'Nurses holed up in old building in Mosul'
July 04, 2014  13:25
The 46 nurses from Kerala moved in a vehicle by rebels from their hospital in Tikrit in Iraq are lodged in an old building near a hospital in Mosul and are safe, according to family members of a nurse in Kottayam.

Though they are lodged in a godown-like hall without power, their abductors have treated them well, a mother of one of the nurses said.

"My daughter called me around 10.45 last night and said the group had been accommodated in a hall in Mosul. It appears to be part of a hospital. She could not speak more since the charge of her mobile phone was low. She told me not to get panicky if she did not call home frequently as she was not sure if there would be a facility to get the phone charged," said Sobha, whose daughter is one of the nurses of the group.

Sobha and her husband Sasikumar, like parents of other nurses from different parts of the state, said they are praying for safe return of their children and pinned hope on the efforts being made by the Centre and the state for their evacuation without delay.

But some of them complained that there was delay on the part of the Centre to intervene effectively in the matter.

They claimed that as soon as Tikrit came under the control of rebels a few days back, the nurses had informed Indian Embassy in Baghdad about their willingness to give up the job and return home.
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