A chartered flight carrying 12 tourists from Simikot successfully landed in Nepalganj, from where vehicles arranged by the state government ferried them across the border into India. Another charter flight carrying 10 Andhra residents from Pokhara landed in Kathmandu, with the group scheduled to board an aircraft for their onward journey to India.
In Kathmandu, a total of 154 Indian tourists were issued boarding passes for flights arranged by the Andhra Pradesh government. An aircraft deployed for the operation has already reached the capital of Nepal to facilitate their evacuation.
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Earlier in the day, 22 Indians returned safely to the country. Andhra Pradesh Cabinet Minister Nara Lokesh confirmed their arrival on social media platform X and assured that further efforts were underway to bring back the remaining stranded individuals. He appealed to all tourists still in Nepal to immediately contact the Indian Embassy on +977-9808602881 and +977-9810326134, numbers which are also available on WhatsApp.
The evacuations come in the wake of violent protests that broke out in Nepal on September 8, led by a youth group known as Gen-Z. The group had demanded greater transparency from the government and an end to the social media ban imposed earlier this month.
Nepal’s Ministry of Health and Population reported that the violence claimed 31 lives and left 1,033 people injured. While 713 people were discharged, 55 were referred to other facilities, and 253 remain hospitalised.
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The demonstrations turned violent when protesters attempted to storm the parliament, prompting security forces to fire live rounds before deploying tear gas. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s government defended the social media restrictions as necessary to curb misinformation, but rights groups criticised the move as an attempt at censorship.
