NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S. Jaishankar announced the completion of ‘Operation Kaveri’ through which nearly 4,000 people, mostly Indian nationals, were evacuated from war-torn Sudan.
Terming it as India’s “most dangerous” evacuation operation, Jaishankar said on Sunday that Indian diplomats risked their lives to rescue Indians stuck in Sudan, including negotiating checkpoints and arranging petrol from the ‘black market’ for hired buses used to evacuate Indians from Sudan’s capital of Khartoum to Port Sudan, a journey of 850 km by road.
Taking a veiled jab at senior Congress leader and former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, who had questioned the Centre in the initial days of the evacuation mission regarding the rescue of some tribals from Karnataka stuck in Sudan, the EAM said, “These are the times when people need to trust the government. This government has systems in place and is committed to Indian citizens abroad. The team had to undergo several processes.” About 11 per cent of Indians rescued from Sudan were from Karnataka, the EAM added.
In a video message, the EAM said, “We have just completed Operation Kaveri. It was the most dangerous operation by people who risked their lives. When the fighting started, most of the Embassies were quick to leave. Our Embassy stayed put because there were Indians in Khartoum.” He said he had to order the Indian Ambassador and diplomats to relocate to safer places within Sudan after the operation was practically over since they refused to leave Sudan because some Indians may be stuck in parts of the war-torn nation.
Stating that if some Indians are still stuck, then “additional efforts” would be made to rescue them, the EAM said.
Jaishankar said he told the Indian envoy and other diplomats that by staying back and not relocating, their lives would be at risk. It may be noted that India recently relocated its Embassy from Khartoum to Port Sudan.
Stating that if some Indians are still stuck, then “additional efforts” would be made to rescue them, the EAM said, “Operation Kaveri was a particularly complicated operation. I was genuinely worried that if we highlighted the predicament in which our people were stranded, we would be putting their lives at risk. So since April 15, when the fighting began, we have been working efficiently, without putting out too many details in the public domain. We have brought back almost 4,000 people, with nearly 11 per cent of them being natives of Karnataka. We used the Air Force and there were 17 evacuation flights while the Navy helped with five evacuation sorties by ships.”
Elaborating on how the IAF carried out a daring landing operation on an airstrip that was sparsely used, in a conflict zone in the absence of local air traffic controllers, Jaishankar said the courage of the IAF personnel was only matched by the courage of the Indian diplomats, who had rounded up all stranded Indians and taken to the airstrip for evacuation.
The EAM said some rescue operations were planned even from Nigeria via Chad to extricate Indian nationals from the western part of Sudan.
