On their route to India, a group of 326 Indian citizens arrived in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah on Friday. The Indian Navy destroyer INS Tarkash brought the tenth batch of evacuees to Jeddah. Earlier in the day, 362 Indians evacuated from Sudan boarded a flight from Jeddah heading for Bengaluru. Many of them belonged to the Hakki Pikki tribe of Karnataka. V. Muraleedharan, Minister of State for External Affairs, tweeted these data on Friday.
On April 18, former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar exchanged words after the former asked the central government to swiftly evacuate Hakki Pikki tribals from war-torn Sudan. Jaishankar responded by saying he was “simply appalled” by the former chief minister’s remarks.
“Hakki Pikki in Sudan have been stranded without food for several days, and the government has yet to take action to bring them back.” “The BJP government should open diplomatic talks and reach out to international organisations to ensure the safety of Hakki-Pikkis,” Siddaramaiah tweeted.