New Delhi, June 17 – Indian Embassy in Iraq has said that 46 Indian nurses stranded in Tikrit, the Iraqi town seized by Sunni militants, are completely safe. Indian Ambassador A.Ajay Kumar has assured all help to Indian citizens there.
“The International Red Crescent Society volunteers visited the 46 Indian nurses that were stranded in a hospital they were working in since last week,” India’s Ambassador A. Ajay Kumar said on Monday.
In all, there are 46 Indian nurses stranded in Tikrit-most of them from Kerala – and 41 construction workers are in Mosul, the embassy said. “Till now, they are completely safe,” Kumar assured. “The volunteers found them completely safe and working in the hospital,” Ambassador Kumar added.
“We are monitoring the situation closely and keeping all options ready. So far, everything is under control and there is nothing to worry,” he said. “We are keeping all options open, as an ‘element of uncertainty’ prevails in such areas,” Kumar added.
The ambassador said the mission has been mulling possible measures that can be carried out in an emergency. “We are planning to transport the citizens from various cities in the Iraq’s north to the Irbil, capital of autonomous Kurdistan region of Northern Iraq, and then flying them out to India, in a day or two,” Kumar said. Irbil lies 88 km east of Mosul.
“We are also considering airlifting our citizens with helicopters,” the ambassador said, adding that a few Indians have already been airlifted from Iraqi city of Samarra, 125 km north of Baghdad, along with other foreign citizens.
The relatives of the stranded nurses were receiving SOS messages from Iraq. Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had apprised External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj of the situation.
Indian government had released advisory to the citizens travelling to Iraq. Fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have seized the cities of Mosul and Tikrit in the northern region of the oil-rich Arab nation and were moving closer to Baghdad.
Iraq’s top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani exhorted all able-bodied Iraqis to take up arms as the advancing Sunni militants captured more towns and started moving towards Baghdad.
-INDIA TODAY
