cooperation of Indian officials.
Following an abrupt and unannounced decision by the Indian government to impose restrictions on and abolish all Iran Air flights (to Mumbai) and Mahan to Delhi, a large number of Iranian and Indian passengers encountered many unexpected problems while trying to return home.
MNA/ 4879772