1045 more Indians return from strife-torn Libya
March 2nd, 2011 - 3:10 pm ICT by ANINew Delhi, Mar 2 (ANI): A total of 1,045 Indians returned in three batches from strife-torn Libya on Wednesday by Air India special flights.
The first special flight (AI-160) carrying 259 passengers, landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here at 1:45 a.m.
The second flight (AI-170) carrying 391 Indians arrived at 6 a.m. while the third flight (AI-180), carrying 395 passengers arrived at 6:45 a.m.
Air India has brought back 2,128 passengers from Libya so far.
“Arrangements have been finalized with Libya to receive three special flights daily from India at Tripoli over the next ten days. In addition, we are exploring possibilities of establishing air bridges with Sirte and Sebha in Libya. This should appreciably speed up the process of evacuating our nationals from Libya,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.
It said the ship Scotia Prince, which had docked at Benghazi yesterday, is setting sail for Alexandria, Egypt, around noon, with an estimated 1,188 Indian nationals on board.
Twenty one more Indian nationals crossed over to Salloum (Egypt) yesterday by road and have been moved to Cairo and they will leave for Mumbai by Gulf Air, along with 85 other Indian nationals who had in the same way reached Cairo, it added.
On Tuesday, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna had a telephonic conversation with Libyan Foreign Minister Mussa Kussa and sought his help for the safe evacuation of Indian nationals from strife-torn Libya.
According to sources, Krishna has asked for assistance in the safe evacuation of Indian nationals stranded in Libya.
“The evacuation of Indians who are wanting to come back is going smoothly. And so far by Wednesday, I think 3500 persons would have been evacuated from Tripoli,” he said.
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- US envoy lauds Indian Govt.'s efforts over evacuation from Libya - Mar 09, 2011
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Tags: air bridges, air india, alexandria egypt, batches, external affairs minister, foreign minister, gulf air, indian nationals, indira gandhi, indira gandhi international airport, krishna, kussa, mea, ministry of external affairs, scotia prince, setting sail, sirte, strife, telephonic conversation, tripoli