India evacuates fresh batch of 292 Indians from Iran
New Delhi (PTI): India on Tuesday continued evacuation of its citizens from Iran with over 2,200 Indians brought back from the Persian Gulf nation so far, amid escalating tensions following the US bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites.
Two-hundred-ninety-two Indian nationals were evacuated from Iran on a special flight that arrived in New Delhi from Mashhad at 3:30 am, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
Sharing details about India's evacuation mission Operation Sindhu that was launched following a fresh wave of hostilities between Iran and Israel, he said,
"2,295 Indian nationals have now been brought home from Iran".
Separately, a C-17 military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force evacuated 165 Indians who were living in Israel. They were received at the airport by Union Minister L Murugan.
The aircraft brought back the Indians from Amman after. The Indians were taken to the capital city of Jordan through land border crossings.
Two-hundred-ninety Indian nationals and one Sri Lankan were evacuated from Iranian city Mashhad on a special flight on Monday night.
India launched Operation Sindhu last week to bring back Indians from Iran and Israel in view of increasing hostilities between the two nations.
Israel and Iran have fired hundreds of missiles and drones at each other's cities and military and strategic facilities since the hostilities began over a week back.
The tensions escalated significantly following the US bombing of three major Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday morning.
India has evacuated its nationals on chartered flights operated from the Iranian city of Mashhad, the Armenian capital of Yerevan and the Turkmenistan capital of Ashgabat since Wednesday.
Iran lifted airspace restrictions on Friday to facilitate three chartered flights from Mashhad.
The first flight landed in New Delhi late on Friday with 290 Indians, and the second one landed in the national capital on Saturday afternoon with 310 Indians.
Another flight arrived from the Armenian capital city of Yerevan on Thursday. A special evacuation flight from Ashgabat landed in New Delhi early Saturday.
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EC orders repoll in all 285 polling stations of Falta seat in West Bengal on May 21
New Delhi (PTI): In a rare move, the Election Commission (EC) on Saturday ordered a "fresh" election or a repoll in all the 285 polling stations of the Falta Assembly seat in West Bengal on May 21 due to "subversion of democratic process".
A spokesperson for the poll panel said the counting of votes for the constituency will take place on May 24.
It is rare for the poll authority to order a re-election in an entire Assembly seat.
A fresh poll is a repoll, an official explained.
"On consideration of severe electoral offences and subversion of democratic process during the polling in a large number of polling stations on April 29 in Falta Assembly Constituency, EC directs that fresh poll shall be conducted in all the 285 polling stations, including auxiliary polling stations," the spokesperson said.
On Friday, the EC ordered a re-election in 15 polling stations of two Assembly seats in West Bengal -- Diamond Harbour and Magrahat Paschim.
The West Bengal Assembly polls were held in two phases on April 23 and April 29. The counting of votes for the remaining seats is scheduled to be taken up on May 4.
