Stuck in India amid the nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus scare, 20 Malaysian tourists on Monday boarded a special flight back home from the Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport in Amritsar in Punjab.
The Amritsar administration arranged the special flight with assistance from the Malaysian government and help of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.
One Chinese tourist is still stuck in Amritsar, some 250 km from state capital Chandigarh.
The 20 tourists, largely Sikhs settled aboard, were left stranded in Amritsar for many days due to closure of airports across the country as a preventive step to contain coronavirus.
After screening, all the stranded tourists were housed in a hotel and the SGPC-run inn.
“We arrived in India on a month-long tourist visa on March 7. Now we are happy to go back home. We are thankful to the local administration for providing us with the accommodation,” Malaysian resident Gurbachan Singh told the media before departing.
Chinese tourist Zhong Shaoming is now the only international tourist stranded in the holy city of Amritsar.
After reaching India on January 5, he went on a countrywide tour. He reached Amritsar on March 23 and got stuck due to imposition of a curfew.
Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Shiv Dular Singh Dhillon said efforts are on to send Zhong back home.