At least 1,200 people from Kargil and Leh districts of Ladakh region are standard in Iran, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha from Ladakh said.
The MP along with other BJP leaders called on Minister for External Affairs, S. Jaishankar, in the latter's Parliament office in New Delhi on Tuesday and demanded an early evacuation of pilgrims belongings to Kargil and Leh districts of Ladakh.
He said the delegation apprised the Minister that nearly 1,200 Indian citizens belonging from Kargil and Leh district of Ladakh were on a pilgrimage to Iran and were stranded there due to suspension of flight operations as precautionary measures for avoiding the spread of coronavirus.
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“All of them are in Iran and their family members in India are in a panic. The meeting was discussed about the necessary required procedures like screenings of all the passenger in Iran before airlifting them and arrangement for fourteen days quarantine in India after rescreening in Delhi before delivering them to home in Kargil and Leh," the MP said.
He said after giving a patient hearing and detail discussion about the ongoing situations, the Minister assured the Ladakh delegation for the earliest possible evacuation of the stranded pilgrims.
A person who identified himself as Ahsan-ul-Haq told Outlook he had flown to Delhi to receive her mother who was supposed to return from Iran this week. “We have no information when the flights to Iran will be resumed,” he adds.
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The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has temporarily suspended Iranian carriers from operating flights to India after the novel coronavirus outbreak there. Currently, two Iranian Carriers -- Iran Air and Mahan Air -- operate flights to Mumbai and Delhi, respectively. No Indian airline flies to Iran. “My mother was supposed to return by Mahan Air. We don’t know whether the government has any plans to resume Iranian carriers to India," Haq said.
