India, June 21 -- Anxious parents and family members broke into smiles of relief at 11.32 pm on Friday, as the arrival board at Indira Gandhi International Airport flashed news of the Mahan Airlines flight carrying around 290 Indians evacuated from Iran under Operation Sindhu landing.

Around 10,000 Indians, many of them students, were in Iran when hostilities erupted over the weekend following Israel's air strikes on Iranian military and nuclear facilities. Iran eased airspace restrictions for three charter flights to evacuate about 1,000 Indian nationals who were moved to safer places from Tehran, a senior Iranian diplomat had said on Friday.

Walking out of gate number 6 of terminal 3, some of the evacuees chanted 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' ...