A mother and child from Kottayam in Kerala were killed in a shell attack on Friday night in the ancient city of Sabratha, in strife torn Libya.
The deceased are Sunu Sathyan (29) a nurse at Zawiya Teaching Hospital and her eighteen month old son, Pranav. They, along with a few others in the same complex, had died when a shell reportedly fell into their apartment during an air strike. Sunu’s husband Vipin Kumar escaped unhurt as he was not in their apartment at the time.
Sunu, wife of Vipin Kumar of Vandematharam Thulaseebhavan, Veliyannur near Kuravilangad was staying with her husband and son at the four storied office quarters of the Hospital. The attack occurred around 7:30 pm on Friday. A few others, mostly from other countries, staying in the apartment have also died in the attack, according to information reaching here.
However, their distraught kin say they have been getting conflicting information on how they died “ The first bit of information came early Saturday morning” , said Thulasidharan, Vipin Kumar’s elder. “We were initially told that it was a missile attack. Then they said it was a shell attack. Later on Saturday, Vipin’s friends inLibya called us from there to say that they died when some explosives where hurled during a fight between two groups of Libyans staying in the same apartment” said Thulasedharan, who is a small farmer who also works on the side in a local tea shop.
Thulasidharan said that Vipin’s friends told him that he had gone out of the couple’s apartment to a friend’s flat nearby on Friday, only to hear the explosion in his flat a few minutes later. “ My brother’s last WhatsApp message came at about 3 pm on Friday, and it said they were enjoying the weekly holiday. He has been moved to a flat where his friends stay, about 12 kilometers from his apartment,” Thulasidharan said. Vipin Kumar, he said, is in a state of shock, and has not contacted the family afterwards.
The city of Sabratha was an island of peace in Libya but the couple were planning to return as they had a tough time getting their monthly remuneration on time, and converting it into US dollars. “ We were expecting them to be back here by middle of April,” Thulasidharan said.
Vipin, a qualified male nurse, had gone to Libya in 2010 to join the Zawiya Medical Centre in Sabratha. He came back in 2012, married Sunu, a nurse herself, and then went back. His wife joined him in January 2013 after she too managed a job in the same hospital. Their son was born in the Sabratha. “ They celebrated the child’s first birthday in Libya. We were all eagerly waiting to have him with us here for his second birthday on May 2,” said Thulaseedharan.
According to him, Vipin had told him that by last November itself, a majority of the Malayalees working there had quit the hospital, but the hospital authorities refused to entertain their plea to be allowed to leave, as such a mass exodus would hamper functioning of the institution.
Sunu’s parents who live near Ramapuram near Pala have been brought to Vipin’s house. The deaths were finally conveyed to them only on Saturday evening. Sunu’s father is a small farmer who ekes out a living from the two cows he owns. The elderly couple were eagerly waiting to see their first grand child growing up inLibya.
According to Mr. Thulasidharan, the bodies were being taken to a hospital in Tripolifor post mortem . “ We haven told that the bodies will be brought here within a week,” he said
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s office informed that it has been in touch with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj after the news of the deaths came in. More than 20 Indian families , all of them working in the same hospital, are stranded in Sabratha where the fight between the rebel forces and US forces had intensified since last month. The CMO informed that all efforts are being made through the centre to get them all back safe.
