New Delhi, March 17
Reflecting for the first time the Indian assessment of an imminent US war against Iraq, the Vajpayee government today set up a Crisis Management Group (CMG) to take appropriate action in the event of a war on Iraq and the CMG held its first meeting also to review the situation.

Indian embassy officials moved out of Baghdad to Amman today, though the embassy has not been closed down and is kept functional by the skeletal local staff, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) here announced. India’s Ambassador to Iraq, Mr B. B. Tyagi, and other officials would rush back to Baghdad at a short notice if the situation changes for the better.

The MEA said a control room would soon be operational in the ministry and the telephone numbers and e-mail ID would be announced soon.

The CMG is headed by Mr R. M. Abhyankar, Secretary in the MEA, and includes senior officials of the Ministries of Petroleum and Defence. The CMG is going to be expanded soon and representatives from the Ministries of Petroleum and Labour would be roped in it.

The CMG will meet as an when the situation demands so. It may meet several times a day if the situation so demands and it may not meet even once for days if the situation does not warrant so. A total of 31 Indians are still in various parts of Iraq despite the Indian Government instructions to them to leave that country immediately. These Indians are staying in Iraq of their own volition.

These include three nuns of Missionaries of Charity, who are in Baghdad, eight charity workers, who are in Karbala, four students in Najf, 14 businessmen, who are engaged in Iraq’s oil-for-food programme, and two journalists.

Meanwhile, the MEA is piqued by instructions from the Ministry of Labour to the Protector of Emigrants, Mumbai, to temporarily suspend grant of permission for Indian personnel to take up jobs in Kuwait.