Coming home: Amid bombings and attacks, over 350 Indians rescued from Yemen arrive in Mumbai, Kochi

Mumbai: An IAF plane carrying 190 Indian nationals evacuated from Yemen landed in Mumbai on Thursday, in the government’s first major mission to rescue Indians stranded in the strife-torn nation.

The evacuees, which included nurses and workers, among others, reached home in a special flight, thus bringing an end to their about a week-long ordeal.

The Indian Air Force’s C-17 Globemaster, carrying them landed at around 3:25 am at the city’s international airport in Mumbai.

This was the second flight in the rescue efforts, as at 2 am, an IAF plane carrying 168 Indians aboard, evacuated from Yemen, landed in Kochi.

The evacuees were welcomed at the airport in Kochi by Kerala Minister for Diaspora KC Joseph, PWD Minister Ibrahim Kunju and Ernakulam District Collector MG Rajamanikyam.

Parents of Jincy and Tincy, two nurses working with government hospitals in Yemen, are concerned about their elder daughter whose flight from Sana’a was cancelled even after a boarding pass was issued.

Talking to PTI from Kochi airport, mother of the nurses, Omana, hailing from Vadakkancherry of Palakkad district, said only Jincy, working in Aden, could reach home safely.

“We are happy that our daughter Jincy is coming back on the special flight. But we are concerned about the safety our elder daughter Tincy who is in Sana’a. We hoped that she would also be reaching safely tonight.

“Jincy could not come as the flight did not take off because of the last minute developments at Sana’a airport,” said Omana who came to the airport along with her husband Soman to receive their daughters.

A Kerala government official said the Non-Resident Keralites Affairs (Norka) cell would give Rs 2000 each to the people who returned from Yemen at the airport besides providing them free transportation facilities to reach home.

Minister for Non-Resident Keralite Affairs KC Joseph also said that he had urged the Ministry of External Affairs to exert pressure on the Saudi Arabia administration for an extended clearance for Indian flights involved in the evacuation of stranded Indians, according to The Hindu . He said Kerala CM Ooman Chandy had spoken to Sushma Swaraj on this issue.

“The External Affairs Minister was also urged to direct the Indian Embassy in Yemen to intervene in cases of hospitals there withholding passports of Indians, the Minister said. It was also demanded that Indians without passports and other documents should be given exit passes,” said the report.

Defence sources said that the flight to Mumbai could not take off on time from Djibouti due to the pending paper work of the evacuees.

Many people did not have even their passports with them leading to delay in flight, the sources said.

Maharashtra Tourism and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prakash Mehta and MP Kirit Somaiya were present the airport to welcome the evacuees.

They were part of as many as 350 Indians who reached Djibouti after being evacuated on a Navy vessel from Aden, the seaport city of Yemen.

Meanwhile, the Central Railway has offered free-of-cost travelling for the evacuees till their destinations.

The evacuation operation was a very difficult task as not much details were available with the IAF, Wing Commander Vikram Abbi, co-pilot of the flight, told PTI.

Abbi said that the crew were told about the rescue operation on 30 March and the flight departed from India on Wednesday.

One of the evacuees, Mary Amma Vargeese said, she was working as a nurse in a hospital in Aden for past two years. And, one day, she suddenly “heard some exploding sound, after which I stopped going to work.”

“All the shops were closed, we didn’t have food for many days,” she said.

A spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry has said of the 350 evacuees, 206 belong to Kerala, 40 are from Tamil Nadu, 31 from Maharashtra, 23 from West Bengal and 22 from Delhi, besides other states.

The Indians were evacuated late Monday night by INS Sumitra, which was diverted from its anti-piracy patrol in the region. It waited for hours to get local clearances as heavy fighting was reported in the city.

Meanwhile, Central Railway will be adding extra coaches to the trains heading towards Kerala, Chennai and Kolkata to ensure hassle-free travel for evacuees to reach their destinations.

“We would be adding extra coaches to the Kerala-bound Mangala Express, Chennai-bound Chennai Mail and Kolkata-bound Duronto Express to facilitate their (evacuees’) early home going. While 60 evacuees would be travelling to Kerala, 40 to Chennai and 30 to Kolkata,” General Manager, Central Railway, Sunil Kumar Sood told PTI in Mumbai.

Sood said the railways have requested normal passengers who have booked tickets under emergency quota to postpone their trip by a day so that their tickets could be used for evacuees, to which they have agreed.

Meanwhile, one of the evacuees, who identified herself as Faiju, said the Yemini city of Sana’a is almost destroyed in the civil war and fighters have moved to the seaport city of Aden.

Narrating her plight, Faiju, who used to work as a nurse in Sana’a, said, “We were not given any salary. We were also made to work overtime as all the local nurses had fled our hospital,” she said, adding there could be about 300 Indian people who are still stuck up in Aden.

PTI