Bengaluru, April 29: “I was not sure whether I will return home alive. God is great. I am alive and I am back in my state,” said Nithin Manoj Ammani, a native of Mangalore after he landed in Kempegowda International Airport on Friday, unable to control his tears.
Manoj is one among 362 flyers who were evacuated from the strife-torn Sudan. Out of 362 rescued, 114 are from Karnataka. Majority of them are from Shimoga (50), while others are from Mysore (45), Bengaluru (9), Gulbarga (4), two each from Udupi and Ramanagara and one each from Hassan and Davanagere.
Manoj Rajan, Commissioner, Disaster Management and Nodal Officer from Karnataka said all of them have been sent to Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Health Sciences for a six-day quarantine.
“About 40 flyers from other states had not carried their mandatory yellow fever vaccination certificate. Their certificates are being tracked through passport and other documents,” he added.
Among the passengers evacuated, 34 from Tamil Nadu, 33 from Andhra Pradesh, 32 from Kerala, 22 from Telangana, 30 from Maharashtra, four from Bihar and rest from other states.
“When my kids asked me what are those blasts outside our home, I said Deepavali is being celebrated outside. It was a horrible experience. We never knew when and from where bullets will come flying. But god is great. We are alive and we are back,” said Muhammed Irshad Maniyar.
Maniyar’s entire family – wife Gulnar, children four year old Safwan and eight year old Hanna – were stuck inside their home for about 10 days.
“Ration was getting over. There was no proper power supply. There was shortage of drinking water. Then Indian Embassy officials contacted us. We moved to safe zone with great difficulty,” Maniyar said.
EOM.
