New Delhi, July 5 – The special Air India flight carrying 46 Indian nurses set free by Sunni militants ISIS in strife-torn Iraq and 137 others would first land in Mumbai and reach Kochi around noon on Saturday.
The flight carrying 183 Indian nationals from Erbil was expected to reach Mumbai around 9.30 am and after disembarkment of some passengers would arrive here around 11.55 am, told Cochin International Airport Director A K C Nair.
The flight left Erbil for India at around 4.30 am IST, he said. From Kochi, the flight will proceed to Hyderabad and then Delhi, he said. Besides the nurses, the plane is also carrying 137 other Indian nationals, including 70 from Kirkuk in the northern part of Iraq.
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.
-INDIA TODAY
