The Hindu : Front Page : Evacuation of Indians from Lebanon on course

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 21, 2006

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Evacuation of Indians from Lebanon on course

Atul Aneja

Over 500 board INS Mumbai at Beirut, en route to Larnaca

DUBAI: The evacuation of stranded Indians in Lebanon began on schedule on Thursday, with more than 500 boarding the Indian warship INS Mumbai at Beirut harbour.

By late afternoon on Thursday, 330 persons were on the ship and around 200 were waiting to board, Indian ambassador to Lebanon, Nengcha Lhouvum, who was at the jetty to supervise operations, told The Hindu over telephone from Beirut. The ship is heading for Larnaca in Cyprus, where an "air bridge" is being established. Air India is slated to pick up the first lot of evacuees on Friday forenoon. The External Affairs Ministry will take over arrangements for their transit once they arrive on Indian soil.

Indians, like nationals of other countries, have been forced to leave after Israel went on the offensive against the Lebanese militant group, Hizbollah.

Diplomatic sources said that one more Indian ship may be required to evacuate all Indians. Three ships, INS Brahmaputra, Betwa and Shakti, are holding positions in Lebanese waters and can reach the Beirut harbour in around three hours.

Ten Nepalese also boarded INS Mumbai. Ms. Lhouvum said India was ready to help evacuate nationals from other neighbouring countries. Apart from the around 12,000 Indians, South Asian expatriates in Lebanon included 60,000 Sri Lankans and 10,000 Bangladeshis. There were 30,000 nationals from the Philippines.

Sources said INS Mumbai was ferrying an Indian injured in the Israeli bombing. Two other Indians had been admitted to hospital in Beirut. A stray shell had wounded an Indian soldier deployed as part of the UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon. However, the injury was not serious, and he was recovering.

While the boarding of the ship went off smoothly, the procedures that preceded it were cumbersome. Lebanese authorities have established an immigration post, and several individuals were unable to leave because their residency permits, stamped on their passports, were not in order.

Special flights

New Delhi Special Correspondent reports:

Air India will operate two special flights on Friday to Larnaca to bring back Indians returning from Lebanon. It will deploy two jumbo B-747-400s and airlift 800 persons from Larnaca to Mumbai, airline sources said.

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