Reports reaching from trouble-torn Iraq that the Indians stranded in that country cannot be brought back to India immediately because of security concerns have heightened the panic among relatives of the Keralites stuck in Tirkit and other places. However, the Indian Embassy in Iraq has assured that all Indians there are safe.
Television channels in Kerala on Monday quoted A Ajay Kumar, Indian Envoy in Iraq, as saying that taking Indians back to the country was an impossible task at the moment since taking them to Baghdad by road was difficult because all roads leading to the Iraqi capital were under the control of the extremists.
The TV channels also quoted the envoy as saying that the 46 Keralite nurses stranded in hospitals in Tikrit were safe and the effort was to see if evacuating them with the help of the Red Cross was
possible. Kumar told the TV channels that extremists were roaming the streets outside the hospitals and that it would be foolish for the nurses to go out in that situation.
He said that the embassy had sought advice on reaching those stranded in Iraq home but it was told that getting the nurses out of the hospitals in the present circumstances would be dangerous. A Keralite nurse told a channel that they were living in panic inside the hospitals as sounds of gunshots and explosions were reverberating outside.
Relatives of those stranded in Iraq wanted facilities to be immediately arranged at the Indian Embassy for helping them, sources in the Kerala Government said. The United Nurses Association demanded urgent efforts from the part of the State and Central Government to bring the nurses back home safe.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had last weekend said that the State Government was in touch with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj over the matter of bringing home the Keralite nurses stranded in Iraq. Chandy also said that the Government had information about 44 nurses who were stranded in the strife-torn country but there could be more.