Indian nurses freed from Iraq reach Kochi, reunite with families

Kochi/New Delhi: The plane carrying 46 Indian nurses who were freed by militants in Iraq landed in Kochi on Saturday afternoon. Nurses returned home by a special Air India flight to a happy reunion with their families here, bringing to an end their about month-long ordeal.

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy whose coordinated effort with the Union Government that ensured liberty to nurses from his state, besides another who hails from Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu received them at the airport.

Family members of nurses, on whose face a sigh of relief was writ large had assembled in large numbers to see their beloved ones return and were joined by political leaders from BJP and Congress at the airport.

The flight will further proceed on its route to Hyderabad from where it will move to Delhi. Around 100 others are bound for Hyderabad.

The Air India Boeing 777, that is also bringing back over 100 other Indians who were trapped in the war-torn country, had stopped at Mumbai briefly at 8:43 am for refuelling. The flight made a 'technical halt' in Mumbai for refuelling and catering supplies.

Read: ‘Unpaid, nurses risked their life’

An Air India spokesperson said that none of the Indian nurses alighted in Mumbai. “About an hour after landing here in Mumbai, the flight took off for Kochi,” added the spokesperson.

In what is being seen as the first foreign policy success of the Narendra Modi government, on what was officially called a day of “dramatic developments”, the group of 46 Indian nurses held captive by the ISIS militants in Iraq were set free on Friday and are brought back home.

Read: Release of nurses a diplomatic feat

Besides the nurses, the plane is also carrying 137 other Indian nationals, including 70 from Kirkuk in the northern part of Iraq.

A joint-secretary level IFS officer and an IAS woman officer from Kerala are among the Indian officials travelling on the chartered flight.

Read: Iraq Crisis: Returning home left them broke

The nurses reached Erbil by road on Friday night, from where were flown by the special Air India flight.

“It (release of the nurses) didn’t happen just like that. There were enormous efforts undertaken both in and out of Iraq... India has friends both in and out of Iraq. We knocked on many doors, one door opened,” MEA spokesman Syed Akbaruddin told reporters in New Delhi. It is not clear if any ransom was paid to secure the release of the nurses.

Read: Iraq Crisis: Indian embassy helpline flooded with rescue calls

Asked for details on exactly how the nurses’ release was secured and what the captors’ demands were, the MEA spokesman declined to go into details, saying there were still some Indians in captivity and the process of freeing them was “under way”, therefore, anything that was said might have an impact. “We will not say how we are operating, with whom and when,” the spokesman said when asked again how the release was secured.

Watch: Indian nurses speak about their ordeal in Iraq

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