How Students Plotted Their Own Escape Routes Out Of War Zone

Harrowing Stories As 798 Indians Land At Hindon Base In 4 Globemaster Flights

- Advitya Bahl

Ghaziabad: Vishakha Kumari had never imagined seeing bodies on roads, much less walk past them, to plot an escape from a war zone. The last seven days were surreal.

“It was one hell of a nightmare,” said the 21-year-old medical student from Patna, as she walked into the quiet hallway of the Hindon air force base a little after 1.30 am on Thursday with the first batch of Indians to be evacuated from Ukraine in the Indian Air Force’s C-17 Globemaster.

“I didn’t know what shelling means till I experienced it,” said Vishakha, who saw her quiet university town on the Black Sea turn into a war theatre. As explosions and the crack of artillery guns inched closer, home had seemed further away. From Odessa, where she studies, Vishakha and other students walked hours and eventually found a bus — on which they hung Indian flags so that they weren’t attacked — to reach Moldova. From there, they got to Romania.

Vishakha was among 798 Indians to land at the Hindon airbase from Bucharest (Romania), Budapest (Hungary) and Rzeszow (Poland) in four Globemaster aircraft. The first of the four IAF evacuation flights, from Bucharest, landed at 1.30 am. The others followed in the hours after.