1,045 more Indians pulled out of Libya
A fresh batch of Indian nationals has been evacuated by air from Libya. By Wednesday night, 6,177 Indians, or just over a third of the estimated 18,000 Indian nationals in Libya, would have been pulled out to safety, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said.
Responding to the government’s appeal, private carrier Jet Airways on Wednesday said it will operate two special evacuation flights — one on Thursday and the other on Saturday — from Mumbai to the Tunisian city of Djerba in order to evacuate people from Libya. A 170-seater Boeing 737-800 will be utilised for the purpose, the private airline said. The government had on Tuesday ordered private carriers too to operate evacuation flights. On Wednesday, three special Air India flights — two Boeing-747s and one Airbus-330 — brought home 1,045 Indian nationals.
“Three daily flights shall continue to Tripoli over the coming days and may even be stepped up further,” the MEA said.
Meanwhile, a batch of 1,118 Indian nationals was on its way from Benghazi in Libya to the Egyptian port city of Alexandria. They were travelling aboard a private ship, MV Scotia Prince. The vessel was expected to reach Alexandria at about 8 pm local time (11.30 pm India time). These passengers will be flown home Thursday. A charter flight carrying 78 Indians from Sirte in Libya arrived at Larnaca in Cyprus Tuesday evening. The Indian high commission in Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, received them. The passengers were being booked on commercial flights to India.
About 1,400 Indians had reached Djerba in Tunisia, where personnel from the Indian embassy in Tunis helped them with accommodation in local hotels. Special flights were being organised to bring them back home soon. National carrier Air India said that it had operated six special flights so far to evacuate people from Libya. In latest developments, three Air India flights sent to Tripoli would be returning in the early hours of Thursday with hundreds of passengers.
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