A Pakistani warship on Saturday evacuated 11 Indians and other foreign nationals who were stranded at the Yemeni port of Mukalla, which was stormed by Al Qaeda fighters earlier this week.The warship PNS Aslat arrived on April 3 at Mukalla, which had the third largest cluster of Pakistanis in Yemen, but roads leading to the port were closed.Through a discreetly planned exercise, the evacuation effort was switched to the nearby Ash Shihr port and the warship safely evacuated 148 Pakistanis and 35 foreign nationals, including 11 Indians, eight Chinese and four Britons, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The situation in Mukalla, located 480 km east of the major port of Aden, had become critical after Al Qaeda fighters stormed the city on Thursday and freed one of the group’s top leaders and other inmates from a jail.
{{/usCountry}}The situation in Mukalla, located 480 km east of the major port of Aden, had become critical after Al Qaeda fighters stormed the city on Thursday and freed one of the group’s top leaders and other inmates from a jail.
{{/usCountry}}The Aslat is scheduled to reach the Pakistani port city of Karachi on April 7 but Pakistan’s foreign ministry did not say how or when the Indians would be sent home.Several citizens of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal are among the more than 1,300 people evacuated so far from Yemeni by Indian warships and planes. India has acceded to requests from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to help in evacuating their citizens from the war-torn country.About 3,000 Pakistanis were living across Yemen and around 1,800 have left the country. Following the Saudi-led air strikes in Sana'a and other cities, another 912 Pakistanis expressed their desire to leave.