A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi showered praise on former Army chief V K Singh for his role in the ‘unprecedented” mission to rescue Indians stranded in war-torn Yemen, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj also complimented her junior Minister.
In a statement on the Yemen rescue mission in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Swaraj said Singh performed not as a Minister but as a former Army chief by standing like a soldier in the battlefield.
Swaraj said Operation Raahat not only safely evacuated 4,741 stranded Indians, but 1,947 foreign national from 48 countries, too, under most difficult circumstances, guided by the spirit of “Vasudhaev Kutmubakam” (The World in one Family).
Five Naval ships and seven aircraft, including three from Air India, had been deployed for the evacuation, she added.
Of the evacuated Indians, 2,527 were from Kerala alone, followed by 427 from Tamil Nadu, 368 from Uttar Pradesh, 293 from Maharashtra, 219 from Bihar, 195 from West Bengal,180 from Andhra/Telangana, 123 from Karnataka, 115 from Gujarat among others.
“It was a joint effort of several Indian Ministries (Home , Defence, Civil Aviation, Railways) and agencies, supervised and coordinated by the Ministry of External Affairs,” she said.
“The State governments concerned, especially Maharashtra and Kerala, provided assistance to all returnees on their arrival,” she added.
Swaraj said in view of the worsening security situation in Sana’a (Yemen’s capital), the Indian Embassy has been re-located to Djbouti on April 15 and will continue to operate from there till normalcy returns to Yemen.