‘We had lost hopes of returning home’

DHNS

• 15 from DK district back

 

Mangalore, 07 March 2011: ’’We get goose pimples when we think of February 2 revolt at Brega. If we had come out of the house, we would have been shot. The house was shaking when there were bomb attacks.

 

We had lost all the hopes of returning home. We got back our lives once we reached our home town,” said 15 members who arrived at Mangalore airport from Brega in Libya. 

 

The 15 members were working in an oil company in Brega.

 

Marakada resident B C Manjunath said “the people of Libya were unhappy with Gadhafi regime. He had neglected the development of Ajdabiya, Benghazi, Tobruk. However, the people could not openly raise their voice against his rule. His loyalists were everywhere. Those who criticise Gadhafi was punished”. Finally, the revolt began on February 17, which spread to the entire country, he added.

 

Those who came to Mangalore include Kaup Narayana, Hamza, Victor, Sadhu Moily, Prakash Shetty, Navachandrarao, Vijayakumar, Mohan Adoor, Anand Moolya, Padmanabha Boloor, R K Bhat, Ashok and B C Manjunath.

 

When the armed revolt began to spread, the internet and all other means of communication snapped. In fact, the people of Libya were inspired by the developments in Egypt, he added. 

 

Sadhu Moily of Chilimbi in Mangalore had been working in Libya for the last 25 years. He said “About 54 Indians from Brega had left on March 2. We reached Egypt border on the same evening, where the Indian Embassy made arrangement for the visa. Later we reached Cairo on March 3 and stayed in a hotel for two days. We reached home after travelling for five days. I felt happy seeing my family.”