US denies plan to airlift citizens from India

NEW DELHI: Reacting to a USA Today report about plans for mass evacuation of 64,000 Americans from India and Pakistan in the light of ongoing tensions in South Asia, the United States embassy here denied there was any US government team in New Delhi working on such a plan.


Asked about contingency plans for the evacuation of US citizens from India, a US embassy spokesman said the embassy indeed had such plans "but so does every US embassy ... such as in London or Rome".


As far as both India and Pakistan were concerned, the embassy said, the US State Department's May 24 advisory urging American citizens to defer travel plans to the two countries and to consider leaving if they are already in the region "still stands".