New Delhi: Thirty-eight Indians were on Thursday brought back home by the Indian Navy in an operation code-named “Nistar”, four days after they were rescued from the cyclone-hit Socotra island in Yemen.
Indian naval ship INS Sunayna, carrying the rescued Indians, entered the Porbandar harbour in Gujarat at around 9 am, Navy spokesperson Capt. D.K. Sharma said.
After completion of all the formalities, they were handed over to the civil administration to facilitate their return to native places.
Socotra faced the fury of the “very severe” cyclonic storm Mekunu on May 24, leaving 38 Indians stranded on the island with limited food and water.
About three Indian dhows at Socotra suffered damages or sank alongside in the harbour while another dhow MSV Safina Al Khijar, with 12 Indians onboard, was reported to be missing.
The Indian Navy had sent in its ship after receiving a distress call from the director general (shipping) and the Indian Sailing Vessels Association.
The INS Sunayna, which was deployed on a mission based deployment in the Gulf of Aden, was sent in after the Indian Navy undertook two aerial sorties on May 27 and 28 to hunt for locate the missing Indians.
