On Wednesday night the first group of evacuees arrived in New Delhi from Jeddah in an commercial aircraft. India has set up a transit facility at Jeddah and Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan is overseeing the evacuation mission from the Saudi Arabian city.

The first batch of 278 Indians were evacuated from Port Sudan by the Indian Navy`s frontline ship INS Sumedha on Tuesday. According to Jaishankar, the first C-130J aircraft brought to Jeddah 121 passengers while the second plane evacuated 135.

India stepped up its efforts to evacuate the Indians from Sudan as a 72-hour truce was agreed to between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) following intense negotiations.

"It was like we were on a deathbed," recalled a relieved Sukhvinder Singh from Haryana as he arrived at the Delhi airport from Saudi Arabia on after being evacuated from strife-torn Sudan. In his mid-40s, the engineer was among the first batch of 360 Indian nationals who returned home Wednesday night under India`s `Operation Kaveri` evacuation mission. Singh, a native of Faridabad in Haryana, recalled his ordeal in Sudan and said he was "still very scared".

Chhotu, a factory worker who hails from Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh, was in a state of disbelief and exclaimed, "`Marke wapas aa gaya (have returned after almost dying)`." "Now, I will never return to Sudan. I will do anything in this country but won`t go back," he told PTI shortly after landing at the Indira Gandhi International Airport`s Terminal 3.