Operation Raahat

Introduction

The world has seen two world wars, cold wars, and numerous invasion situations. The powerful assailants have already invaded countries like Kuwait, Sudan, and a few other countries. We have witnessed the destruction and losses in these situations. But still, powerful nations are on the verge or have already conquered the weak lands. One example of this was the military intervention in Yemen. 

Military Intervention in Yemen

On 27th March 2015, the Royal Saudi Air Force, along with the partnership of few Arab states, penetrated Yemen for attacking and ending the rule of Shiite and Houthi. They were the rebels of these nations. The Houthi guerrillas plunged the control of the then President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and started ruling over the majority parts of the country. Looking at the situation, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) advised the Indian emigrants in Yemen to leave and come back to India twice. First on 21st January 2015 and second on 25th March 2015. But overlooking the seriousness of the situations, most people remained there. The ignorance resulted in them in a significant danger after the evasion of the troops. 

Operation Raahat

Yemen was declared as a no-fly zone considering the situations. So it became a blockade for the Indian Armed Forces to enter Yemen and evacuate the trapped citizens. So they chose the sea route for the initial evacuation. Citizens in Yemen were informed to reach Sana and Aden port before the Indian Navy reaches there. Indian Navy deployed its one of the powerful patrol vessel INS Sumitra ignoring the fact that it is not equipped with amenities necessary for evacuation for such a big crowd. Along with INS Sumitra, two local ferries of Lakshadweep administration MV Kavaratti and MV Corals having a capacity of 1,500 for the rescue mission. For air support, the Indian Air Force, sent two C-17 Globemaster cargo aircraft having an ability to hold 600 passengers to Djibouti. One of which flew nine sorties to Mumbai and another one flew two to Kochi from Djibouti. Air Indian also came in the frame after deploying two Airbus A320 aircraft to Muscat. After getting permission to operate in Yemen, the jets wasting no time evacuate people from Sana to Djibouti and from Djibouti to Mumbai or Kochi.

For ensuring the safety of Indian ships and aircraft, destroyer INS Mumbai and frigate INS Tarkash from Mumbai was also deployed. Both the shipped voyaged a distance of 1350 nautical miles (2500 km) in only four days to reach Port Aden.

Passengers Evacuated

India had rescued around 5,600 refugees, including 4,640 Indian citizens and 960 foreign citizens from 41 countries. The countries were as follows 

• Bahrain
• Bangladesh
• Canada
• Cuba
• Czech Republic
• Djibouti
• Egypt
• France
• Hungary
• Indonesia
• Ireland
• Italy
• Jordan
• Kenya
• Lebanon
• Maldives
• Morocco
• Myanmar
• Nepal
• Pakistan 
• Philippines
• Romania
• Russia
• Singapore
• Sri Lanka
• Slovenia
• Sweden
• Syria
• Turkey
• Thailand
• Uganda
• United Kingdom
• United States of America

Out of the total people, around 2,900 Indians were evacuated by 18 special flights of Air India from Sana, and 1,780 Indians got evacuated by the Indian Naval ships from four different ports by a whole nine trips. 

The air operations completed on 9th April 2015 but sea operations took two days more. 

Conclusion

General V. K. Singh led the whole operation with the help of Indian Armed Forces, Ministry of External Affairs and Air India. Indian Armed Forces took around 11 days to complete the Operation Raahat. More than 5,000 citizens from 41 countries were evacuated from a war zoned country to India. People from all over the world praised and thanked India for such a great effort. Both the Indian Armed Forces and Air India were congratulated for accomplishing such an impossible task.