India scrambled Wednesday to coordinate the logistics of evacuating its nationals from strife-torn Libya, where anti-government protests are reported to have claimed hundreds of lives.

There are about 18,000 Indian nationals in Libya and the government proposes to evacuate them by air, sea and land, first to neighbouring Egypt, and then onward back home.
Unlike in the case of Egypt, from where Indian evacuees had to pay for their tickets home, external affairs minister S.M. Krishna said the government was “not charging” for evacuating the Indians from Libya.
India is understood to have expressed its willingness to help its South Asian neighbours in evacuating their nationals at short notice. In 2006, India had evacuated Sri Lankan and Nepalese nationals from Lebanon after the Israel-Hezbollah war broke out.
Sri Lanka did not have aircraft to bring its nationals back. It is understood to have sounded out “friendly countries” for assistance even as it explored the possibility of coordinating its activities with the International Organisation on Migration.
Nepal is particularly worried because not only does it not have a full-fledged mission in Libya (its embassy in Egypt is concurrently accredited to Libya) but it is understood to be facing a resource crunch, too.
Bangladesh, another Indian neighbour, intends to move its nationals to safer places in Libya before taking a call on evacuating them. Like Colombo, Dhaka was toying with the idea of approaching international organisations.
India, which has drawn upon its experience of evacuation from Kuwait in 1991 and Lebanon in 2006, plans to evacuate its nationals by air and sea from Tripoli and Benghazi in Libya to Alexandria in Egypt.
New Delhi was awaiting necessary clearances for its aircraft and ships, with one private vessel expected to reach Egypt without delay. It was dispatching additional personnel to reinforce its diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt.
Access to the eastern coast of Libya was relatively quick and less difficult from Egypt. The choice of Alexandria was also dictated by the facts that it was not only a port city but big aircraft could land and take off from the airport there.
Evacuation by road was being considered, too, from Tobruk in Libya to Salloum in Egypt (about 600 km) and onward, again by road, to Alexandria, located at a distance of 500 km.
Two Indian nationals were reported to have safely crossed the Libyan border into Salloum.
Mr Krishna said in the Rajya Sabha that the government was doing its utmost to ensure a safe evacuation. He noted that about 200 Indian nurses working in Benghazi were reported to be safe.
In the messages posted on her Twitter account, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao elaborated that the Indian ambassador in Tripoli, Ms Manimekalai, was in touch with the Indian nurses in Benghazi and the Indian community in other locations.
A majority of the Indian nationals, numbering about 8,000, lived in Tripoli; the rest were scattered across several smaller cities and towns. There were an estimated 2,000 Indians in Sebha, 1,500 in Sirte, 1,200 each in Zliten and Benghazi, and 700 in Kufra.