In a major diplomatic win, India secured the release of eight Indian Navy veterans who were jailed and sentenced to death in Qatar by authorities there on espionage charges. Seven out of those eight veterans returned to India and thanked the government for ensuring their release. These veterans were working for Dahra Global Technologies, a defence services provider company based in Qatar.
The eight veterans – Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Captain Saurabh Vasisht, Commander Amit Nagpal, Commander Purnendu Tiwari, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Sanjeev Gupta and Sailor Ragesh Gopakumar – suffered several ordeals in the last one and a half years but their long wait to return home ended on Monday as seven of them landed in India after their release was secured.
This is not the first time that India has ensured the return of its citizens who were caught in the midst of a geopolitical crisis. India on several occasions has rescued citizens from war zones and even during the Covid-19 conflict, India carried out one of the largest rescue operations and brought back home six million Indians.
Here is a list of similar diplomatic wins for India:
Operation Raahat: In 2015, Indian Army launched ‘Operation Rahat’ to evacuate more than 4,000 Indian citizens and other foreign nationals from Yemen as the Yemeni civil war broke out. Then-foreign minister Sushma Swaraj said that it took one phone call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Saudi king Salman to ensure the rescue of Indians from the war-torn nation.
Kerala Nurses Rescued from ISIS-ruled Areas: Then-foreign minister Sushma Swaraj scored a massive diplomatic win when she ensured the return of 46 nurses, majority of them from Kerala, who were stuck in Iraq’s Tikrit as Islamic State started taking over major parts of Syria and Iraq. 46 nurses were evacuated from Iraq after they were taken away by Islamic State terrorists to Mosul against their will. The Indian government, led by Narendra Modi, whose tenure had just begun following massive victory in the 2014 elections, prioritised the return of the nurses and ensured that they were brought back to India. Indian officials worked round the clock with their Iraqi counterparts and brought back the nurses from Mosul to Erbil and then from Erbil to New Delhi and then Kochi.
Operation Samudra Setu: The Indian Navy during the coronavirus pandemic rescued at least 4,000 Indians who were stranded in the sea. Indian Naval ships Jalashwa, Airavat, Shardul and Magar steamed more than 23,000 kilometres to rescue stranded Indians in the sea. The operation was conducted in the year 2020.
Operation Vande Bharat Mission: The Vande Bharat Mission was the biggest civilian evacuation exercise undertaken by the government to bring back stranded Indians home as they were stuck in foreign shores during the Covid-19 pandemic. At least 2.97 crore Indians (in-bound and out-bound) were facilitated in the flights operated under the Vande Bharat Mission and Air Bubble arrangements. The operation was conducted between 2020 – 2022.
Operation Devi Shakti: Under Operation Devi Shakti, a special flight from Kabul to New Delhi rescued 669 people from Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021. At least 448 Indians and 206 Afghans, which includes members of the Afghan Hindu/Sikh minority community, were rescued from India. The minority community members carried with them 2 Swaroops of Guru Granth Sahib and some ancient Hindu manuscripts.
Operation Ganga: Indian government rescued over 22,500 Indians within a month of the breakout of the Ukraine war in 2022. The Indian government deployed 90 evacuation flights out of which 14 were flights operated by the Indian Air Force. These citizens, mostly students, were stuck in Ukraine as Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine.
Operation Kaveri: Indian government rescued over 3,000 of its citizens amid intense fighting between the army and a rival paramilitary force in Sudan in 2023. The operation was launched in April 2023 and brought back Indians caught in the conflict in Sudan and from Khartoum and from distant provinces like Darfur.
Operation Homecoming:India initiated “Operation Homecoming” to repatriate Indian citizens stranded in the conflict-ridden nation of Libya. The operation successfully evacuated 15,400 Indian nationals who were caught in the 2011 Libyan internal conflict.
Beirut Sealift: Indian navy and air force conducted one of the largest naval rescue missions since the ‘Dunkirk’ evacuation conducted during World War II, as it rescued 2,280 individuals when a conflict broke out between Israel and Lebanon in July 2006. This operation is also known as Operation Sukoon.
Kuwait Airlift: The Indian government in 1990 launched one of the largest evacuation and airlift operations to evacuate stranded Indians from Kuwait during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The Indian air force and navy along with national carrier Air India evacuated over 175,000 Indians. Air India’s involvement in the operation earned it a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for conducting the largest evacuation by a civilian airliner.
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