Posted on 01/31/2011 5:18:33 PM PST by James C. Bennett
NEW DELHI: Standing in the darkness in the chaos of Saturday night Cairo, members of the Indian community had nothing but their children's cricket bats to fend off looters. One of them requesting anonymity managed to get through to this paper despite intermittent mobile phone services. "All the men are standing guard outside our building. Our wives and children are inside. There is no police or military on the roads in our area. Shops near here are being looted, they even looted the main government hospital. Pray for us," he said. ( Read: Obama calls on Mubarak, warns Egypt against violence )
The decision to leave came in the morning after they spent two sleepless nights on Friday and Saturday worried for the safety of their families. They got in touch with the Indian Ambassador to Egypt R Swaminathan, who assured them that external affairs minister S M Krishna had been apprised of the situation.
There are 3,000 odd Indians living and working in Egypt. About 2,000 are in Cairo. Though there are some who have decided to stay put for now, those keen to return home say: "We want to wait till the situation improves before coming back."
For two days when communications including the internet and mobile phone services were blocked all over Cairo, they were unable to call their families back in India, speak to each other in the city during the curfew or books tickets online. Then they found out that most carriers had stopped operations to and from Cairo. ( Read: Egypt ordered cell phone service stopped )
"We have enough provisions to last a week here, after that we don't know. The children can't go to school and we are not able to go to work. All we could do was watch the news on TV," said one.
News trickled in Sunday morning about the special Air India flight being arranged by the Indian government. Many are hoping to be among the 280 passengers who can be accommodated on this flight.
NEW DELHI: The government on Sunday brought back 300 Indian nationals by a special Air India flight from Cairo as more than 150 Egyptians died in street protests and widespread looting erupted in the capital city. With more than 3,600 people of Indian origin living in Egypt, the foreign ministry hoped for a peaceful resolution to the protests.
The special flight was arranged by the government at the request of Indian nationals who wanted to return home. Another special flight is likely to take off from Mumbai soon and the government has not ruled out more such flights in the next few days. The flight on Sunday, which left for Cairo around 5pm and is set to arrive early Monday, is bringing back mostly women and children. About 2,200 of the Indians living in Egypt are based in Cairo.
"We are closely following with concern, the developments in Egypt. India has traditionally enjoyed close and friendly relations with Egypt. We hope for an early and peaceful resolution of the situation without further violence and loss of lives," joint secretary and spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said.
Flight schedules in and out of Egypt have been disrupted in the past few days after anti-government protests broke out there seeking the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power for more than three decades. Nearly 150 people have been killed and hundreds injured in the clashes. Around 1,000 people have been arrested across the country since the protests broke out five days ago against the Mubarak government.
Qatar-based Al-Jazeera channel, which was banned by Egypt on Sunday, put the death toll at 150 and said 4,000 people had been injured since the unprecedented mass protests against Mubarak's autocratic regime began on Tuesday. Some other reports said more than 100 had been killed. Mobs stormed into upmarket malls, bank, jewellery and electronic stores beside government buildings and looted television sets, furniture, electronic items and gold ornaments, defying curfew in the capital. Looting and arson continued through the night as security personnel disappeared from the trouble spots.
On Saturday, the external affairs ministry issued an advisory, asking Indians to avoid all non-essential travel to Egypt. It also said that Indians living there were safe and the embassy in Cairo was in touch with them. Officials said most of the Indians were People of Indian Origin (PIO) who had settled in Egypt. The Indian embassy has set up a round-the-clock control room to assist them.
320 back from Cairo, 200 expected on next flight
MUMBAI: Cut off from the world for days and battling looters on Cairo streets since anti-Hosni Mubarak protesters captured the main city square, a planeload of 320 harried Indians were evacuated from the Egyptian capital on Monday and flown to Mumbai.
Soon after the Air India special Boeing-737 landed in Mumbai, vacationers, business travelers and even NRIs settled in Egypt poured out to meet anxious friends and relatives and share stories of horror from the last week.
``The fear spread once violence began. There was the army on the streets. People in buildings had also come out with baseball bats. News of looting spread but there was no police to be seen,`` said Duhita Samaiyar, a designer and social worker settled in Cairo for seven years.
``Ours is a peaceful neighbourhood. However, since Friday, there were a lot of people taking to the streets. We could hear gunshots from our house and our family in Mumbai advised us to come and stay here until the situation improved,`` said Duhita, who travelled back with her two daughters.
Many who were there to receive the evacuees said the last three days were the most anxious ones of their lives as communications with stranded relatives were snapped with authorities briefly blocking net access and mobile phones. Since most were tracking events on television, the relief of seeing loved ones safe was hard to contain with much hugging and weeping seen at the arrival terminal.
Sangeeta Desai was standing on her toes to see if her husband had come out of the arrival gate. Ashish Desai was in Cairo for the past nonth on business.
"I spent a very tense time here. For two days, I could not reach him as no mobile or internet connection was available. Even after that, I would keep calling but the phone kept getting cut every minute," she said before bolting to receive her husband, the first to walk out of the arrival gate.
"Even after I reached the airport, I didn`t know if I would make it to India. There was utter chaos. Lots of people had gathered at the airport and were trying to find a way out,`` said the Mumbai-based businessman who spent a night at Cairo airport.
The 320 passengers who came in on Monday were lucky to have made it as many others were stuck and struggling to get a ticket back. Abhishek Jhawar, a 23-year-old flying from Lagos to Mumbai via Cairo, was among them. ``He reached Cairo on January 29, but has been confined to the airport since then," said his brother Avinash. He said his brother wasn`t allowed to transfer to another terminal because he didn`t have an Egypt visa.
“Those who beat their weapons into plowshares will plow for those who do not”
Seems applicable.
Even here in the US, where the US Constitutiuon reigns supreme, there are at least a dozen state I refuse to travel to, through or ever live in.
MOLON LABE;
Some wanted ‘change’ without asking what change means....
One thing that pretty much all Muslims have in common is the willingness to steal anything they can get their hands on.
They need high capacity mags — 30 rounds would be good.
Thank you for the report. Sometimes we have to turn to the foreign press to get details that are overlooked by our own media.
BTW, welcome to Free Republic!
I am always amazed at how uncreative people are.
Take a piece of 3/4” pipe. Plug the breech. Drill a hole for the primer. These days they could use a piece of nichrome wire, some batteries, and a switch or pushbutton as the primer. They could use the heads of kitchen matches as propellant. Just need a bit of hot wire to set it off. Use paper wadding over the propellant charge with some screws, nuts, or ball bearings as the shot charge.
Presto, improvised 12 gauge. Make one for every member of the family.
We were smart enough to write the 2nd Amendment. How come the Egyptians cannot figure out basic ballistics?
“Bring the heat, ‘meat.”
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