India's following protocol quite swiftly, with regard to the onset of coronavirus in China and some parts of the world, including India. The first Air India flight that left for China brought back 324 Indian nationals from coronavirus-hit Wuhan on February 1, 2020 at 7:30 in the morning. 220 citizens were sent to the Army quarantine facility in Manesar and the rest 104 were sent to ITBP facility at Chawla camp.

© Twitter

A second flight took off for China to bring back more Indian nationals stranded there, on Sunday, February 2. 323 Indians were brought back and along with them came 7 nationals from the island of Maldives. We're not sure how the protocol was handled but the flight came back with 7 citizens from the tiny island, and the Maldives Foreign Minister, Abdulla Rashid, took to Twitter to express his gratitude to India and the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. The gesture certainly didn't go unnoticed.

The Maldives Prime Minister said that the seven Maldivian nationals will be housed in Delhi for a few days before they make their way home.

His tweet said the following:

â7 Maldivians in #Wuhan are on their way to Delhi on a special #AirIndia flight. Upon arrival they will be housed in Delhi for a period of quarantine. Deep gratitude to PM @narendramodi and EM @DrSJaishankar. Special thanks to Ambassadorsâ. 

7 Maldivians in #Wuhan are on their way to Delhi on a special #AirIndia flight. Upon arrival they will be housed in Delhi for a period of quarantine. Deep gratitude to PM @narendramodi and EM @DrSJaishankar. Special thanks to Ambassadors @VikramMisri @sunjaysudhir and their teams

â Abdulla Shahid (@abdulla_shahid) February 2, 2020

Rashid called India's gesture 'an action that reflects historic ties of kinship between the two countries and synergy between the Neighbourhood First and India First policyâ.

Not only did he extend his gratitude towards India, Rashid also thanked China for all their help for taking care of the citizens.

Grateful to @MFA_China, @AmbassadorZhang and local authorities in #Hubei for the assistance. A very special thanks to our Ambassador in China Ms Azeema and Ambassador in Delhi @aishamdidi and their team. Thank everyone at @MoFAmv for the hard workâ. 

7 Maldivians in #Wuhan are on their way to Delhi on a special #AirIndia flight. Upon arrival they will be housed in Delhi for a period of quarantine. Deep gratitude to PM @narendramodi and EM @DrSJaishankar. Special thanks to Ambassadors @VikramMisri @sunjaysudhir and their teams

â Abdulla Shahid (@abdulla_shahid) February 2, 2020

While India has already sent two flights and brought back close to 700 people, including 7 Maldivians, a lot of Pakistani nationals are still stranded in China, running pillar to post, to figure how to go back home as soon as possible, since their country isn't making too many efforts to bring their citizens back home. Indian citizens, on the other hand, are urging the government to help bring back the stranded Pakistanis on a humanitarian level. After External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar put out a tweet about the Maldivians being brought back, a number of people talked about the Pakistanis as well.

7 Maldivians brought back with 323 Indians from Wuhan on the second @airindiain flight today. #NeighbourhoodFirst at work again. @ibusolih @MohamedNasheed @abdulla_shahid

â Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) February 2, 2020

Sir we request you to bring the Pakistanis too on humanitarian ground, after all they r actually our brothers n sisters...Desh ka partition hua toh kia hua...relationship ka toh partition nehi hua nah...ð»ð»

â Abhijit (@Road_Engg) February 2, 2020

A master stroke would have been bringing down Paxtani students as well, brings great goodwill within Paxtan.

â M Merchant (@kluzener) February 2, 2020

I urge u to evacuate the pakistani students as well...... As they are completely helpless now, and we must set an example,,, as we believe in सरà¥à¤µà¥ भवनà¥à¤¤à¥ सà¥à¤à¤¿à¤¨à¤ सरà¥à¤µà¥ सनà¥à¤¤à¥ निरामया। @PMOIndia @MEAIndia @narendramodi @AmitShah @AmitShahOffice

â Kundan Kunal (@KundanK96192092) February 2, 2020

Salute to You @DrSJaishankar .
India always stands with her friends.

â Suhasini R (@R_Suhasini) February 2, 2020

letâs bring Pakistani as well.. that would be great initiative

â Rajiv Karambalkar (@icon_rajiv) February 2, 2020

Great job sir
There is a big debate raging on SM about Pakistani students who are pleading to be evacuated. What is the stand of the Indian govt?

â OmShantiOmð®ð³ (@OmShant07338068) February 2, 2020

Pls also consider the fate of the Pakistani students left behind by their government..

â Sameer Goyal (@sameergoyal) February 2, 2020

If India can, then we should help Pakistanis students too. In any way possible. #HumanityFirst

â Rohan Sharma (@chunnusharma) February 2, 2020

Can we bring Pakistanis too to save the students from sure death .

â Alok Kumar Chaudhury (@ChaudhuryAlok) February 2, 2020

Sir we should help Pakistani students too..
LET'S TRY TO WIN THE WAR WITH LOVE ï¸

â Shivansh pandey (@Im_shivansh) February 2, 2020

Can't you help the 300 Pakistani students also!? Their foreign policies may be against India's but why can't we rise above and get those children to their border!?

â Danny Loyall (@dannijon75) February 2, 2020

The government should actually consider these pleas made by the Indians to free their Pakistani brethren. In these troubled times, humanity should come before religion, economic policies or political struggle between the two countries. We should help each other out, in a global health crisis such as this and we hope the government can see through this and aids Pakistan in this issue. We really hope that this crisis is averted and no more casualties occur due to this deadly virus.

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