A spokesperson in the external affairs ministry has said that of the 350 evacuees, 206 belong to Kerala, 40 are from Tamil Nadu, 31 from Maharashtra, 23 from West Bengal and 22 from Delhi. Photo: AP
Mumbai: An Indian Air Force (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 week-long ordeal.
The Indian Air Force’s C-17 Globemaster landed at around 3:25am at the city’s international airport. This was the second flight in the rescue efforts, as at 2am, an IAF plane carrying 168 Indians aboard landed in Kochi.
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 at 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 to their destinations. The evacuation operation was difficult as not much details were available to 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 Thursday.
A spokesperson in the external affairs ministry has said that of the 350 evacuees, 206 belong to Kerala, 40 are from Tamil Nadu, 31 from Maharashtra, 23 from West Bengal and 22 from Delhi. The Indians were evacuated late on 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.
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