India evacuates 75 of its citizens as rebels take over Syria

The Ministry of External Affairs said that the Indian nationals safely crossed over to Lebanon and will return by available commercial flights to India.

Opposition fighters celebrate as they burn down a military court in Damascus, Syria. (AP Photo)

India evacuated 75 of its citizens from Syria, including pilgrims from Jammu and Kashmir, as Islamist rebels captured power in Damascus and President Bashar Al Assad fled the country.

This is a signal towards Indian government’s assessment of the security and political situation in Syria.

The Ministry of External Affairs said that the Indian nationals safely crossed over to Lebanon and will return by available commercial flights to India.

A statement from MEA said informed that the evacuation was “following recent developments in that country”.

“The evacuees included 44 ‘zaireen’ from Jammu & Kashmir who were stranded at Saida Zainab. All Indian nationals have safely crossed over to Lebanon and will return by available commercial flights to India,” it said.

It added that the evacuation, coordinated by the embassies of India in Damascus and Beirut, was put into effect following “our assessment of the security situation and requests from Indian nationals in Syria”. This is the first security assessment of the internal situation of Syria.

“The Government of India accords the highest priority to the safety and security of Indian nationals abroad. Indian nationals remaining in Syria are advised to stay in touch with the Indian Embassy in Damascus at their emergency helpline number +963 993385973 (also on WhatsApp) and email ID (hoc.damascus@mea.gov.in) for updates. The Government will continue to monitor the situation closely,” the statement read.

What has happened in Syria?

A civil war and 14 days are all it took for President Assad’s government to fall. Late in November, developments in Syria had caused alarm when an armed set of forces comprising the Syrian opposition began gaining ground in major cities one by one in the next few days. On Sunday (December 8), the Assad government, whose Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party had been in power since the 1960s, fell.

Assad, ruling the country since 2000, having inherited the legacy from his father Hafez al-Assad since 1971, was forced to flee the country as the Islamist rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham marched into the Syrian capital.

In a statement aired on Syrian state television, a group of opposition fighters said they have “liberated” Damascus and overthrown the “tyrant al-Assad,” adding that all detainees held in the regime’s prisons have been released.

HTS’s al-Jawlani has, so far, tried to assuage the fears of the minorities. On November 29, he told soldiers, after the takeover of Aleppo, the “first priority is to protect the property and lives of civilians and to establish security and calm the fears of people from all sects”.

 

8-year-old girl dies of ‘food poisoning’ as 35 students of Chhattisgarh residential school fall ill

In the early hours of Monday, some students at Rukhmini Ashram school in Dhanora village started complaining of stomach pain and vomiting.

After being admitted to the Bijapur district hospital by around 11 am, many of the students had their vomiting brought under control by the doctors.

An eight-year-old girl died late on Monday night, hours after she and 34 other students of a government-aided residential school in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district were admitted to hospital over suspected food poisoning.

In the early hours of Monday, some students at Rukhmini Ashram school in Dhanora village started complaining of stomach pain and vomiting. In the morning, 35 of the students were taken to the local health centre, from where they were referred to the district hospital.

After being admitted to the Bijapur district hospital by around 11 am, many of the students had their vomiting brought under control by the doctors.

At around 10 pm on Monday, one of the students, Shivani Telam, was referred to a different hospital in Jagdalpur city of Bastar district, about 286 km away. Shivani died at around midnight while being taken to Jagdalpur in an ambulance.

Nine other children are in the ICU.

Bijapur Collector Sambit Mishra told The Indian Express, “We are awaiting the postmortem report to know the exact cause of death. We will take appropriate action.”

A doctor at the district hospital said they were still trying to determine what had caused the children to fall ill. “We could not collect the samples of the food eaten by the children, except for the rice. During the day (on Sunday), they ate kheer, puri, chana and chole. They had eaten paneer at night, which could have gone bad,” the doctor said.

“Several children also had fever, so we also tested them for malaria, but they tested negative,” he said.

District Chief Medical and Health Officer Dr B R Pujari said, “It could be something beyond food poisoning. We could not get any samples of the food… but we will find out what went wrong.”

Their school had a total of 88 students studying and staying there. It was established in 1976, is run by an NGO, and is aided by the government.