Indian naval ships reach Libya late

While other countries have already evacuated all or most of their citizens from Libya, the Indian government is still struggling to get its people out.

While other countries have already evacuated all or most of their citizens from Libya, the Indian government is still struggling to get its people out.

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The Centre rushed in two Naval ships — Jalashwa and Mysore- which will reach the Libyan coast by Tuesday.

By Monday, India pulled out 12,000 out of its 18,000 nationals stuck in the strife-torn country, which is two third of the Indians stuck there. With another 2,500-odd people deciding to give their plans to return to India a rethink, sending Naval ships to Libya seems like a case of rush job, despite options of airlifting being available.

The ships had set sail from Mumbai on February 26. Officials said the landing permission from Tripoli came late, almost at the time when the ships were sent.

“There was also an EU proposal for no-fly zone over Libya. Sea route would have been the only option then,” an official said. India has also been criticised for not hiring rescue ships like China. MEA sources, however, backed the evacuation move.