Pakistan ferries 11 Indians home

Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit with Indians, who were evacuated from Yemen by a Pakistani navy ship, at the IGI Airport in New Delhi on Wednesday. (Express Photo by: Amit Mehra)

As Pakistan brought home in a special plane 11 Indians whom it evacuated from strife-torn Yemen, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday thanked his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif for the “humanitarian gesture” and remarked that “service to humanity knows no borders”.

“I welcome our 11 citizens who’ve returned from Yemen with assistance from Pakistan. Thank you PM Nawaz Sharif for your humanitarian gesture,” Modi tweeted. He added: “Service to humanity knows no borders. Glad we helped many countries in evacuation from Yemen”.

Modi said that India had also extended help to Pakistan and other neighbours Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka in evacuating their citizens from Yemen.

Sharif had on Tuesday offered to send the 11 Indians evacuated by Pakistani Navy by a special flight, which was readily accepted by India. They were airlifted from Karachi to New Delhi on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar appreciated Pakistan’s gesture, saying “It was a very positive, good, generous gesture… Pakistan took great trouble and we need to appreciate that.”

Jaishankar said crises, like the one in Yemen, provided an opportunity for countries to work together and noted that India had evacuated 409 nationals of 32 countries, including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

“Different countries are helping out irrespective of nationalities,” he said, adding that India sees it as an opportunity to cooperate with each other while some may see it as “posturing”.

India extends air evacuation operations

India on Wednesday decided to extend the air evacuation operation from Yemen by a day following a rescue request by a group of 140 nurses.

Announcing the extension in the air evacuation operation, Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said: “Responding to needs of 140 nurses, India extends air evacuation from Yemen by a day. Flights planned for tomorrow also, subject to clearances.” Yesterday, he had said that the air evacuation will on Wednesday.

Officials said that on Wednesday, 450 people were rescued from the war-ravaged country, taking the total number of evacuees to 4500. While these people were airlifted by Air India from Sana’a, INS Sumitra had been kept in stand-by near Al Hudaydah to be used if needed, they added. ENS

Source:: Indian Express