Rajya Sabha MP Wanwei Roy Kharlukhi, his family members along with 24 others from Meghalaya who were stranded in Israel while participating in a pilgrimage tour arrived at New Delhi airport today.
Kharlukhi, his wife Corina Lyngdoh and their daughter reached New Delhi along with 212 Indian citizens from the first flight under ‘Operation Ajay’ launched by the Indian government.
The first flight under the ‘Operation Ajay’ arrived in the national capital at around 6 am and they were greeted by Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar at the airport.
Kharlukhi along with 27 other visitors from Meghalaya were earlier stranded in Bethlehem while participating in a pilgrimage tour in Israel.
The 27 Meghalaya citizens, including Kharlukhi, were promptly evacuated to Cairo, Egypt on October 9.
From Cairo, the group was brought by a flight to Muscat. Another flight from Muscat brought the group to New Delhi.
Kharlukhi will be arriving in Shillong on October 16.
Another flight carrying 200 Indian passengers from Tel Aviv are expected to arrive in New Delhi on Saturday.
MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had said around 18,000 Indians are currently residing in Israel while about a dozen people are in the West Bank and three to four are in Gaza.
