We all know that Indian citizens are stuck in the Ukraine and Russia war and they are in danger. Our Prime Minister(Narendra Modi) and The Government Of India are trying to bring them back home.
India has diplomatic relations with Russia and they are constantly helping us to evacuate our citizens. They are not attacking the Buses with the Indian National Flag. The citizens of other countries in Ukraine are also using India’s flag as a shield to protect themselves.
The Russian government has said that they will help India to evacuate the citizens of their country. So far around 19,920 people have been evacuated by India under Operation Ganga.
Today we are in a situation in Ukraine, but do you know? How many situations like this India has faced?
The movie ”Airlift” Starring Akshay Kumar was also based on a Evacuation Program. In this movie, world’s biggest evacuation program was shown. But there are many more unsung operations like Operation Raahat, Operation Sukoon, Operation Safe Homecoming.
In all of these Operations India saved its citizens who were stuck in war zones.
There are operations that are done throughout the history to save the citizens of India.
1. Evacuation From Gulf (Airlift India)
It was carried out during August 13, 1990 to October 20, 1990 in Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. During 1990-1991, around 170,000 Indians were caught when Iraq invaded Kuwait.
At that crucial time, Air India, operated around 500 flights to save the citizens. Between August 13, 1990 – October 20,1990. These lives were saved and many Foreign nationals were also rescued from war zones by India.
To show the dedication of people, after 25 years, a movie “Airlift” was made starring Akshay Kumar in 2016. In this movie he showed how the people felt when they were stuck in war zones.
This Movie was inspired by the works of Mathunny Mathews and Harbajan Singh Vedi who helped a lot in evacuating the citizens and we should thank them as a citizen of India as they saved many of our brothers and sisters and their families. We are very grateful to them.
This bravery made a world record in the Guinness Book Of World Records As the biggest human evacuation in history.
2. Operation Sukoon
This operation showed the helping nature of India as it helped its citizens along with the citizens of other countries as in this operation India saved Nepalese, Srilankan as well as Lebanese during the Lebanon war.
On 12 July 2006, military conflict started between Israel and Hezbollah and this conflict soon became a war. Around 2,000 were at risk as they were in or near the war zones.
India helped Nepal and SriLanka as they lacked military power. So they asked India for help and as always India helped its Neighbours. India asked Indian Armed Forces to help evacuate the citizens in the conflict zones.
In this operation, the Indian Navy played its part as they sent three warships and a Fleet tanker. They were INS Mumbai, INS Brahmaputra, INS Betwa, and a fleet tanker INS Shakti.
Around 2,280 nationals were evacuated in which 1,764 Indians,112 Sri Lankans,64 Nepalese,and 7 Lebanese nationals with Indian spouses were evacuated.
Citizens of other countries were also evacuated as a sign of Humanity by India.
This operation was the largest evacuation program done by the Navy after world war.
The world saw that India is able to protect its citizen along with other nationals.
We as citizens of India should be proud of the great humanity we showed in every dire situation throughout history and we will continue to do so;.
3. Operation Safe Homecoming
This operation was conducted by both the Indian Navy and Air India. This operation was done to save around 15,000 citizens of India.
On Feb 15,2011, a civil war broke out in Libya and it was a protest against the government and its leader Muammar Gaddafi, but soon it became a social unrest and the civil war broke out.
There were almost 18,000 Indian nationals stuck due to the civil war. Indian Government asked the Indian army as well as The Navy for Operation Safe Homecoming.
The Navy sent Three Naval ships in which two were destroyers(INS Mysore And INS Aditya) and one was its largest Amphibious vehicle(INS Jalashwa).
Air India sent two planes which were Boeing 737 and Airbus A330 which flew 500 passengers to safety.
Private planes were also allowed to help during the Operation Safe Homecoming. Due to great efforts the evacuations were completed on 11 March and 15,000 citizens were evacuated to safety and 3,000 nationals decided to stay in Libya.
In this operation both The Navy and The Air India worked together to save many lives and now also it is working to save our citizens.
4. Operation Raahat
Operation Rahat was carried out by Indian Armed Forces to save the citizens from the Yemen crisis. It was during 2015 Yemen crisis when Royal Saudi Air Force started its military intervention on Shiite Houthi rebels on 27 March 2015.
But before that,On 21 January 2015, India’s ministry Of External Affairs had issued a public advisory to go to the safe location but many people ignored it and the Military intervention started.
India responded by deploying both Air and sea power to evacuate its citizens. Yemen came under no flying zone so India started its evacuation from Djibouti and advised citizens to reach Sana’a and Aden.
The Indian Navy deployed INS Sumitra, INS Mumbai and INS Tarkash for the aid of the citizens.
The Indian Air force deployed Two C-17 Globemaster with the capacity of 600 people.
In addition two Air India’s Airbus A320 and two Ferries from Lakshadweep were deployed for the aid of the citizens.
In this whole operation India Saved around 4,460 Indians and 960 foreign nationals. By both Sea and Air routes. India safely ended Operation Raahat on April 3 2015 and we showed our humanity by protecting the others too.
India always had a policy to save all the lives as we believe that “All lives matter”and we also believe that the whole world is nothing but a home for everyone in which everyone has a right to protect and care for their families or loved ones.
5. Operation Maitri
Operation Maitri started when An Earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck Nepal and became one of the most painful memories for them. The Earthquake struck near Kathmandu and its epicentre was approximately 34 km. Earthquake killed almost 9000 people and many thousands were injured. Around 160,000 buildings were affected due to it.
India responded within 15 minutes of the earthquake and started Operation Maitri and helped its neighbor in all possible ways whether it is on ground or by funding.
India deployed ILyushin-76, four C-17 Globemaster, two C130J-Hercules, Mi-17 Helicopters and many helicopters for the distribution of the goods and relief materials.Indian Prime Minister(Narendra Modi) immediately sent India’s National Disaster Response Force for the rescue.
By India’s quick response and quick decisions around 5,188 Indians and 785 foreign nationals were evacuated and saved and many thousands were rescued by Disaster team India spent its money to help Nepal to cope up with this crisis.
The Indian Foreign Secretary, S. Jaishankar has announced that four more rescue teams will be sent to help Nepal from the crisis.and also stated that the teams not only save Indians,but the citizens of other countries will also be saved.This statement shows that we not just help others in wars but also in natural disasters like in Nepal.
6. Operation Devi Shakti
Operation Devi Shakti was started after the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
The fall of Kabul (Capital of Afghanistan) in the hands of Taliban(militant islamist group)pose a threat to the minorities in Afghanistan as well as the students or businessman of India in the Afghanistan as they can be killed or exiled from Afghanistan.
India evacuated around 800 people from Kabul to India. It consists of the minorities of Afghanistan and the Indians. We saved everyone indiscriminately and they are refugees here.We will help them in all possible ways.
India asked the Indian Air Force to do this operation and as a result they deployed C-17 globemaster and C-130J Hercules and evacuated them to safety.
This operation was completed in 5 days (16 August 2021-21 August 2021)and was a successful operation in which 800 people were evacuated to safety by the Indian Air Force.
This evacuation operation was done to save the minorities, But what made this to happen was the failure of the Islamic Republic Of Afghanistan.They failed to protect their nation from Taliban.
We also should take a lesson from this incident as it can happen anywhere.
