350 Indians, mostly medical students, evacuated from Bangladesh through land route

Dhaka, May 28

A group of 350 Indian nationals, mostly medical students, who were stranded in Bangladesh, on Thursday returned home through the north-eastern frontiers, the first such land-crossing since the COVID-19 outbreak in the region.

The Indian nationals, mostly from the north-eastern states, crossed the border through the three checkpoints on the borders with Meghalaya, Assam and Tripura.

“This is the first land crossing of our nationals from Bangladesh during the pandemic,” Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Riva Ganguly Das said as she saw off them at one of the three check posts on India-Bangladesh borders.

The Indian High Commissioner visited the Indian nationals going to Tripura through the Akhaura-Agartala Integrated Check Post and interacted with them.

The two other posts through which the Indians were returning home were Dawki-Tamabil crossing bordering Meghalaya and Sutarkandi-Sheola post bordering Assam.

“A #SevenSisters welcome: Around 200 #Indian Citizens, largely from NorthEast #India are crossing over through 3 land border posts (Dawki-Tamabil, Agartala-Akhaura,Sutarkandi-Sheola) today. HC @rivagdas visited Agartala-Akhaura & interacted with our citizens going home,” the High Commission earlier tweeted.

The mission also shared videos of some Indian students sharing their excitement in being able to return home.

The High Commission has launched a dedicated link on its website for the registration for Indians wishing to return to India. Evacuation from Bangladesh started on May 8 with the first batch of 168 Indian students on board a special Air India flight landing in Srinagar from Dhaka.

Subsequently, five more evacuation flights have operated from Dhaka to Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Srinagar. Indian high commission officials said 1500 Indians have been evacuated under Vande Bharat Mission from Bangladesh through special flights. PTI

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