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46 Indian nurses set free in Iraq; to return home today
Ashok Tuteja
Tribune News Service

Special AI flight arranged A special Air India plane has left for Iraq to bring the nurses back to India Along with the 46 nurses, 70 other Indian nationals from Kirkuk will also return home Since most of the nurses belong to Kerala, the aircraft will first land at Kochi and then fly to Delhi Negotiations through Gulf countries seem to have broken the deadlock

New Delhi, July 4
In a dramatic development, Sunni militants in the conflict zone of Iraq have set free the 46 Indian nurses who were forced to move out of a hospital in Tikrit and taken to Mosul on Thursday, sparking fears about their safety as well as that of 39 captive Indian construction workers.

"I can confirm that the Indian nurses who were moved out (of the hospital yesterday) against their will are now free,” MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin told the media. They were on their way to Erbil in Northern Iraq, a non-conflict zone, and were in touch with Indian officials.

A special Air India plane will reach Erbil tonight to bring these nurses back to India tomorrow. Along with the 46 nurses, 70 other Indian nationals from Kirkuk would also be coming to India. Since most of the nurses belong to Kerala, the aircraft would first land at Kochi and then come to Delhi.

S K Sinha, Joint Secretary in the MEA and a senior diplomat, would also fly to Erbil in the plane to coordinate the exercise to bring the nurses back home.

"We have won a small battle...there is a war still on", the spokesman said, adding the government would leave no stone unturned to secure the safe release of the construction workers in captivity in Mosul. These workers, he said, were safe and unharmed.

Back channel negotiations with the militants through Gulf countries and conduits appear to have paved the way for the release of the nurses, whose ordeal began on June 9 when the Islamic State for Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants captured Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein.

The nurses remained trapped in their hospital before they were forced to move out of it yesterday.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had spoken to her counterparts yesterday too, appealing to them to help India to deal with the crisis. The spokesman hinted that diplomatic contacts as well as unconventional means were being used by India to deal with the situation in Iraq. "India, after all, has friends not only in Iraq but also outside Iraq.” he said. Asked about the condition of these nurses, the spokesman said they were naturally traumatized after what they had gone through.