Over 7000 Indians from Libya to be back by Friday: MEA

New Delhi, Mar 3 (PTI) Over 7000 Indians out of 18000,
stuck in strife-torn Libya, would have been evacuated by
Friday as the private companies were also flying out their
professionals and workers.
"So far, over 6000 Indians have been evacuated and we
are expecting another thousand to come in by late tonight
(Thursday night)," External Affairs Minister S M Krishna told
reporters here.
The air-bridge between Tripoli and Delhi, already
picking up over a thousand Indian nationals daily out of
Libya, was being supplemented tomorrow by another Boeing 747,
the MEA said in a statement here.
Earlier, three Air India planes -- two Boeing 747s and
one Airbus-330 -- arrived, as usual, from Tripoli with 1050
passengers on board, it said, adding arrangements are being
made to send them to their home towns.
The ministry has also pressed into service another
ferry ship, reaching Misurata (Libya) from Malta by midday
Friday and was expected to return to Malta in the forenoon
of Saturday. Kingfisher and Jet Airways aircraft will then fly
out the Indian nationals from Valetta.
MV Scotia Prince reached Alexandria Wednesday evening
with 1188 passengers. Five air sorties including four Egypt
Air special flights are bringing the passengers home.
The ship is scheduled to return to Benghazi (Libya) by
March 5 to bring back the next batch of passengers to
Alexandria.
An IAF IL-76 (Gajraj) has also been positioned in
Egypt to assist in the current operations.
Besides the initiative of Indian companies such as DS
Construction, Punj Llyod and MN Dastur and Co. in flying out
their professionals and workers, the Indian Embassy in Tunis
is assisting with special flights out of Tunis and Djerba, the
MEA said.
"Our Embassy in Cairo is similarly continuing to
assist Indian nationals crossing the Libyan border at Salloum
to take commercial flights to Indian destinations from Cairo,"
it added. PTI PYK