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ISIS allows nurses to leave Iraq.
Special flight with 46 Indian nurses freed from Iraq lands in Mumbai - India - IBNLive
ibnlive.in.com/news/special-flight-with-46-indian-nurses-freed-from-iraq-lands-in-mumbai/483833-3.html
Mumbai: The special Air India flight carrying 46 Indian nurses freed from Iraq has landed in Mumbai. The flight will make a 'technical halt' in Mumbai for refueling and catering supplies and will leave for Kochi around 9:55 am.
No passengers will de-board at the Mumbai airport. From Cochin the flight will go to Hyderabad and then to Delhi. 46 Indians nurses and 130 other Indians are on board the flight after being held in captivity by ISIS militants in the war torn country.
The flight had left Erbil for India at around 4.30 am IST but was initially not allowed to land in Erbil. However, according to Kerala CM Oommen Chandy, he spoke to Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and the matter was soon resolved.
The flight will make a 'technical halt' in Mumbai for refueling and catering supplies and will leave for Kochi around 9:55 am.
The ordeal of the nurses, who were working at a hospital in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, began when a swift ISIS (Islamic State for Iraq and Syria) offensive was launched on June 9. The nurses were moved out on Thursday against their will and detained in the militant-held city of Mosul, 250 km from Tikrit. The Erbil International airport is about 80 km from Mosul.
A joint-secretary level IFS officer and an IAS woman officer from Kerala are among the Indian officials travelling on the chartered flight.
While some Indians have been brought from Iraq, the MEA has assured that the resources that went into freeing the nurses would be used in the case of others too.
"People are still in captivity and we are aware of the captors," said Akbaruddin. Without divulging any information on the efforts that went into the freeing of these 46 nurses, MEA said, "Anything we say may possibly impact other elements. So I won't say who we worked with and how we worked."
"Diplomacy works through the front doors. We are using other doors and how those doors were used and knocked on and how they were opened up is a story for another day. The story for today is that one of those doors opened and we were able to extricate our nationals," the spokesperson said.
India used all "national assets" to secure the release of the nurses from ISIS, who had forced them to move out of their hospital in Tikrit yesterday against their "free will", the MEA Spokesperson said.
Nearly 1,500 Indian have registered to leave Iraq from the no-conflict zone. Already, about 1,000 Indian nationals have been given tickets to travel out of Iraq by the ministry.
There were about 10,000 Indians before the start of the serious strife between government troops and Sunni militants backed by al Qaida.
Special flight with 46 Indian nurses freed from Iraq lands in Mumbai - India - IBNLive
ibnlive.in.com/news/special-flight-with-46-indian-nurses-freed-from-iraq-lands-in-mumbai/483833-3.html
Mumbai: The special Air India flight carrying 46 Indian nurses freed from Iraq has landed in Mumbai. The flight will make a 'technical halt' in Mumbai for refueling and catering supplies and will leave for Kochi around 9:55 am.
No passengers will de-board at the Mumbai airport. From Cochin the flight will go to Hyderabad and then to Delhi. 46 Indians nurses and 130 other Indians are on board the flight after being held in captivity by ISIS militants in the war torn country.
The flight had left Erbil for India at around 4.30 am IST but was initially not allowed to land in Erbil. However, according to Kerala CM Oommen Chandy, he spoke to Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and the matter was soon resolved.
The flight will make a 'technical halt' in Mumbai for refueling and catering supplies and will leave for Kochi around 9:55 am.
The ordeal of the nurses, who were working at a hospital in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, began when a swift ISIS (Islamic State for Iraq and Syria) offensive was launched on June 9. The nurses were moved out on Thursday against their will and detained in the militant-held city of Mosul, 250 km from Tikrit. The Erbil International airport is about 80 km from Mosul.
A joint-secretary level IFS officer and an IAS woman officer from Kerala are among the Indian officials travelling on the chartered flight.
While some Indians have been brought from Iraq, the MEA has assured that the resources that went into freeing the nurses would be used in the case of others too.
"People are still in captivity and we are aware of the captors," said Akbaruddin. Without divulging any information on the efforts that went into the freeing of these 46 nurses, MEA said, "Anything we say may possibly impact other elements. So I won't say who we worked with and how we worked."
"Diplomacy works through the front doors. We are using other doors and how those doors were used and knocked on and how they were opened up is a story for another day. The story for today is that one of those doors opened and we were able to extricate our nationals," the spokesperson said.
India used all "national assets" to secure the release of the nurses from ISIS, who had forced them to move out of their hospital in Tikrit yesterday against their "free will", the MEA Spokesperson said.
Nearly 1,500 Indian have registered to leave Iraq from the no-conflict zone. Already, about 1,000 Indian nationals have been given tickets to travel out of Iraq by the ministry.
There were about 10,000 Indians before the start of the serious strife between government troops and Sunni militants backed by al Qaida.
