January 12, 2025 07:17 pm (IST)
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Another 200 Indians return from Iraq
New Delhi, July 6 (IBNS): A day after 46 Indian nurses caught in conflict-torn Iraq reached Kochi on Saturday, a special chartered flight carrying 200 more Indians from Najaf arrived at the Delhi International Airport on Sunday, reports said.
This is the second batch of Indians that has returned from Iraq.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin on Saturday said that another 400 Indians are expected to return to various destinations, including Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad, through commercial flights.
On Saturday, a special Air India flight with 46 Indian nurses caught in conflict-torn Iraq, whose freedom was secured by the Indian authorities, reached Kochi shortly after noon as an emotional reunion with their anxious families followed where Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy himself was present.
While the CM himself had turned up to receive them at the airport, the families and kins of the nurses who underwent an ordeal for several weeks were happy to finally see them back home happy.
"We are happy," said the nurses and their families, beaming in joy and relief.
The nurses thanked the Indian government for their freedom and safe return to India. Many said they had not got their salaries for months in Iraq. However, they said the militants did not harm them or misbehave with them. Rather during a bombing they were asked to go to the basement, said the nurses.
The aircraft on Saturday brought back about 100 other Indian nationals besides the nurses from at Erbil airport in Iraq.
With the nurses mostly hailing from Kerala, the flight first landed in Kochi after a refuelling in Mumbai and then headed for New Delhi via Hyderabad.
"Air India plane with nurses & other workers from Iraq changes crew in Mumbai & heads for Kochi," tweeted Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin on Saturday.
The nurses were held in captivity in Tikrit in Iraq by the Sunni militant group ISIS. They were working in Tikrit, the birthplace of former president Saddam Hussein.
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