'Thank God we made it back safely': Andhra tourists recall harrowing experience in Nepal

Hyderabad: Tourists and pilgrims who traveled to Nepal from India and have now returned to Andhra Pradesh shared harrowing experiences as a crisis unfolded in the Himalayan state. A group of 10 travelers from Visakhapatnam left their luggage at their hotel in Pokhara before visiting Muktinath temple on a two-day trip.

When they returned, they found their hotel had been torched by local mobs, with their belongings completely gutted. Stranded with nowhere to go, the group was helped to safety by their local Nepali drivers, who protected them from the attacking mobs.

"For around four hours, we were literally stuck on the roads in a small van with our hearts pounding in terror. A mob approached us and demanded we roll down the windows. At that moment, we thought we would be attacked. Then our Nepali driver told them we were tourists from India, and they spared us after seeing the women in our group. They were using clothes around their faces to shield their identity. Thank God we made it back safely," said Lakshmi, who works for LIC.

Lakshmi was among approximately 150 passengers who returned from Nepal to Visakhapatnam on Thursday evening. A group of LIC staff along with their family members from Visakhapatnam had traveled to Nepal at the beginning of the week on a 10-day trip, but returned halfway through.

After two days of continuous efforts, the Andhra Pradesh government successfully completed its mission to evacuate stranded Telugu people from crisis-hit Nepal. The government undertook robust efforts to repatriate people stranded across 12 different locations. The monitoring and rescue teams arranged travel for citizens to enter India safely, using the fastest and most feasible routes.

While most were rescued from Kathmandu, others were brought back from Pokhara, Simikot, and various other locations. An IndiGo flight carrying 154 people landed safely at Visakhapatnam airport on Thursday night, marking the culmination of the large-scale rescue operation.

The special flight, which had departed from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, dropped off 114 passengers in Visakhapatnam before proceeding to Tirupati with the remaining 40 evacuees. Of the 154 passengers, 10 who were stranded in Pokhara were flown to Kathmandu on a special flight arranged by the Andhra Pradesh government, where they joined the other 144 rescued from Kathmandu. They were all brought back to India on the IndiGo aircraft, which had flown from Delhi to Kathmandu before transporting them to Visakhapatnam and Tirupati.

"We first went to Pokhara and planned to visit other places across Nepal, making it our base. Our idea was to keep the luggage for our 10-day trip at the hotel in Pokhara where we initially stayed, and go to Muktinath temple for two days before returning to Pokhara. But we didn't expect things to change so drastically and dramatically in just a few days. There was chaos all around us. Fortunately, we found another small hotel in a remote part of Pokhara which didn't come under the radar of rioters. After spending a night and a day there, fortunately with the intervention of the Andhra Pradesh government, a special flight was arranged and now we are back alive. Minister Nara Lokesh himself spoke to us on a video call and assured all help," said CH Murthy from Visakhapatnam.

Earlier, another group of 22 people from Andhra Pradesh had crossed into India by road through the Bihar border, while 12 more were flown from Simikot to Nepalgunj on the Uttar Pradesh border by a special flight from Lucknow.