Indian Nurses, Freed By ISIS, On Their Way Back Home

NEW DELHI: A day that started with despair for Indian nationals in Iraq ended on a bright note as ISIS on Friday afternoon released 46 Indian nurses who had been held captive. The nurses had been forcibly taken from Tikrit to ISIS' stronghold Mosul sparking fear that they too had been kidnapped, like the 39 Indian construction workers who remain in captivity in that region. A special Air India plane reached Erbil, in Kurdistan, late Friday evening to bring back the nurses, who are from Kerala. A joint secretary from MEA, S.K. Sinha, has gone in the aircraft to coordinate the nurses' return. MEA said along with the 46 nurses, another 70 Indians from that area have been taken to Erbil to catch the same flight back home. The flight is expected to land directly in Kochi on Saturday morning before returning to Delhi. ISIS gunmen drove the nurses to a location not far from Erbil - about 80 km from Mosul - in a bus. Indian officials were already in Erbil to receive them. The swift release suggested there could have been behind-the -scenes negotiations with one of the most hardened jehadi outfits. However, the government, which had sent officials beforehand to Erbil, refused to part with operational details saying that more lives were at stake and that the job was only partly done. It said "hope had triumphed''. Refusing to divulge any details, MEA sopesperson Syed Akbaruddin said, "We got in touch last evening. We have other means of getting in touch. We have won a small battle. The war is on." TOI