India, March 16 -- "I have landed and Alhamdulillah! I am safe," 22-year-old Naina Toiba told her brother over the phone, moments after reaching the baggage hall at Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Sunday morning, relief in her voice after days spent under the shadow of war in Iran.

Toiba was among around 70 Indian students and pilgrims, most of them from Jammu and Kashmir, who landed in Delhi on Sunday on a commercial Flydubai flight after undertaking a nearly four-day journey by road and air to escape the conflict-hit country.

The group travelled by bus from universities across Iran to the Iran-Armenia border, crossed into Armenia, and then flew from Yerevan to Dubai before boarding a connecting flight to Delhi...