DHAKA, May 8, 2020 (BSS) – India today started repatriation of its
nationals from Bangladesh by taking back the first batch of 168 Indians, who
had been stuck here amid flight suspension due to COVID-19 pandemic, though a
chartered aircraft of Air India.
A chartered aircraft of Air India left Hazrat Shahjalal International
Airport (HSIA) to Srinagar carrying 168 Indian nationals at 11 am today,”
HSIA director Group Captain AHM Touhid-ul Ahsan told media here.
Meanwhile, a statement of India High Commission here said, in the first
phase, within a week New Delhi will evacuate its stranded nationals from here
through seven chartered flights, carrying 170 passengers in each voyage, to
Srinagar on May 8, 12, 13, to Delhi on May 9, 11, to Mumbai on 10 May and to
Chennai on May 14 May.
Today’s flight to Srinagar carried mainly stranded Indian students from
various medical colleges in Dhaka while Indian High Commissioner to
Bangladesh Riva Ganguly Das was present at Hazrat Shahjalal International
Airport to see them off, it said.
Wishing the students a safe journey back home, Riva advised them to follow
the health protocols after reaching India.
Indian government has commenced the biggest repatriation exercise ever with
“Vande Bharat Mission” to bring back their nationals who had travelled to
different countries before the lockdown, on various purposes such as
employment, studies, internships, tourism and business.
On May 5, Bangladesh extended the ongoing ban on flight operation for the
fifth consecutive time till May 16 to and from all European countries and the
nations including India that restricted the entry of Bangladeshis to their
territories as well as on all domestic routes over the coronavirus scare.
Bangladesh has also repatriated more than 2000 of its nationals from India
by 14 chartered flights since April 20 while Dhaka has planned to facilitate
nine more ferry flights to bring back rest of stranded nationals from India
while 130 citizens arrived here today as last batch of the Bangladeshis from
different cities of the neighboring country.
As per the plan, Biman Bangladesh Airlines will operate flights from
Kolkata on May 10, from Mumbai on May 12, from Bangalore on May 13 or May 15
and from New Delhi on May 14 while US-Bangla airlines will operate five
special flights from Chennai on May 8, 9, 10, 13 and 14 to bring back
Bangladesh citizens.
Besides India, Bangladesh also repatriated stranded Bangladeshis from
Thailand, Singapore, Myanmar while more chartered flights have also been
planned to bring back Bangladesh nationals from the UK, the USA and Malaysia
within a week.
Meanwhile, different countries, including the USA, the UK, Canada, Turkey,
Australia, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Bhutan, Myanmar and different European
countries so far operated several special chartered flights amid the flight
suspension to repatriate their citizens from here.